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Cass Neary #2
Available Dark
Before the New York police can question photographer Cass Neary about a mysterious death she was involved with in Maine, she accepts a job in Finland - far away from her troubles in the US.
In Helsinki, she authenticates a series of disturbing yet beautiful images taken by a reclusive fashion photographer who has distanced himself from the violent Nordic music scene where he first made his reputation. But his mutilated body is discovered soon after her visit – and Cass is inexorably drawn into a dangerous criminal underworld.
Set against a bone-splintering soundtrack of black metal and the terrifying beauty of the sunless Scandinavian wilderness, Available Dark is a chilling story of betrayal, vengeance and serial murder.
In Helsinki, she authenticates a series of disturbing yet beautiful images taken by a reclusive fashion photographer who has distanced himself from the violent Nordic music scene where he first made his reputation. But his mutilated body is discovered soon after her visit – and Cass is inexorably drawn into a dangerous criminal underworld.
Set against a bone-splintering soundtrack of black metal and the terrifying beauty of the sunless Scandinavian wilderness, Available Dark is a chilling story of betrayal, vengeance and serial murder.
243 pages, Paperback
First published February 14, 2012
42 people are currently reading
1289 people want to read
About the author
Elizabeth Hand
192 books1,323 followersA New York Times notable and multiple award– winning author, Elizabeth Hand has written seven novels, including the cult classic Waking the Moon, and short-story collections. She is a longtime contributor to numerous publications, including the Washington Post Book World and the Village Voice Literary Supplement. She and her two children divide their time between the coast of Maine and North London.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 252 reviews
November 21, 2020
This is a world inhabited by aging punk musicians, artists, and necrophiles. Yes, necrophiles: a fascination with the dead is something these artists share, and use, to create their finished pieces. Cass Neary, our narrator, is a tough character and part of this crowd in New York City. But her strength gets tested when she’s relegated to the periphery of this world in Finland and Iceland, and trailed by a wake of murders.
This is book 2 of a 4-part series (the 4th was just released in September) starring Cass Neary, former photographer, current drug and alcohol user, and a woman alone. If you’re at all intrigued by the punk music and art scene in 1970s-80s NYC and London, you should probably give this writer a shot – nobody captures the atmosphere of that world better. The murder mysteries here enhance the story more by their happening than from the solve. The end didn’t disappoint, it just didn’t feel like an ah-ha reveal.
I preferred this one to Generation Loss – this felt more action-packed within its darkness, whereas the first felt bleak and slow; but people loved Generation Loss, and Hand has an understandable cult following.
This is book 2 of a 4-part series (the 4th was just released in September) starring Cass Neary, former photographer, current drug and alcohol user, and a woman alone. If you’re at all intrigued by the punk music and art scene in 1970s-80s NYC and London, you should probably give this writer a shot – nobody captures the atmosphere of that world better. The murder mysteries here enhance the story more by their happening than from the solve. The end didn’t disappoint, it just didn’t feel like an ah-ha reveal.
I preferred this one to Generation Loss – this felt more action-packed within its darkness, whereas the first felt bleak and slow; but people loved Generation Loss, and Hand has an understandable cult following.
October 21, 2020
The story didn't quite grab me to be honest but I find Cass to be such an engaging main character and it was my interest in her that kept me turning the pages.
May 31, 2021
'Available Dark' is book two in the Cassandra Neary noir-mystery series. In some ways, these are typical dark murder mysteries, but they are quite twisted morally. I have never read a series which turns mainstream ethics inside out so much. Not even the Dexter (Darkly Dreaming Dexter) books demonstrate this level of survival-amorality. However, I cannot say they are beyond belief. After all, people actually have done these things. We all know it. The question is, can one write of these true-ish events in a fictional mystery genre and find a satisfied audience? Justice is done, if sideways, in a Neary mystery. For myself, I find myself squirming with a queasy judgmental disapproval, even as I am reserving book three at my local library.... Let's call it curiosity.
Neary is a severe alcoholic and drug-addicted photographer who finds herself unable to look away from dead bodies. In fact, she is considered a famous, or an infamous, depending on your 'sophistication', published artist who is often asked by other artists or collectors of dead-things art to drop by and see their personal pictures of murdered, dead or dying beings. Sometimes, Cassie takes up these requests to share her expertise because the offers include paying all of her expenses. Her drug addiction is expensive to maintain, after all, and she is always broke. (Neary has a wealthy father who helps her when she lets him, but she avoids him as much as she can.)
