KL Noir: Red by Amir Muhammad

KL Noir: Red Reviews

• 
  Remi

  I have a soft spot in my heart for short story anthologies. There is so much more variety in many short stories than in one single story of the same length. And even though the topic of Kuala Lumpur's dark side is the theme for all 15 stories in KL Noir, there are still 15 distinct stories in this collection. Kudos to the writers and editor for coming together in this way. That said, some stories were better written than others, and a few stood out in my mind as very entertaining.
  
  After a tongue-in-cheek introduction, the book starts with Adib Zaini's "The Runner," a story about a young Malay girl who started to mingle with the wrong crowds, got screwed, and decided to make it her life's mission to get revenge. The main character's motives seemed very immature. Appropriate to her age, I guess. But I completely missed any depth to her character.
  
  Preeta Samarasan's "Rukun Tetangga" is one of the examples of good writing and good story put together. The elderly man looking for meaning in his life after retiring is something that we can all relate to, even if it is a long time before we get to that stage in life. Really, I mean...it can be scary! So her character's new direction in life was inspiring, even if it made others look at him funny.
  
  The "Mamak Murder Mystery" by Marc de Faoite was a little slow for my taste. It did have me worrying about the safety of the narrator as he tried to figure out who had killed his coworker. Kudos to Marc de Faoite for giving the Mamak a stage of their own and not relegating them to the background. Shaz Johar's "Asian Angel" was a weird one. But not in a bad way. It was like a television gossip show combined with an Indonesian drama and mixed with dark humor. I was entertained by this story, but it could have been a bit longer.
  
  Shih-Li Kow's "A Gift of Flowers" was another one that I found entertaining. The premise that a bouquet of flowers (or some part of a bouquet) could move its way around a community and have different effects on those in possession was interesting. I didn't understand the motive of the first/last woman to go to that extreme. That could have been expanded. But Kudos overall.
  
  "Kiss from a Rose" by Fadzlishah Johanabas was also weird, but not so in a good way this time. Most of the characters' motives just didn't connect with me. And the back story of the main character does not fit his actions at all. Maybe I missed something big though? At least it pushed into uncomfortable territory for some.
  
  Dina Zaman's "After Dark, My Love" was OK. It didn't really wow me, but nothing compels me to complain about it either. The same was the case for Eeleen Lee's "The Oracle of Truth." But kudos to Eeleen for using the second-person in her storytelling. That's a rarity that is nice every now and then.
  
  "Chasing Butterflies in the Night" by Kris Williamson was also entertaining. I recently enjoyed reading his novel Son Complex but this was a very different story to that. But still identifiable as a Kris Williamson story. I liked the subtlety and the twist at the end.
  
  Shivani Sivagurunathan's "The Dualist" was not one that I fully understood...I think...or maybe I did. I'm not sure. The writing is strong, but not enjoyable. "Vanished" is a story by Khairulnizam Bakeri that was translated from Malay. I don't know who translated it, but they did a good job. The story itself is solid.
  
  Megat Ishak's "Cannibal vs. Ah Long" was predictable and offered no surprises. But it was entertaining for a short read. I did get a strong image of the cannibal in my mind and his peculiar smile. Kudos for that! "The Machete and Me" by Dayang Noor was a little freaky actually. But I give credit to her that she took the story in a direction or two that I did not expect!
  
  Amir Hafizi's "The Unbeliever" was too long and did not seem to have any urban connection at all. The writing was fine and the story would be better suited for a longer work. I think it could be expanded--but not as a short story. "Mud" by Brian Gomez was entertaining and had me laughing, but only at the expense of cheap race-based jokes. I had hoped for more substance. But other than the clipped ending, it is consistent throughout.
  
  Overall, I was pleased with the collection. Most importantly, it was varied and gave 15 different viewpoints. I read that a few more editions of KL Noir will be released and am looking forward to reading those as well. Kudos to the writers.
  
  
• 
  Mrs Giggles

  KL Noir: Red is the first of a planned series of anthology devoted to - and I quote - "the seedy, the sinister and sometimes the spooky" side of Kuala Lumpur, basically the only city that is worth something, at least in the local literary scene. Don't believe me? Try issuing a submission call for Batang Berjuntai Noir and see whether people would take you seriously.
  
