Critiques en avant-premièreGwendolyn Zepeda

The fourth-largest city in the US is long overdue to enter the Noir Series arena, and does so blazingly. Akashic Books continues its award-winning series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. Each book comprises all new stories, each one set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the respective city. Brand-new stories by: Tom Abrahams, Robert Boswell, Sarah Cortez, Anton DiSclafani, Stephanie Jaye Evans, Wanjiku Wa Ngugi, Adrienne Perry, Pia Pico, Reyes Ramirez, Icess Fernandez Rojas, Sehba Sarwar, Leslie Contreras Schwartz, Larry Wats, and Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton. From the introduction by Gwendolyn Zepeda: In a 2004 essay, Hunter S. Thompson described Houston as a “cruel, crazy town on a filthy river in East Texas with no zoning laws and a culture of sex, money and violence. It’s a shabby, sprawling metropolis ruled by brazen women, crooked cops and super-rich pansexual cowboys who live by the code of the West—which can mean just about anything you need it to mean, in a pinch.” For what it’s worth, that quote is now posted on a banner somewhere downtown and regularly, gleefully repeated by our local feature writers. Houston is a port city on top of a swamp and, yes, it has no zoning laws. And that means it’s culturally diverse, internally incongruous, and ever-changing. At any intersection here, I might look out my car window and see a horse idly munching St. Augustine grass. And, within spitting distance of that horse, I might see a “spa” that’s an obvious brothel, a house turned drug den, or a swiftly rising bayou that might overtake a car if the rain doesn’t let up . . . Overall, this collection represents the very worst our city has to offer, for residents and visitors alike. But it also presents some of our best voices, veteran and emerging, to any reader lucky enough to pick up this book.

Jessica Luna is your typical 26 year old: she has man trouble, mom trouble, and not a clue what to do with her life (though everyone else in her family seems to have plenty of suggestions!) After a lifetime of being babied by her family, Jess is incapable of trusting herself to make the right choices. So instead, she bases all of her life decisions on signs. She looks to everything for guidance, from the direction her rearview-mirror-Virgin-de-Guadalupe sways to whatever Madame Hortensia, her psychic, sees in the cards. When her sort-of boyfriend Guillermo, a gifted unmotivated artist, disappoints her again, Jessica thinks it's time to call it quits. Just to be sure, she checks in with Madame Hortensia who confirms that yes, it is time for a change. (Who knew $20 could buy so much security!) Right on cue, Jess meets Jonathan; he's the complete opposite of Guillermo--of all Jess's boyfriends, in fact. He's successful, has a stable job....and is white. Jess isn't sure if Jonathan is really the change Madame Hortensia saw. Sure he gives great career advice, but is he advising her on a career she actually wants? And yes he's all about commitment, but is it Jess or her mother who really wants marriage? Jess runs back to Madame Hortensia for advice, but even she is out of answers. Now there's only one thing that's certain: no one--not her mother, her sister, her boyfriend or her psychic--can tell her what to do. For better or for worse, Jess will have to take the plunge and make her own decisions if she wants to have any future at all.

From Publishers Weekly For single Houston gal Jessica Luna, deciding what she really wants involves searching for signs and sage advice from a fortune-teller in Zepeda's snazzy first novel (after short story collection To the Last Man I Slept With and All the Jerks Just Like Him). The superstitious Latina becomes devoted to Madame Hortensia, a psychic with questionable abilities (but a good heart) after three eerie predictions come true. So it's with Hortensia's help that Jessica hopes to overcome her professional, personal and romantic woes. Jessica has a B.A. in art history yet unhappily toils for an insurance firm, is torn between two men—one a sexy but flaky artist, the other a rich but snobby businessman—and believes her parents may be on the verge of divorce. Jessica's evolution from self-uncertainty to self-empowerment is amusingly charted, and Zepeda's take on the popular fascination with good luck charms, horoscopes, psychics and unreliable predictions is laced with rueful zeal.

Jessica is always looking for a sign, whether it comes from a plastic Virgin Mary hanging from her rearview mirror or a psychic named Madame Hortensia. When her current flame, bad boy Guillermo, just can't get it together, new guy Jonathan serendipitously enters the picture. Certain it's a sign, Jessica ups her visits to Madame Hortensia. Her readings border on therapy sessions as Jessica debates which guy is right for her. She's never dated outside her culture. Will doing so make her a sell-out? With her heart pulled in two directions, Jessica is more confused than ever. Desperate to know what the future holds, and tired of waiting for the universe to direct her, Jessica finally opens her eyes and makes a bold decision.