Customer Reviews

Black Light

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This audacious and playfully malicious followup to Elizabeth Hand's masterpiece _Waking the Moon_ (fans of that book will surely be delighted to find themselves once again in the raffish company of Balthazar Warnick) reads at times like a crazed, sexed-up _Alice in Wonderland_. At other times, you'll think it's a lost "Buffy" episode.

Set back in the drug- and sex-crazed early 1970s, the book, crammed with Jungian references that won't scare you off, tells the story of Charlotte (Lit) Moylan, at the turning point between adolescence and womanhood, as she slides and glides her way through a most unusual Hallowe'en party held at a properly mysterious mansion (it's the centerpiece of a suburban New York town) presided over by a renegade film-maker, who happens to be Lit's godfather. Hand turns the gothic mansion, with its hidden passages and its motley crew of guests, into a symbol of the hideous era in which the book is set. And during the course of the long night Lit not only turns the corner into adulthood, but also transforms herself from used to user.

Terrifyingly terrific, superbly written, Hand's genre transcending novel is best read in late autumn, with Joni Mitchell's "Don't Give Up the Sorrow" on your stereo and with all the lights turned up bright.

I have read every novel written by Elizabeth Hand (in the order of their publication) and have been a devoted fan until now. The Winterlong novels featured a rich prose and surreal imagery reminiscent of Samuel Delaney's best novels (e.g. Triton or Nova). Waking the Moon was a truly spookey novel placed in a modern setting that was more accessable than the fantasy/sci-fi oriented Winterlong books. While much has been made of Hand's darkly atmospheric writing style, I also appreciated the characters and the ideas (though plotting has never been her strong suit). HOWEVER, the last two books, Glimmering and Black Light, seem to have been written on auto-pilot. It was as if someone else tried to write these books "in the style of Elizabeth Hand." In fact, I was so bored by Black Light, I stopped reading it on page 300 after 200 pages of following the main character around from room to room during the course of a party. In both books, the pacing was dreadfully slow and I just did not care about the characters. Both works needed a good editor, frankly.

I retract my previous negative review. The more I learn about the cult of Dionysus, the more I realize just how well-researched and how well-crafted this novel is. I still say it might be a little boring if you don't know what's really going on--but think about Dionysus, think about Ariadne and her myth, learn everything you can. and then look at it again and see the pieces begin to fall into place.

You might not realize how good Black Light actually is until the very last pages. You also might not realize what the novel's main theme is until those very same pages. You'll be carried along Hand's prose anyway, but the book will only reveal its greatness after it's finished.

As I read Black Light, while I was clearly enjoying myself, I was also thinking how inferior it was compared to Waking the Moon and Glimmering. Waking the Moon is simply one of the greatest contemporary fantasy novels ever written, and Glimmering, while definitely flawed, had some very interesting ideas in it to keep it moving. Black Light was clearly not one of the best contemporary fantasy novels ever written, and the ideas weren't all that original.

But that changed as I got closer to the end of the book. and suddenly I found myself appreciating Black Light immensely. It still is not as good as Waking the Moon, but it's certainly better than Glimmering. And it's also Hand's better structured book.

Go read it, live in Kamensic for a few hours, and emerge with your perceptions altered. Recommended.

Elizabeth Hand has got to be one of the most amazing writers I have read. Her use of language is so incredible that I confess I read her books mainly to get a hit. I am a little perplexed by my reaction to her writing because on the surface of it hers are not the sort of books I would ordinarily read, not being much inclined to fantasy. (I really hesitate to call her books this, because some of them seem sort of unclassifiable - one of the marks of a great writer.) I picked up Waking the Moon on a whim and was so knocked out by its richness that I immediately started looking for more. Glimmering threw me a little - it wasn't so easy to get into the story but I was so hooked on the language that I have read it more than once. Then I picked up Winterlong and was initially put off by the SF overtones, but you know what they say - never judge a book by its SF cover, because again the language is splendid. Last Summer at Mars Hill - absolutely magnificent. Some of the stories were brilliant. The Boy in the Tree was what convinced me to go back and actually read my copy of Winterlong. Black Light? Well, I have to agree with some of the reviews posted here in that the story line doesn't seem at first to develop very strongly, but what a trip it turned out to be! I am hanging by my fingernails waiting for what she will do next, and hoping maybe someone will see fit to re-release her out-of-print titles. A word to the publishing industry - I would buy ANYTHING this woman chooses to write.

Read this book for the stylistic surroundings, not for the plot. Lit is a teenager caught between this world and a world that she just learns she is a part of. She is faced with the decision of which world to stay with. While I appreciated the intricate and fantastic descriptions of the various times in history that Lit is suddenly able to see, and the dark changing house of Bolerium, I didn't really understand why all of this was happening until the the last few pages. I was minorly disappointed in the Hollywood-type ending when Lit is going through the streets of her hometown of Kamensic. Still, if this book were to end up a series, I would definitely read it. I'm rating it 4 stars because of the great descriptions, not because of the storyline.