  Anyway, as editor Amir Muhammad puts it in the introduction, this one attempts to... okay, I confess I still have no idea what noir has to do with some of the stories here as my personal idea of noir is more at home in movies heavy in crime, cynicism, and morality that is in shades of grey. Despite my labeling this anthology as a contemporary anthology in this review, there are horror stories here as well, ranging from gore to a local take of the Cthulhu mythos. Still, what's important is that everyone has a great time, right?
  
  Adib Zaini starts the show with The Runner, a solid take on the whole "girl victim turned badass babe bent on vengeance" trope typical of exploitation movies in the old days. Our heroine starts out looking for a part time job after she gave the finger one too many time to the establishment and her imam father cut off her pocket money. What started innocently enough as a job at a cybercaf&eaute; soon devolves into a side gig of drug pushing. Our heroine is soon way out of her depths. Despite being a short story, this one is a good read as the protagonist has a coherent and memorable personality and, no matter how sordid things become, it's still appropriate that I cheer her on.
  
  Preeta Samarasan's Rukun Tetangga starts out very powerfully. An eccentric man, never taken seriously by the people around him, gets a new wind of life when he acts as a sponsor for some orphans abroad. Now having an interest in the welfare of hapless children in general, he becomes appalled at the alarming rate of violence inflicted on children these days in his neighborhood. If the cops can't do anything, he'd do something anyway! As you can probably guess, the poor guy's intense staring at the children around him and his scowling at their parents would soon be misconstrued into something more sinister, with unhappy results to follow. This is a great read, a chilling portrayal of how easily we can see monsters in all the wrong places in an ordinary environment, but the author's effort at giving me a "literary" style ambiguous ending kills the story. That moment screams "trying too hard to get me to take the author seriously" way too much. The story is going very well, and it would have been absolutely perfect if the last paragraph had been removed. If it had ended abruptly with the previous paragraph - perfect. But it hadn't, so this one is a bit of a botched effort.
  
  Marc de Faoite's Mamak Murder Mystery is a standard local neighborhood "Siapa bunuh itu India punya orang lar?" story, but with the take-home message of how we tend to view immigrant workers in Malaysia as sub-human species not worthy of care or respect. Oh, and politicians are corrupt pigs, so if you can get some leverage to force them to share their goodies with you, good for you. This story is ordinary, and the take-home message is... okay. I mean, the author could have made his message more hard-hitting if he had Bangladeshi or Indonesian illegal immigrants spotlighted here, as Indian mamak workers generally have it pretty good compared to those two groups of people.
  
  Shaz Johar channels Alfred Hitchcock in Asian Angel, in which a paranoid starlet suspects that her husband is having an affair with a younger diva and acts with appropriate melodrama. This is amusing story, but it's nothing extraordinary as I'm a big fan of those movies and TV series and I've seen twists and turns like those in this story many times before. I actually guessed the twist correctly two pages into this story.
  
  Shih-Li Kow's A Gift Of Flowers follows a bouquet of flowers as it moves from a seething mistress down along an assortment characters. This is a standard device featured in stories done by people who think it'd be so cool to natter about a day in the "life" of a coin or a dollar note or whatever, because, really, I've come across such story many times before and one more typical story of this nature won't hurt, right? Well, it won't hurt, but it won't make much of any impact on me either. Maybe if it had been a hypodermic needle passed around, I'd be intrigued.
  
  Next is another "flower" story, Fadzlishah Johanabas's Kiss From A Rose, which sees a charming guy seducing the female friends of the object of his affection so that he can isolate her completely from them. Nothing a pair of pliers or a visit from the heroine of the first story can't fix, so I'm hard-pressed to give a care about this story.
  
  Dina Zaman coos After Dark, My Love, which sees the heroine telling me, the reader, about the sordid things that happen in KL, mostly to do with blowjobs from trannies and other fun stuff. Honey, I've been approached by pimps in hotel lobbies in KL, and I've heard far more sordid stories from my days counseling troubled teens (I know, shut up). If this story really had featured some truly sordid moments, then it would have worked. As it is, this is a story that would titillate probably only the most sheltered folks from the most backward areas of Sarawak ("Abang! KL ada pondan lar, ALAMAK!"), and I doubt they would easily find copies of this book, so the whole point of this story is quite bewildering.
  
  Eeleen Lee tells of a fortune teller who wants frowning faces at the mechanical oracle opposite his stall in The Oracle Of Truth, even as the man tries to awkwardly court a regular performer that catches his eye. This one is actually shaping up to be a good story... until the author falls into the horribly clichéd "Let's just have a big vehicle hit the sod in the end because this gimmick is going to raise my literary cred by +1,000!" trap and comes out looking like a try-hard wannabe. The stupid movie City Of Angels used this same turd plot device - that's how much "literary credibility" it has.
  