Gentle reader, there really is such a type of dead-people Art, some of which is displayed in famous museums and art galleries, or hidden in university libraries as 'special collections', around the world, and there really is a huge, sometimes somewhat underground, private market for art works with dead people as the subject, some of which cannot be spun sufficiently enough as scientific, journalistic or artistic. (The police would be very interested in some of these works of 'art'.) Google it on your own, gentle reader. I have not included any links in my review at this time. Some of this 'Art' is too gruesome for me, even.
The fictional character Cassie, because of her own obsession with photographing dead bodies, and in having published a critically-acclaimed photography book called 'Dead Girls' when she was an unknown 20-year-old punk-culture street person, gets a lot of unwanted attention from fans who are WAY more freakier and bizarre then she is. So far, Cassie has been an opportunistic photographer - if she finds a dead body, recent or old, she is driven to photograph it, and she has sometimes arranged a head, or a leg, for a better photograph. She has not crossed the line into killing for a photograph. The people who contact her, though, often have crossed many boundaries that Cassie would not.
Cassie is invited to authenticate a series of photos owned by a Helsinki, Finland photographer Ilkka Kaltunnen, who specializes in the same kind of art as Cassie, by a wealthy Oslo, Sweden resident, Anton Bredahl, who will pay for Cassie's verification and travel expenses to Helsinki. She is eager to leave New York City for awhile, until the murder mess she left behind in Maine is no longer high on the list of the suspicious police (Generation Loss). At the same time, an old lover, Quinn O'Boyle, who influenced Cassie in her chosen line of work, has mailed her a photo she herself took of him (alive). Quinn is another photographer artist of dead people. The envelope is stamped as from Reykjavík, Iceland. No message. What would Quinn being doing in Iceland, and why send her this photo? She decides to fly to Iceland after her job is done in Finland.
Everything goes ok, if kinky, scary wealthy businessmen who are temporarily behaving themselves can be defined as ok, until Cassie arrives in Reykjavík. She is drinking her dinner in a bar near the airport when she sees a television news story featuring Ilkka apparently within hours after she left his home.
Oh oh. She needs to find Quinn NOW - to hide out! Cassie does not have Quinn's address - the envelope only had the Iceland city stamped on it, but Iceland has a small population. Everybody knows everybody. As things begin to come apart, Cassie discovers Quinn has been a bad boy. Asking questions about him puts her into another mess. Unfortunately, pictures of dead bodies are sometimes dead bodies made dead by murder. Hints of an ancient Nordic sacrificial cult that Quinn may have been involved in decades ago - with Ilkka! - have Cassie feeling this is yet another mystery she must solve to save herself, and maybe Quinn, from prison - or worse.
'Available Dark' is well-written and it has the usual genre elements of a noir mystery, but darker. Of course, with such amoral and immoral criminal protagonists (Cassie is as moral as she can be, given her issues, and acts as a vengeful nemesis sometimes) I think the kind of audience who would feel most comfortable with this series are those who enjoy dark Manga graphic novels along with dark noir mysteries. I do not think it crosses into murder porn, though, as so much of Manga Art does. (For the record, Manga porn of any kind is too much for me). It is a book simply about murder, gentle reader; but I am beginning to suspect the author is, perhaps ironically, in a literary exercise, showing us mystery readers our true interest in the genre more unmasked than usual. Yes, I am shocked - but by my dawning realization at the author's intelligent smirking joke directed at her readers - and herself - at our own morbid fascination with death.
IDK, gentle reader, if I came across a dead body and if my cellphone with camera was in my pocket...would I call the cops first - and not take a snapshot for CNN? I truly believe I would call the cops first...
I think, based on the videos watched on youtube and news websites of recent real life terrorist events and military coup attempts, we are all becoming characters like photographer Cass Nealy now. Even if we are not taking the pictures, we certainly are watching. O _ O
Neary is a severe alcoholic and drug-addicted photographer who finds herself unable to look away from dead bodies. In fact, she is considered a famous, or an infamous, depending on your 'sophistication', published artist who is often asked by other artists or collectors of dead-things art to drop by and see their personal pictures of murdered, dead or dying beings. Sometimes, Cassie takes up these requests to share her expertise because the offers include paying all of her expenses. Her drug addiction is expensive to maintain, after all, and she is always broke. (Neary has a wealthy father who helps her when she lets him, but she avoids him as much as she can.)
