Reviews

• I am a big Elizabeth Hand fan. I read all of her (non Star Wars) books in high school and college. It's been a few (10) years since I've read anything by her but when I saw that she had written this book I was eager to read it and to see if I still liked her writing style. This is a dark book, but at the same time it is a beautiful book and I really, really enjoyed it. Cass Neary made it big as a photographer in the 1970's. She was part of the punk scene and specialized in photographing the dead; people who overdosed or died of other causes. Almost thirty years later she is a has-been. Constantly strung out on drugs or drunk she just barely ekes out a living slumming it in New York City and working at a used bookstore. Then a buddy of hers gives her a call, he has a job for her...they requested her specifically. Suddenly Cass is trekking out to rural Maine to interview a photographer whose work inspired Cass to start doing photography. Only nothing is what it seems out in this isolated community and strange things are happening...cats ending up dead, humans going missing. Cass finds that this isolated region holds secrets darker than she ever imagined, and for Cass that is saying something. I loved this book. It is in keeping with her previous works, although there is less supernatural/fantasy element in this book and more mystery/thriller to it. This novel is a bit creepy, but very atmospheric. Hand has a way of describing settings that really makes them come alive...you can smell them and see them. She also has a way of making dark things beautiful. First and foremost this a dark book. The characters are interesting and full of depth. Cass herself is definitely not someone to idolize (she spends the majority of the book either strung out or drunk) but she has a sort of wondrous naivete about her that is endearing. You kind of understand why she does the things she does and Hand helps you to understand why Cass finds beauty in the destruction and darkness of the world. So despite her amoral character and stupid decisions, somehow you end up kind of liking Cass. The same can be said for the old photographer's son Gryffin; he is mysterious and dark yet somehow likable. This book also talks a lot about photography so that is interesting; it touches on rural living and fishing as well as tourism. It is, all in all, an excellent book. Hand's writing style continues to awe me. I am always impressed with how engaging her books are, how intelligent they sound, and how they pry into dark places and find beauty there. Her description is amazing, as is the raw way she depicts her characters. The plot was very well done and Hand creates an excellent mystery/thriller. There is a lot of drug use, swearing, and casual talk about sex; so this book is definitely meant for a more mature audience. Overall I enjoyed every single word of this book. I couldn't put it down and was sad when it was over. Next on my list to read by Hand is Mortal Love; which I own, it is the only Elizabeth Hand book I haven't read yet. I also saw that she is coming out with another book later this year; a children's book called Illyria. So I am eager to pick that up to read too.

• Ein Buch, das ich mindestens zweimal lesen musste um zu verstehen, wie alles zusammenhängt. Es hat sich gelohnt, das Buch nochmal zu kaufen. Eine harte, zarte Geschichte um eine Frau, die meint, schon alles verloren zu haben.

• Ms. Hand knows how to write and she had me hooked from the beginning. I'm no expert in the punk movement nor of photography but I really liked Cass. I would not want to invite her into my house but I did feel for her even when she did things for apparently no reason. Like stealing a man's car keys only to return them later after the man has been searching for hours (days?). The plot was unexpected many times and that gives me a wish to continue reading. I believe I liked it even more than "Available Dark."

• I would not have read this if I had not previously read Waking the Moon by the author Elizabeth Hand. She has a way of creating uniquely dark and chilling worlds and story lines. In Generation Loss, we meet Cass Neary, who in her younger years became an almost instant success in the art world with her photography, a punk rock queen of the 1970's art scene, only to burn out just as quickly. She has most certainly lost her forward/upward trajectory in life, and has been abandoned by most who knew her when she was famous. Now, mostly alone with her demons, she gets by with grit and determination, with the help of pills, both uppers and downers. Despite her recklessness and drifter lifestyle, I found myself rooting for Cass to start to believe in herself and find a way to move forward in life and find redemption. It is clear that she was not just a chance flash in the pan celebrity in her day, that she still holds the heart and soul of a true artist, and has a unique eye and voice as a photographer and I found myself hoping that somehow someone would take notice and help her escape the train wreck that has become her life. A former acquaintance gives her a chance to perform a legitimate job in the art world - traveling to a remote Island in New England to interview a reclusive photographer for a magazine, which may afford her the opportunity to climb out of obscurity. When she arrives, she finds the population of the island are in the grip for a hunt for a serial killer, which at first is seemingly unrelated to her assignment, but soon she finds herself embroiled in the intrigue and mystery that has the island in its grip. All crime novels deal with dark themes somehow, but Hand's characters and settings are uniquely dark, chilling, gritty and compellingly absorbing. I can relate to Cass Neary, I can relate to the fact that once one loses traction in life, it is difficult to begin moving forward again, and so perhaps I am thus able to become so invested in a heroine who is by most standards a failure in life, but has so much heart and artistic to offer, underneath her despair and loss of direction. I look forward to following the development of Cass Neary's character over the course of Ms. Hand's series.

• Cass Neary is not someone you'd want to make friends with. She has multiple addictions, steals things, is fascinated with the macabre and has a taste for self-destruction. Briefly famous for her photographic self-portraits reenacting famous death scenes, she made herself a persona non grata by being rude, late, surly and socially inappropriate with reporters, media personalities and their assistants. She's scraping by on the fringes of New York City life when someone offers her a job shooting image of an iconic woman photographer who lives as a recluse in Maine for an upcoming magazine article. The woman is one of Cass's heroines and muses. The man who approaches her about this job says she's been specifically requested by her heroine. There are some repelling scenes in this dark mystery. She's an unsettling protagonist whose faults are juxtaposed against her courage, curiosity, keen powers of observation and intelligence. This eery, atmospheric mystery sets Cass against a psychopathic killer on a remote, private island in Maine.

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