  Kris Williamson's Chasing Butterflies In The Night, on the other hand, is a brilliant story that fits the theme of the anthology perfectly. What starts out as a standard "serial killer kills whores" tale soon evolves into something far more... complicated and entertaining. I really like this one for catching me unawares, well played on the author's part.
  
  I'm still not sure what Shivani Sivagurunathan's The Dualist is about. I can't get past phrases like "the hour of owls, cockroaches and mythical demons", "frantic voice of a destructed man", "a winged effulgent dot that sprayed health and amnesia", and worst of all, "the shape of Bujang's nipples, geometrically precise discs that transported Billy back to the solar nebula". I'm afraid I'm just too much of a philistine to appreciate such pointlessly self-indulgent and meaningless throwing together of every pretty word the author can find in a thesaurus in hope that I would be impressed by the resulting verbal diarrhea. When one resorts to calling nipples "geometrically precise discs", it's safe to say that the plot has been lost, completely and utterly.
  
  Khairulnizam Bakeri's Vanished was originally in Bahasa Malaysia, and it was translated by Nabila Najwa for this anthology. It's... shockingly romantic. A tale of a young lady encountering a charismatic musician at KL Sentral and discovering that he is much more than what he seems to be at first, this story isn't noir as much as it is a feel-good tale of love and healing. Not that I am complaining, as I'm all for happy endings. I'm taken by surprise, that's all, and while I like this story, I wonder whether its inclusion is a way for me to decompress and feel good about life again after encountering the assault of geometric nipples in the previous story.
  
  Now, we go into horror territory, starting with Megat Ishak's cheerfully gruesome Cannibal Vs. Ah Long. With a title like that, and the unapologetic gore in this story, I can only give it my two thumbs up. I'm not sure about the portrayal of Ah Longs, our enterprising "private" moneylenders, as comparable to other scums of society, though. Ah Longs don't predate - their "victims" go to them willingly, agree to the high interests, and spend that money, so I'm not sure if we can so simply blame Ah Longs for the plight of these "victims". The real crooks, if you ask me, are the banks. Oh, and can someone tell me how our "hero" can hide a foot-long machete in the rear end of his pants?
  
  Speaking of machetes, Dayang Noor presents The Machete And Me, which is like an average spooky Korean movie involving a possessed object and a disbelieving heroine, but without much of a back story or a context for the spooky happenings, this one feels like a half-baked tale designed just to scare me without telling me why I should be scared.
  
  Amir Hafizi presents The Unbeliever, which is basically a tale of Cthulhu mythos transported to the seaside in "an underdeveloped part of Selangor". There's our hero, accompanied by a pregnant woman and her beau, traveling to a village full of weird people. If you have read enough stories by HP Lovecraft and all those authors wanting to smear Dagon's aquatic goo all over their pages, then you will see the plot twists coming from a mile away. This one is a decent read, and the protagonist feels more human and sympathetic than the usual "idiot English scholar coming here to scrutinize at fish statues and look for his missing buddy" stereotypes that populate such stories. It doesn't deviate much from the rest of the formula, however, so it's too predictable for its own good.
  
  Brian Gomez gets lots of my love for the upfront and hilarious political incorrectness that riddles Mud, a tale of a cheerfully racist and amoral businessman who won't let anything get in the way of his wants and desires, but this story is completely killed by the last line. The last line openly shifts the blame of the character's behavior to the racist treatment he was subjected to when he was younger. This story was working so well when it lets me make my own judgment as I read the story, and, while racism does play a role in shaping that fellow to be what he is, that last sentence oversimplifies matters, turning the protagonist into a woobie when he is anything but. Take away the last three sentences of this story and it would have been the best of this anthology. As it is, it's a fun but fatally flawed story.
  
  I'm not sure most of the time where the noir in KL Noir: Red is, but some of these stories push the envelope cheerfully and I can get behind that. It's just that most of these stories seem content to be familiar and predictable tropes taken from grindhouse or exploitation films and stories, placed in a local setting, when I feel that the anthology could have been so much more. Brian Gomez is on the right track, Adib Zaini ain't bad at all, but I'm not sure about most of the rest. Still, it's a pretty interesting locally-flavored anthology. Let's hope future anthologies can stand on their own merits after the novelty factor wears off.
• 
  Plainqoma

  Oh well, this is the first from the 4 volumes. I have to say I can't wait for the next volumes. Since there are 14 short stories inside this volume it's hard to rate it. I love a little twist at the ending of few stories. It's like watching a thriller movie. There's murder, death and blood. Not that creepy but heck this is not innocent at all.
  