Gentle reader, there really is such a type of dead-people Art, some of which is displayed in famous museums and art galleries, or hidden in university libraries as 'special collections', around the world, and there really is a huge, sometimes somewhat underground, private market for art works with dead people as the subject, some of which cannot be spun sufficiently enough as scientific, journalistic or artistic. (The police would be very interested in some of these works of 'art'.) Google it on your own, gentle reader. I have not included any links in my review at this time. Some of this 'Art' is too gruesome for me, even.
The fictional character Cassie, because of her own obsession with photographing dead bodies, and in having published a critically-acclaimed photography book called 'Dead Girls' when she was an unknown 20-year-old punk-culture street person, gets a lot of unwanted attention from fans who are WAY more freakier and bizarre then she is. So far, Cassie has been an opportunistic photographer - if she finds a dead body, recent or old, she is driven to photograph it, and she has sometimes arranged a head, or a leg, for a better photograph. She has not crossed the line into killing for a photograph. The people who contact her, though, often have crossed many boundaries that Cassie would not.
Cassie is invited to authenticate a series of photos owned by a Helsinki, Finland photographer Ilkka Kaltunnen, who specializes in the same kind of art as Cassie, by a wealthy Oslo, Sweden resident, Anton Bredahl, who will pay for Cassie's verification and travel expenses to Helsinki. She is eager to leave New York City for awhile, until the murder mess she left behind in Maine is no longer high on the list of the suspicious police (Generation Loss). At the same time, an old lover, Quinn O'Boyle, who influenced Cassie in her chosen line of work, has mailed her a photo she herself took of him (alive). Quinn is another photographer artist of dead people. The envelope is stamped as from Reykjavík, Iceland. No message. What would Quinn being doing in Iceland, and why send her this photo? She decides to fly to Iceland after her job is done in Finland.
Everything goes ok, if kinky, scary wealthy businessmen who are temporarily behaving themselves can be defined as ok, until Cassie arrives in Reykjavík. She is drinking her dinner in a bar near the airport when she sees a television news story featuring Ilkka apparently within hours after she left his home.
Oh oh. She needs to find Quinn NOW - to hide out! Cassie does not have Quinn's address - the envelope only had the Iceland city stamped on it, but Iceland has a small population. Everybody knows everybody. As things begin to come apart, Cassie discovers Quinn has been a bad boy. Asking questions about him puts her into another mess. Unfortunately, pictures of dead bodies are sometimes dead bodies made dead by murder. Hints of an ancient Nordic sacrificial cult that Quinn may have been involved in decades ago - with Ilkka! - have Cassie feeling this is yet another mystery she must solve to save herself, and maybe Quinn, from prison - or worse.
'Available Dark' is well-written and it has the usual genre elements of a noir mystery, but darker. Of course, with such amoral and immoral criminal protagonists (Cassie is as moral as she can be, given her issues, and acts as a vengeful nemesis sometimes) I think the kind of audience who would feel most comfortable with this series are those who enjoy dark Manga graphic novels along with dark noir mysteries. I do not think it crosses into murder porn, though, as so much of Manga Art does. (For the record, Manga porn of any kind is too much for me). It is a book simply about murder, gentle reader; but I am beginning to suspect the author is, perhaps ironically, in a literary exercise, showing us mystery readers our true interest in the genre more unmasked than usual. Yes, I am shocked - but by my dawning realization at the author's intelligent smirking joke directed at her readers - and herself - at our own morbid fascination with death.
IDK, gentle reader, if I came across a dead body and if my cellphone with camera was in my pocket...would I call the cops first - and not take a snapshot for CNN? I truly believe I would call the cops first...
I think, based on the videos watched on youtube and news websites of recent real life terrorist events and military coup attempts, we are all becoming characters like photographer Cass Nealy now. Even if we are not taking the pictures, we certainly are watching. O _ O
April 13, 2014
I've been a fan of Elizabeth Hand for many years, so it's hard to present an unbiased view of any of her novels. Having jumped in with that initial disclaimer let me now gush briefly; I loved Available Dark.
When I read Generation Loss in 2012 I ranked it in the top two novels I read that year. I fell in love with the wildly self-destructive Cass Neary, so this sequel was a carefully crafted exercise in delayed gratification, now finally satisfied.