I was neither born in the right place nor the right time to have experienced Andy Warhol's Factory days or to have experienced one of my favorite bands, The Velvet Underground, in the flesh. However, I have Elizabeth Hand to thank for surrounding me in that cloak of dark, soft, glowing ambiance and letting me experience it vicariously through her work. I usually don't suggest music to listen to while reading for fear of tainting someone else's experience, but I believe Elizabeth Hand may have had this in mind all along. After you have finished reading this book, and are maybe tempted to pick it up and read it again immediately, stop and go to your CD collection, your local independent music store or to Napster and listen to some vintage Velvet Underground: It Was A Pleasure Then, Pale Blue Eyes, Heroin, All Tomorrow's Parties - which swirls the images of the last several chapters through my head every time I hear it: Dark, unknown forests with rotting mulchy foliage underfoot. Branches and limbs scratching shadowy things as they pass, the trees shuddering in their wake. Things you cannot see, but most defintely feel, deep in your marrow. Your bones quake. A wild end-of-the-world party thrown on the edge of these forests. A mansion that belongs to time itself. Doors opening to reveal old shimmering secrets and fetid new worlds... "Waking the Moon" was one of my favorite all-time books and I still revere it, but "Black Light" has wormed its way deeper into my soul, even now, months after my last reading of it. A truly haunting book.

In a nutshell, if you like atmospheric, evocative explorations into the human condition, in a time and place not too long ago, this is the book for you.
Elizabeth Hand takes us on a journey to Kamensic, Maine, where life is idyllic at best. A town full of actors, actresses, artisans, and musicians. We are introduced to Kamensic circa 1970 where we meet young Charlotte "Lit" Moylan at a party in a mansion called Bolerium. It is a fantastic place of sights and smells, of party revelers, of debauchery hinted at but not quite seen. In the middle of this is one Axel Kern, friend of the Moylan family, godfather to Lit. He's a filmmaker and a madman...and something more.
As time goes on and Lit grows to teenage-hood, her godfather has returned to Kamensic to begin a new film project, and to open Bolerium up once again, and throw a party to end all of his previous efforts. Lit is caught up in a series of encounters that boggle the mind - there were times I started to wonder if Hand had dropped acid as she was writing as her set pieces became more and more fantastic. There are mysterious orders, the Benandanti and the Malandanti, both hinted at tantalizingly; one can't help but want to know more about them and how they play into the melange Hand so skillfully creates.
What is Lit's place in all of this? That is where the mystery so beautifully lies.
Is there anything really horrific about Black Light?
At times, yes.
At it's heart, it's a coming of age story about a young woman presented with a future that has been predestined for her...or has it?

I've read other novels by Hand and am never disappointed at the way she weaves words together. Allow me to cite this paragraph:
Everything gleamed with a primal intensity: the crimson and indigo of the carpet so saturated they looked wet, the gold letters on the spines of books sparkling like flame. Decanters on a small round table glowed as if they held paint rather than liqueurs - emerald green, blood-red, sunflower yellow. A daybed was heaped with tapestried pillows and there was a small cast-iron woodstove set into one wall, its isinglass window glowing beneath one of several beautifully carved plaques inscribed with Latin phrases...

Black Light is a voyage into the dark fantastic, some of the finer dark fantasy writing available today.
Try Elizabeth Hand. You won't be disappointed.

This was one of the greatest fantasy books I've read. Aside from the fact that the author's style could be cumbersome at times, it came pretty darn near perfection. Hand's unique combination of urban fantasy and ancient Indo-European mythology made for an interesting plot, and her well-developed characters and vivid imagery just added to the magic.

In the early 1970's, teenager Charlotte "Lit" Golding lives in the NYC superb of Kamsenic, where many Hollywood types make their home. After a long absence from the village, Lit's godfather, the legendary but notorious director Axel Kern returns home to throw a party that the townsfolk all attend.

However, Alex has special plans for Lit, whom he sees as a conduit for his personal rebirth as the ancient God Dionysius. Professor Balthazar Warwick, who once loved and lost Lit in a previous reincarnation of the girl, tries to stop Alex from succeeding.

With BLACK LIGHT, Elizabeth Hand confirms why she is a multiple award winning author of the World Fantasy, Nebula, Tiptree, and Mythopaeic awards. This entertaining horror-fantasy novel is very complex. The plot will remind the reader of ROSEMARY'S BABY with a different ending and much more complicated story line. The characters, especially the teens, are fully developed, and the underlying "scientific" principles that bring the plot together will delight horror, fantasy, and SF fans. No more just a distant glimmering light, Ms. Hand is clearly among the top authors worth reading.

Harriet Klausner