  My favourites will be The Runner, After Dark My Love and The Machete and Me.
  
  A must try if you love thriller. You'll never ever see KL as it used to be.
• 
  Andrew Nette

  If you need further proof there’s no better vehicle than crime fiction for shining a light into the crevices and cracks of society the powers in control don't want you to see, check out a new anthology called KL Noir.
  
  That’s KL as in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia.
  
  Kuala Lumper may not seem like the most obvious place to set an anthology of noir fiction. On the surface, at least, it has a reputation as an orderly, well behaved city.
  
  But if this book is anything to go by, a lot is going on under the surface.
  
  KL is a city crawling with horrendously exploited migrant workers and angry ghosts, a place where breakneck economic development and rampant consumerism has left many of its citizens with no other social outlet than wandering shopping malls, and which is governed by a highly authoritarian ruling party that has clung to power for over half a century.
  
  How Asian writers interpret crime fiction in general, and noir narratives in particular, fascinates me. KL Noir is first of four volumes about the city’s dark side by independent Malay publishing company Buku Fixi. I didn’t like every story in the collection, par for the course for any anthology. But there are some great tales and, collectively, they’re a great insight into what noir means in this particular neck of the woods.
  
  Briefly, my favourites were as follows:
  
  ‘The Runner’ by Adib Zaini, was the first story and probably my pick of the bunch. It’s a taunt little tale about a good Muslim girl who thinks dealing drugs from her local Internet café is the solution to her problems. She is very wrong.
  
  Marc de Faoite’s ‘Mamak Murder Mystery’ deals with the plight of Malaysia’s migrant workforce. An Indian restaurant worker decides to investigate the murder of a friend and co-worker, another migrant, and unearths a much bigger case than he ever expected.
  
  Kris Williamson’s ‘Chasing Butterflies in the Night’ is a brutal tale of a serial killer targeting prostitutes who has very good reason to be confident of his impunity.
  
  Shopping mall food courts are the focus for much of the action in this book. The best of these is ‘Vanished’ by khairulnizam Bakeri, the story of a busker with a secret.
  
  Last, ‘The Unbeliever’ by Amir Hafizi' was a fascinating take on a modern Malay ghost story, with a distinct Wicker Man feel to it.
• 
  audrey

  Overall, a mixed bag, but that's what you have to say about 95% of anthologies. It's difficult to find 14 short story writers and an essayist who can all hold it together on theme, plot, character and technical excellence. And rating this anthology is complicated by the fact I'm a white non-Malaysian, so I have exactly zero standing to comment on things like authenticity or exoticness. For me it's just good enough that now I know there's a place in the world called Port Klang.
  
  So, in the order they appear in the book:
  
  "The Runner" by Adib Zaini: Teenage girl gets in over her head with drug-runners, has to figure out how to get out. Solid ending.
  
  "Rukun Tetangga" by Preeta Samarasan: About a weird bachelor uncle who gets weirder, but not in any interesting way.
  
  "Mamak Murder Mystery" by Marc de Faoite: was indeed mysterious, and a little ambiguous, but I got the idea it was mostly written to draw attention to the existence of an Indian immigrant population who staff Malaysian fast food restaurants and dream of returning to India. And on that front it was successful.
  
  "Asian Angel" by Shaz Johar: Nice twists, but mostly forgettable.
  
  "A Gift of Flowers" by Shih-Li Kow: I think this story really wanted to go the O. Henry or Isak Dinesen route but the vignettes just weren't sharp enough for the direction to hold.
  
  "Kiss from a Rose" by Fadzlishah Johanabas: Almost worked. Maybe for someone more romantic than me.
  
  "After Dark, My Love" by Dina Zaman: The one essay in the book, it's captivating and informative, but comes totally out of left field. I kept trying to figure out if it was fiction or not.
  
  "The Oracle of Truth" by Eeleen Lee: Brutal and curious, and very nicely done.
  
  "Chasing Butterflies in the Night" by Kris Williamson: Excellent! One of the two most squarely noir stories on offer, and better than a good 80% of the noir shorts I've read lately.
  