The novel is set in Finland and Iceland and drew upon ancient Norse mythology and religion. As someone with a romantic interest in both Scandinavia (particularly Iceland) and Norse mythology, I was bound to become entranced, but it is the way Hand paints with prose of painful beauty that transported me to these bleak environments and allowed me to walk in Neary's sodden and freezing shoes through the ice and snow.
Cassandra Neary is the same aging punk from the first novel, fueled by a continuous cocktail of drugs and booze and swayed by an eye that sees beauty in even the most shocking tableaux. She propels herself through the narrative like a high speed collision ricocheting off characters who often become casualties of the mystery in which she is inadvertently mired. Her grit, luck and lack of any contemplation or planning allow her to escape what seems to be inevitable and she ends the story as unrepentant as she started. This is the anti-hero of which dreams are made.
The plot is compelling, a mystery that announces itself part way through the novel and then unravels in a series of gruesome murders, chance encounters and small splashes of mysticism. I loved the Norse references and I feel compelled to buy a couple more books on the ancient religions and creeds of that region.
One criticism I've always had with Hand's work is that she doesn't finish too well. In nearly every novel she builds and builds with a beautiful and poetic pace only to end in a crash that diminishes the overall effect. This novel suffers a bit from this problem, but I'm beginning to think that my expectation of it lessens the disappointment; it becomes a 'Hand-ian' rhythm that I begin to appreciate more than dislike.
This novel was well worth the wait. Hand is a bard of bleakness that speaks my language fluently. I enjoyed the story from the first word to the last.
When I read Generation Loss in 2012 I ranked it in the top two novels I read that year. I fell in love with the wildly self-destructive Cass Neary, so this sequel was a carefully crafted exercise in delayed gratification, now finally satisfied.
The novel is set in Finland and Iceland and drew upon ancient Norse mythology and religion. As someone with a romantic interest in both Scandinavia (particularly Iceland) and Norse mythology, I was bound to become entranced, but it is the way Hand paints with prose of painful beauty that transported me to these bleak environments and allowed me to walk in Neary's sodden and freezing shoes through the ice and snow.
Cassandra Neary is the same aging punk from the first novel, fueled by a continuous cocktail of drugs and booze and swayed by an eye that sees beauty in even the most shocking tableaux. She propels herself through the narrative like a high speed collision ricocheting off characters who often become casualties of the mystery in which she is inadvertently mired. Her grit, luck and lack of any contemplation or planning allow her to escape what seems to be inevitable and she ends the story as unrepentant as she started. This is the anti-hero of which dreams are made.
The plot is compelling, a mystery that announces itself part way through the novel and then unravels in a series of gruesome murders, chance encounters and small splashes of mysticism. I loved the Norse references and I feel compelled to buy a couple more books on the ancient religions and creeds of that region.
One criticism I've always had with Hand's work is that she doesn't finish too well. In nearly every novel she builds and builds with a beautiful and poetic pace only to end in a crash that diminishes the overall effect. This novel suffers a bit from this problem, but I'm beginning to think that my expectation of it lessens the disappointment; it becomes a 'Hand-ian' rhythm that I begin to appreciate more than dislike.
This novel was well worth the wait. Hand is a bard of bleakness that speaks my language fluently. I enjoyed the story from the first word to the last.
March 18, 2024
I don’t write reviews.
“A camera is like a gun: no good unless it is loaded and in your hand when you need it.”
This was simply delightful! Hand can pace a story perfectly. She feeds you scraps and tidbits without giving everything away. I guessed the ending of this one and the previous, but that didn’t detract at all from my enjoyment. This is first-class airport spinner-rack entertainment and I mean that as a total compliment.
I have a thing about stories that take place in lightless winters. Bedraggled, strung-out Cass seemed sharp and in-focus compared to the endless snow and dark. She still was a presumptuous fool. Cass took liberties if done by a man, would leave people screaming, “me too!” I was surprised that in the middle of a conversation with someone, she took her hand and licked it seductively. Stranger still, the lady didn’t say “what the fuck?!” Instead she calmly explained that she was engaged. Oh, and she took photos of her estranged lover while he was sleeping. She’s honestly not a jerk though. Cass is not well-adjusted and has emotional damage.