  "The Dualist" by Shivani Sivagurunathan: The one story I could not follow at all. At. All. I had no idea who was sleeping with whom, or who thought they were sleeping with someone and who the professor was and who wasn't supposed to know. Someone smarter than me should read this and explain it to me.
  
  "Vanished" by Khairulnizam Bakeri: There's a note in the introduction that the publishers like noir that veers more towards what's thought more as pulp than American conceptions of noir, and this is the story that really kicks off the serious pulp portion of the book. And it's good. It's strange and modern and ghostly and weird.
  
  "Cannibal vs. Ah Long" by Megat Ishak: Not my favorite story in the bunch, but holy crow is it good. It's just balls-out pulp and horror and if that's not enough to convince you to read it, there's this quote from it in the frontispiece to the book: "Several teeth shot out from his rectum and clinked against the porcelain bowl before dropping into the water." Should probably win some sort of award.
  
  "The Machete and Me" by Dayang Noor: My 2nd favorite of the collection, it tells the story of complicated, tragic matriarchies and cursed heirlooms. It passes the Bechdel Test and it's astonishingly good.
  
  "The Unbeliever" by Amir Hafizi: My favorite, hands-down. Three words: Malaysian Cthulhu mythos. All pulp, all the time, no line, no waiting. Like smelling fresh cigar smoke in the library of a mansion when no one's been home for decades. Fantabulous.
  
  "Mud" by Brian Gomez: Mean, nasty and very well done.
  
  Three stars for the collection overall because for me, there was that long section in the middle that felt a little sloggy, but this is the first of four themed volumes from this publisher, so I'll be sure to pick up the next one when it comes out.
  
  
  
• 
  Aziff

  I'm not one who is usually drawn to locally-published books but this one took my by surprise. KL Noir is an anthology setting up the lens to the darker side of KL, with all its sex, crime and grit. In other words, a contemporary to the once-glorious genre of pulp fiction.
  
  Several essays stuck with me long after the pages were closed, among them, 'Chasing Butterflies in the Night'. Dina Zaman's 'After Dark, My Love' was less of a short story and presented itself more as a social commentary on Kuala Lumpur's seedier side, one that becomes common knowledge among the city-dwellers. 'Cannibal Vs. Ah Long' was one of the attention-grabbing ones, as though having lifted literally from film scenes
  
  Some stories however, came off as confusing. 'The Dualist' for example. I was unsure whether it was bad storytelling or maybe it just wasn't clear - personally, having to backtrack certain sentences and whole pages.
  
  What KL Noir is, is that despite certain stories not being impressionable enough - It's still one that makes for good reading and also proof that Malaysian authors don't pander on to the masses with romance fiction (that sells off shelves here, like hot cakes). I would definitely like to see more of these.
• 
  Maylee Lim

  I was left pleasantly surprised by this collection of short stories. Favourites include Mud by Brian Gomez, A Gift of Flowers by Shih-Li Kow and Cannibal vs Ah Long by Megat Ishak.
  
  The "meh"s include The Dualist by Shivani Sivagurunathan, which left me extremely confused (someone please explain it to me!), and Vanished by Khairulnizam Bakeri. To be fair, Vanished was translated from Malay and it could be the slightly awkward translation that I found a turn-off.
  
  The vigilante theme also surfaces periodically in the book but I didn't find all the stories equally awesome. Rukun Tetangga, by Preeta Samarasan, is the story of a strange uncle that starts draggy and ends sort of hanging in the air. In constrast, Chasing Butterflies in the Night by Kris Williamson hits the ground running and stays exciting all the way to the end.
  
  KL Noir is a mix of highs and not-so-highs, beginning and ending with bangs but suffering from a case of the draggy doldrums somewhere in the middle. Well worth a read.
• 
  Ainur

  2.5
  
  Not all the stories here are my cup of tea. I am more interested reading most of the stories by authors who I'm familiar with.
  
  I like the idea of this book. Some stories are brilliant; good storyline, easy to follow. While some I just easily lost interest in. It took me a while trying to finish this. Probably because I was easily distracted and the stories are not that interesting.
• 
  Maisarah

  A good try to make our own Malaysian version of pulp-fiction genre style of writting. My personal fav would be Mamak Murder Mystery, Vanished and A Gift of Flowers. Im loving the idea of having KL as the setting for all of the short stories, it gives a familiar touch to most of youngters. Although I might say a good piece of writting doesnt necessarily sell by having explicit content.
• 
  Syed Muhammad Danial

  A compilation of short stories about the dark side of the KL city. I think almost all the stories are great and will satisfy your adventerous needs! Few stories are so good to be true that I want to make a movie about it. Some of the stories are written in a very high level of English (I think lah or maybe my english sucks). There are many types of stories in this book, including drugs, prostitution, killing and even cannibalism! and much more. Will find the other 3 volumes!
• 
  Regina Ibrahim

  KL NOIR
  Pertama dari 4 siri kumpulan cerita pendek dalam Bahasa Inggeris terbitan fixi novo. Menampilkan 15 kisah kisah gelap kota. Ada cerita cerita yang sedap dibaca antaranya Mamak Murder Mystery, Asian Angel, After Dark My Love, Vanished dan Unbeliever. Masing masing punya keaslian cerita yang menawan.
  Dalam semua saya memilih Mud, Unbeliever dan Mamak Murder Mystery.
• 
  Huda

  Is there anyone out there with enough patience for a book's introduction? After this book you may call me a convert!
  
  KL Noir was engaging; from its well written introduction right down to the last of the short stories.
  
  Its a pleasant surprise to find dark humor in books like these, but even better was the styles from different authors with an air that didn't push at the noir theme nor tried to exploit too much.
  
  Also, I never thought I'd say this but Cannibal vs Ah Long was terrifying--gory mostly, but thanks to that, quite terrifying.
  
  My favorites include Mamak Murder Mystery, A Gift of Flowers, Kiss From a Rose and Chasing Butterflies in the Night.
• 
  Nasih Saifullah

  The start and ending parts are good but those of which lie in between are quite a letdown.
• 
  Mali

  THIS BOOK IS FUCKED UP AND IT TURNS ME ON
• 
  Abigail Kim

  Most of the stories was nice and only 1-2 was average. Very enjoyable. No wonder they're called a talented writers, they can produced amazing stories in just a few pages.
• 
  Kathy Chung

  Quite a good collection of stories. So far, only 2 stories that I find hard to grasp the meaning. Overall, it's good
• 
  Clarence

  Poorly conceived collection of shorts. The curator of these shorts tried hard to sell the stories as close to the concept in French Noir, but failed to make the case appealing. I had difficulty understanding some of the writing styles, in which some stories are likely the products of school essay which was kept for decades and only being published now. In one of the stories - Rukun Tetangga - the use of Guna Uncle, Indara Aunty is purely a tongue twister. No book I read in my lifetime has ever used title after a name, same goes to reality.
  
  A Gift of Flowers is an interesting concept, somewhat like the Red Violin. I enjoyed this very much until the part in which the shop owner received the bouquet (very odd transaction with little reference made to their relationship) and further when the little girl of the snatch thief took the bouquet from her home and ended up in the mamak shop (and what happened next). These were weak as compared to how the story started. The curator could have given some tips to refine this story.
  
  There is a fine line between gruesome tyranny of gangsterism and childish portrayal of lameness. The Oracle of Truth is sadly the latter. I could not fathom anyone who could write this, and even more so someone would publish it. There was clearly no meat in this story.
  
  Chasing butterflies brought to light a common mistreatment of justice for the most-at-risk group serving the streets, however the ending was so abrupt that my mind still lingers in the dingy room of Ms. Butterfly, hoping that the writer made a mistake and would recall his typing and add more emotional description to the character. The rush to the end was my least favorite and could also be worked at to draw more from its readers.
  
  My last note has got to be a story by Dina Zaman. I had plenty of respect for her as a journalist/writer, sadly this is something I wish she did not submit for publishing. It has a story to tell, no doubt about it, but the way it was presented did not strike me as anything by an experienced writer. Again the characters' emotion is a total turn-off for me.
• 
  Ahmad Shafiq

  My first time reading Malaysian collection of short stories in English! Way to go Malaysian! This book should go international! Haha.. Okey my opinion about the book. *ehem clear throat *. It's about all the dark stories that happen in mostly kl area. So if you live in kl, of course this thing excite you! You know all the place, mid Valley, bukit bintang, brickfields, and many more kl area. Since its a collection of short stories, I've found there are great stories, boring ones and of course confusing ones like what the hell the author trying to say?? But overall almost all the stories good and interesting and I don't want to tell you the story - buy it damnit if you want to know about it or you can always borrow from a friend. Hehe. The stories is so dark and dirty and yucky and make you think is this real? Is kl that dark place? What happen to our society now? Of course all the story are fiction but we'll never know right? So when you reading it my only advise is to keep an open mind and wish that all the things happen in the book will never happen to your life. Haha.. I know my review sucks , I even just write using my phone. Maybe if I type it using my laptop I can think a better review. *alasan*
• 
  Jessica

  KL Noir is a compilation of short stories that is written by 15 writers. This book contains mostly of dark and twisted tales and the setting is set up in Malaysia.
  