And she’s sometimes not that smart. I loved when Cass took a picture of a murder then was upset that the killer demanded she give him the film. Hey those naked estranged lover pics are on that roll! But I think Cass’ stellar genius moment was when she touched the water of a massively hot, hot spring and was shocked that it burnt her finger. Somehow, I don’t hate this character. I felt the same thing when I read the first book; she’s raw, she’s real, I want to know what happens next.
“A camera is like a gun: no good unless it is loaded and in your hand when you need it.”
This was simply delightful! Hand can pace a story perfectly. She feeds you scraps and tidbits without giving everything away. I guessed the ending of this one and the previous, but that didn’t detract at all from my enjoyment. This is first-class airport spinner-rack entertainment and I mean that as a total compliment.
I have a thing about stories that take place in lightless winters. Bedraggled, strung-out Cass seemed sharp and in-focus compared to the endless snow and dark. She still was a presumptuous fool. Cass took liberties if done by a man, would leave people screaming, “me too!” I was surprised that in the middle of a conversation with someone, she took her hand and licked it seductively. Stranger still, the lady didn’t say “what the fuck?!” Instead she calmly explained that she was engaged. Oh, and she took photos of her estranged lover while he was sleeping. She’s honestly not a jerk though. Cass is not well-adjusted and has emotional damage.
And she’s sometimes not that smart. I loved when Cass took a picture of a murder then was upset that the killer demanded she give him the film. Hey those naked estranged lover pics are on that roll! But I think Cass’ stellar genius moment was when she touched the water of a massively hot, hot spring and was shocked that it burnt her finger. Somehow, I don’t hate this character. I felt the same thing when I read the first book; she’s raw, she’s real, I want to know what happens next.
July 26, 2016
When I finished the first Cass Neary novel, Available Dark, I immediately requested the next one from the library. I love how this one continues the photography element and perhaps that is always the impetus for Cass to travel to a new place. This time around a photography collector wants her to travel to Finland to see if the prints from a photographer are worth purchasing. She discovers that she has unwittingly become a part of a community of photographers who take pictures of the dead or dying, and the trip to cold bleak Finland is no exception. Danger follows. Also traditional Viking religion, Satanic death metal, evil twins, and hypothermia. And lots and lots of drugs. (And I couldn't put it down.)
December 15, 2020
So, Cass. She's no hero. She's an addict who knows only one way to deal with problems - buy a bottle of Jack Daniels, crank the audio, get hammered. She won't say no to speed. Deadly troubles follow her or, maybe, she simply gravitates toward them. Death has always fascinated her and in this second book of the series we see how damaged Cass really is.
And yet Hand makes her relatable, likable even.
I don't think I know any other author able to make books so dark so beautiful.
And yet Hand makes her relatable, likable even.
I don't think I know any other author able to make books so dark so beautiful.
August 27, 2016
I don't know when I became such a fan of Elizabeth Hand. The first book I ever read by her was Glimmering, which sat on my shelf for quite a while. But ever since I read it, I've collected no small number of her work. An amazing wordsmith, it makes her pieces a joy to read. One of the things that I've loved through all her work is the importance of art. Art plays a large role in my own work, so it's not strange for me to make the connection. However, photography is an area I don't know much about, so reading about Cass again, with new information that I probably wouldn't have sough out unless researching, was great.
Always, a marvelous collection of music, colors, and images. Cass remains true to character and the supporting cast in no doubt interesting to say the least. The only thing that bogged it down a little for me was character's telling other characters what happened once upon a time. I think because her style is usually so in the moment, particularly with Cass, that it got a bit in the way. It was information the reader needed to know, and I'm not sure how it could be any other way than it was presented given the first person narrator, unless multiple first person point of views were used. Other than that, excellent. Devoured it in a day.
Always, a marvelous collection of music, colors, and images. Cass remains true to character and the supporting cast in no doubt interesting to say the least. The only thing that bogged it down a little for me was character's telling other characters what happened once upon a time. I think because her style is usually so in the moment, particularly with Cass, that it got a bit in the way. It was information the reader needed to know, and I'm not sure how it could be any other way than it was presented given the first person narrator, unless multiple first person point of views were used. Other than that, excellent. Devoured it in a day.
August 2, 2021
Available Dark es la secuela de las des(aventuras) de Cass Neary, una ex fotógrafa de mediana edad de las escena punk de los 70, adicta a las pastillas y a su botella de Jack Daniel's, quién todavía no se ha podido recuperar de los incidentes de Maine ocurridos en la primera novela de la serie, Generation Loss y cuando comienza esta novela ve la oportunidad de darse un respiro y salir de Nueva York en el momento en que un coleccionista de arte le ofrece viajar a Helsinki a tasar unas obras fotográficas.