  I bought this book like 2 years ago because of a friend's recommendation and I was quite excited for it. However, after 2 years, only I picked up this book and started reading it and there were some really good stories in it, for example, 'Asian Angel', 'A Gift of Flowers' and 'The Unbeliever'. There were a few more actually. But sadly, there were a few stories that I just couldn't enjoy or couldn't bring myself to understand that made me lower down the rating that I gave to the book.
  
  I liked the fact that bukufixi is producing a book that revolves around Malaysians and make KL NOIR relatable to the local readers here in Malaysia. However, I felt as if there was something that lacking in the writing style. I couldn't pin point what but I wished the flow was smoother and there were more significant quotes in each story. This is my opinion and my request solely as a reader.
  
  Despite of the lacking in writing style, the stories had decent content and some were really good and interpreted nicely and I honestly love the concept that the writers and the publisher were trying to deliver to the readers.
• 
  Raja Faisal

  I haven't read too many english anthologies, but honestly, from the few that I've read, KL NOIR: RED was among the best. 15 short stories woven together in a way that I could've never imagined it before, written by 15 prolific writers with just one purpose; to blow your mind.
  
  Macabre, horror, murder, romance, dark comedy and spine-tingling elements that made up the first of four anthologies from Fixi Novo were in a perfect mixture, mingling with your senses and emotions page by page. Nobody will see KL the same way ever again after reading all of them.
  
  Among my favourites were MUD by Brian Gomez, THE UNBELIEVER by Amir Hafizi and CHASING BUTTERFLIES IN THE NIGHT by Kris Williamson.
  
  Kudos to the writers, and congratulation to Fixi Novo for a good start in the year of the water snake.
• 
  Anna Tan

  I took a really long time to finish this one. Partly because I was busy, partly because... I don't know. Noir is maybe not my very favourite genre. I think I read this mainly because hey, it's local. Need to start reading local, right?
  In terms of themes and language - let's just say these are mostly not for kids, ok? (Or the prudes like me.)
  
  The stories I liked the most would probably be Rukun Tetangga by
  Preeta Samarasan and Mamak Murder Mystery by
  Marc de Faoite.
  
  There's nothing inherently wrong with the writing in this... I guess it's just not my style.
• 
  Fadillah

  I literally have no regret buying this book. I was a bit skeptical at first because it's a local product. Fixi has Been famous of producing a very odd and peculiar novels but no once I took interest in buying them until I've found this one in book stores. There are some mind blowing stories but there are some stories is so Sub par to me. However, I'm satisfied with how this book turned out to me. I'm giving this book 4 stars.
• 
  Anis Azura

  Least than what i have expected.that's all i can say. Yet, i do like some of the stories such as A Gift of Flowers,Kiss From A Rose and The Machete and Me. I even skipped The Dualist because i cant understand the plot. Sigh..Maybe KL Noir is not for me though. Sorry dearies, try hard to finish it faster but the stories can't seem to attract me. :)
• 
  Ayu Shapi

  I like this book so much. Dari buku ni juga I started to obsess dengan buku2 Fixi. Buku ini merungkai segala isu serta jenayah yg berlaku di Malaysia surely mengkangkangkan minda dan mata anda. I recommend u guys to read this. Worth it trust me. :)
• 
  Reading Kitty

  113 🇲🇾📌
  Death has a way of making even the hardest life seem sweet.
  ✏️
  Reading Kitty 🌟 2.5/5
  Goodreads 🌟 3.69/5
  ✏️
  I’ll have to admit that I always thought ‘noir’ simply means black 🖤 Only learnt that ‘noir’ also refers to a genre characterized by cynicism, fatalism and moral ambiguity; underlied by an existentialist philosophy. The closest noir film I know would be…. Batman? 🦇🤣
  