Empiezo diciendo que Elizabeth Hand desde el momento en que la descubrí, me fascinó; sus novelas tienen ese punto atmosférico e inquietante que me flipan, todo es muy oscuro, muy bizarro y Cass Neary es una antiheroína en todo el sentido de la palabra. Algunas de sus acciones pueden resultar chocantes, pero así es la vida y Cass es muy real en ese aspecto, nunca actúa como una victima y nunca parece arrepentirse de sus acciones. Ante todo sorprende que un personaje femenino sea tan atractivo precisamente por lo inusual y por como Elizabeth Hand deconstruye precisamente a la heroína típica tópica de toda la vida y la imbuye de cicatrices emocionales que se acaban convirtiendo en grandes virtudes, porque ella, Cassandra Neary, no es una jovencita sino que es una mujer de vuelta de la mayoría de las situaciones entre otras cosas porque ya las ha vivido, artista por encima de todo y las referencias culturales, literarias, musicales continuas, no solo son una delicia sino que son totalmente adictivas en el transcurso de sus novelas. Esa sensación de ser una mujer ajada y en casi todos los sentidos baqueteada por la vida, por las drogas y el alcohol, cobran una luminosidad (como pocas veces he visto en un personaje) en el momento en que su visión artística entra en acción y se pone en movimiento. Por cierto, que Cass Neary me recuerda muchísimo al personaje de Saga Noren en la serie televisiva Bron/Broen, salvando ciertas distancias, tanto su aspecto fisico como de alguna forma su forma de vestirse es muy parecida a Cass Neary ¿pura casualidad??, quizás la serie sueca se inspiró en ella, no sé.
La novela que empieza en Nueva York, rápidamente cambia de escenario y cuando se traslada a Helsinki y Reykjavík se reconvierte en una especie de sueño distópico en el que Cass se ve cada vez más envuelta y engullida por lo bizarros de algunos personajes con los que se va tropezando y por el entorno glacial. Es impagable la escena de Cass llegando de noche a Helsinki: ese rollo atmósferico que es una especie de anticipación a nuestro terror a lo desconocido es precisamente el motivo por el cual Elizabeth Hand se ha convertido en una de mis autoras de género actuales favoritas. El árido paisaje nórdico, áspero y helado, está perfectamente descrito de tal forma que hace cómplice al lector de este desasosiego que siente Cass desplázandose por estos paisajes casi lunares, oscuros y aislados.
"It was dark when I left New York, dark when the flight landed at 6:00 in Helsinki; dark when I filled through Border Control and got my passoport stamped by a guy who looked like his last job had been checking ID's in Lothlorien. Two hours later, when I finally stumbled from a bus into the slush-covered street in front of the railroad station in Helsinki, it was still dark".
Y cómo no podía ser menos, Available Dark hace alusión a un término en fotografía que se traduce como "Luz disponible" (en este caso lo contrario, muy turbador), que para una fotografía no se se requiere ninguna iluminación adicional como luz estroboscópica o faros sino que es toda aquella que te rodea en todo momento y que te será útil a la hora de realizar tus fotografías. Más o menos sería eso, un juego de palabras con el título de la novela, porque en cuanto ella aterriza en tierras nórdicas se ve envuelta en una especie de agujero negro, no solo físico, sino también por la atmósfera porque como se dice en algún momento "no existe la oscuridad total como tal, sino que siempre hay alguna luz, en alguna parte", porque no nos olvidemos que Cass Neary es fotógrafa y todo gira en torno a unas fotografías que son la clave del misterio, ¿porqué qué hay más importante en fotografía que la Luz?. Una delicia en todos los aspectos por todas las referencias artísticas a las que hace mención continuamente la autora.
"-The way you capture light...-I stared at the girl's unseeing eyes, a travesty of the detached gaze all great photographers cultive -I've never seen anything like it. You didn't use a flash gun?
-No, that would have been a petkuttaa, a cheat. Only the flashbulb, I show what the world hides from us, the true world. The sun doesn't lie. The night doesn't lie".