  Growing up, KL seems to be all bright and glamorous, a city of lights and elites. Moving nearer to KL for study and work, you start to see the seedier and uglier side of it: red light districts with leery eyes all over you, back alleys of drug addicts in delirium, even when walking on busy streets in broad daylight, you find yourself hugging your bag, glancing left right… The stories in this KL Noir collection fit right into the real settings! The opening ‘The Runner’ (Adib Zaini) seemed mundanely sordid until the ending caught me in a (I’m sorry, pleasant) surprise! — I think it is the ‘most noir’ story of all 🔪 You wonder how many cases of ‘Mamak Murder Mystery’ (Marc de Faoite) were swept under carpets… 💵 and whether the ‘Asian Angel’ (Shaz Johar) catfights on air daily on TV3 melodramas are the accepted norm of marital arrangement… 💄 The narration of ‘After Dark, My Love’ (Dina Zaman) follows like a trip down memory lane… 🥃 Other stories derailed from the ‘noir’ theme: some too mystical to be scary, one too weird I’m not even sure what I’m reading, and others shaking the Boggle box too hard I feel like I’m reading a thesaurus 😑
  
  Reading Kitty 😽📚
  
  https://www.facebook.com/readingkitty/
  
• 
  Heather

  I was really excited when I found this book sitting on a shelf in MPH. I have realized recently that I'd never read any stories that take place in Malaysia - something I decided that I'd like to change. I bought it despite the finding the manifesto rather off-putting, which felt like the most pretentious thing I've read in a while. The book was okay, I suppose. Out of the 15 stories it offered I felt like the only ones I truly enjoyed were 'A Gift of Flowers' (i liked the idea of the travelling bouquet, though the execution left a lot to be desired still) and the witty 'Mud' (with politically incorrect jokes that had me laughing and then feeling mildly guilty afterwards). Many others felt like they had promising premises but the execution fell short of their ambitions. I didn't come expecting to like all the stories - it's an anthology, after all, and a mixed bag is to be expected - but 2 out of 15 is disappointing, to be honest. Maybe I'll have better luck with the next volume. I can appreciate the message most of these stories are trying to bring to light, though, and the fact that this book is even a thing at all.
• 
  Ikmal Fitri (iikmalreads)

  Lumrah short stories, ada cerita yg sedap ada yg tak kena dengan jiwa. Bila jadi macam ni, maksudnya buku ni ada pelbagai cerita dari pelbagai genre dan storyline. Tapi satu benda yg aku perasan, hampir dalam setiap cerita, ada watak mati (samada kena bunuh/bunuh diri). Entah la..
  
  English yg digunakan pun takde la susah sangat, boleh ja faham tapi ada la dalam 2-3 cerita yg agak susah. (Tak sesuai untuk muet band 3). Tapi mostly okay je, sebab penulis lokal kan. Tambah lagi ada campur bahasa melayu lagi.
  
  Untuk mengisi masa lapang, buku ni sesuai untuk dibaca. Secara keseluruhan, aku rasa buku ni just nice, dan aku tak rasa aku akan cuba cari kl noir edisi lain sebab pengalaman KL noir red ni just sederhana.
  
  Dan aku nak mention satu short story fav aku dalam ni, The Unbeliever. Serius best.
• 
  Jazemin Min

  Oh my goddd, this book was seriously eerie. Especially when you live in this said country, Malaysia. I am proud to call this place my home, however, I didn't realize the severity of crimes (or written fiction) that could happen in my own backyard. This book spoke of places I've been, places I only heard of and moments that I know I can easily imagine happen. It was something.
  
  However, I am please to say it was the most attention gripping book I've written that was short too. Every short story was a bite that I had to take. Even from the first story, I was hooked. So if you are ever found yourself staring at this book, and thinking whether you want to read it, just read it.
• 
  H S. A

  Every city has a dark side.
  
  The Mamak Murder Mystery - One of the workers went to work but he didn't return. One of the co worker tried to seek the truth but ends up as a shopowner.. How did that happen?
  
  Cannibal X Ah Long - The smiling man who kept smiling as he devours the innards of his victim, the money lenders' servants..
  
  Intrigued? Give the book a try 👌 😁
  
  3.5/5 ⭐
• 
  Nelly Amelia

  It was interesting at first but slowly it is kind of disturbing for me. I feel uncomfortable at some parts. Also I have trouble understanding some of it. Maybe reading dark crime stories is just not for me HAHAHAHAH