La novela al igual que su personaje, Cass Neary, es muy salvaje, y muy de estos tiempos oscuros y desesperanzadores. Cass no es un personaje fácil, es imprevisible y antisocial, pero para quién de verdad disfrute con estos personajes extremos, a flor de piel, les recomiendo esta serie oscura y turbadora.
"I spent too much time alone, skating on alcohol and speed, not noticing the ice beneath me was rotten and the water killing ".
(Por ahora no está editada en castellano, esperemos que alguna editorial se atreva a lanzarla y no tengamos que esperar hasta que alguna serie de tv la adapte, que quizás llegue, o no... :-(
Empiezo diciendo que Elizabeth Hand desde el momento en que la descubrí, me fascinó; sus novelas tienen ese punto atmosférico e inquietante que me flipan, todo es muy oscuro, muy bizarro y Cass Neary es una antiheroína en todo el sentido de la palabra. Algunas de sus acciones pueden resultar chocantes, pero así es la vida y Cass es muy real en ese aspecto, nunca actúa como una victima y nunca parece arrepentirse de sus acciones. Ante todo sorprende que un personaje femenino sea tan atractivo precisamente por lo inusual y por como Elizabeth Hand deconstruye precisamente a la heroína típica tópica de toda la vida y la imbuye de cicatrices emocionales que se acaban convirtiendo en grandes virtudes, porque ella, Cassandra Neary, no es una jovencita sino que es una mujer de vuelta de la mayoría de las situaciones entre otras cosas porque ya las ha vivido, artista por encima de todo y las referencias culturales, literarias, musicales continuas, no solo son una delicia sino que son totalmente adictivas en el transcurso de sus novelas. Esa sensación de ser una mujer ajada y en casi todos los sentidos baqueteada por la vida, por las drogas y el alcohol, cobran una luminosidad (como pocas veces he visto en un personaje) en el momento en que su visión artística entra en acción y se pone en movimiento. Por cierto, que Cass Neary me recuerda muchísimo al personaje de Saga Noren en la serie televisiva Bron/Broen, salvando ciertas distancias, tanto su aspecto fisico como de alguna forma su forma de vestirse es muy parecida a Cass Neary ¿pura casualidad??, quizás la serie sueca se inspiró en ella, no sé.
La novela que empieza en Nueva York, rápidamente cambia de escenario y cuando se traslada a Helsinki y Reykjavík se reconvierte en una especie de sueño distópico en el que Cass se ve cada vez más envuelta y engullida por lo bizarros de algunos personajes con los que se va tropezando y por el entorno glacial. Es impagable la escena de Cass llegando de noche a Helsinki: ese rollo atmósferico que es una especie de anticipación a nuestro terror a lo desconocido es precisamente el motivo por el cual Elizabeth Hand se ha convertido en una de mis autoras de género actuales favoritas. El árido paisaje nórdico, áspero y helado, está perfectamente descrito de tal forma que hace cómplice al lector de este desasosiego que siente Cass desplázandose por estos paisajes casi lunares, oscuros y aislados.
"It was dark when I left New York, dark when the flight landed at 6:00 in Helsinki; dark when I filled through Border Control and got my passoport stamped by a guy who looked like his last job had been checking ID's in Lothlorien. Two hours later, when I finally stumbled from a bus into the slush-covered street in front of the railroad station in Helsinki, it was still dark".
Y cómo no podía ser menos, Available Dark hace alusión a un término en fotografía que se traduce como "Luz disponible" (en este caso lo contrario, muy turbador), que para una fotografía no se se requiere ninguna iluminación adicional como luz estroboscópica o faros sino que es toda aquella que te rodea en todo momento y que te será útil a la hora de realizar tus fotografías. Más o menos sería eso, un juego de palabras con el título de la novela, porque en cuanto ella aterriza en tierras nórdicas se ve envuelta en una especie de agujero negro, no solo físico, sino también por la atmósfera porque como se dice en algún momento "no existe la oscuridad total como tal, sino que siempre hay alguna luz, en alguna parte", porque no nos olvidemos que Cass Neary es fotógrafa y todo gira en torno a unas fotografías que son la clave del misterio, ¿porqué qué hay más importante en fotografía que la Luz?. Una delicia en todos los aspectos por todas las referencias artísticas a las que hace mención continuamente la autora.
"-The way you capture light...-I stared at the girl's unseeing eyes, a travesty of the detached gaze all great photographers cultive -I've never seen anything like it. You didn't use a flash gun?
-No, that would have been a petkuttaa, a cheat. Only the flashbulb, I show what the world hides from us, the true world. The sun doesn't lie. The night doesn't lie".
La novela al igual que su personaje, Cass Neary, es muy salvaje, y muy de estos tiempos oscuros y desesperanzadores. Cass no es un personaje fácil, es imprevisible y antisocial, pero para quién de verdad disfrute con estos personajes extremos, a flor de piel, les recomiendo esta serie oscura y turbadora.
"I spent too much time alone, skating on alcohol and speed, not noticing the ice beneath me was rotten and the water killing ".
(Por ahora no está editada en castellano, esperemos que alguna editorial se atreva a lanzarla y no tengamos que esperar hasta que alguna serie de tv la adapte, que quizás llegue, o no... :-(
October 1, 2022
Well, this writer is on her way to being one of my favorites. The way she weaves images and tropes through this eerie landscape is both grotesque and beautiful. I love the strung out narrator. The bleak Icelandic landscape was the perfect setting to explore light and dark, punk rock, and isolation. Creepy and well done. Great winter read.
File Under: Volcanos Under Ice
File Under: Volcanos Under Ice
December 30, 2020
When I began this novel the main character, Cass Neary, reminded me very much of another fictional hero, Claire DeWitt. If you happen to like your main character to be hard drinking, drug using, a little too dependent on alcohol and occasionally violent then you will appreciate Cass.
She leaves New York under cloud of criminal suspicion to take on a job in Finland. She is known for a primary book of photography she created 30 years earlier and she has been hired to verify set of photographs, very macabre photographs, by a collector in Finland.
Nothing runs smoothly when she arrives other than the viewing of the photographs. From then on she is trailed by one disaster after another. She ends up in Iceland looking for a long ago lover who, conveniently, is connected to the job she has just performed. Nasty things begin to happen and the deaths pile up.
For those of you interested in Nordic mythology, Nordic landscapes, heavy metal or death bands and a general assortment of unsavory characters, you will enjoy this novel. Elizabeth Hand is a very talented writer and at times I would just sit and re-read a particularly finely turned phrase or paragraph of description that she uses throughout her books.
She leaves New York under cloud of criminal suspicion to take on a job in Finland. She is known for a primary book of photography she created 30 years earlier and she has been hired to verify set of photographs, very macabre photographs, by a collector in Finland.
Nothing runs smoothly when she arrives other than the viewing of the photographs. From then on she is trailed by one disaster after another. She ends up in Iceland looking for a long ago lover who, conveniently, is connected to the job she has just performed. Nasty things begin to happen and the deaths pile up.
For those of you interested in Nordic mythology, Nordic landscapes, heavy metal or death bands and a general assortment of unsavory characters, you will enjoy this novel. Elizabeth Hand is a very talented writer and at times I would just sit and re-read a particularly finely turned phrase or paragraph of description that she uses throughout her books.
August 1, 2012
Available Dark by Elizabeth Hand (Minotaur) is the sequel to Generation Loss, and both are excellent, compulsively readable contemporary dark suspense novels about Cassandra Neary, a brilliant photographer who lit up the 70s punk landscape briefly but quickly burned out with liquor and drugs. After escaping home to Manhattan after some real nastiness in Maine (Generation Loss). Neary is offered a great deal of money to fly all expenses paid to Helsinki and authenticate a series of five photographs purportedly taken by a famous photographer. Once there, she becomes embroiled in a Scandinavian death metal cult and sacrificial murder, ending up fighting for her life in economically destroyed Iceland. There are subtle elements of the supernatural threaded throughout this powerful novel.
August 18, 2018
Well, hell. In this volume punk burnout photographer creep Cass Neary delves deeper into a world of transgressive photography and cult metal that make Joel Peter Witkin and Varg Vikernes look like choir boys. Cass herself makes John Constantine seem cherubic in comparison. You'll want to blast A Blaze In The Northern Sky on repeat while reading this. I did.
December 1, 2020
Remember how I didn’t take time to review the first Cass Neary book by Elizabeth Hand, because I’d already moved on to the second? Well, I’m on the third now. That should speak for itself!
March 2, 2012
Gorgeously written. Spiky, burned-out photographer and punk hold-out Cass Neary is back, and she's a well-drawn character. Hand draws vivid, memorable pictures of Finland and Iceland, especially the latter in the midst of its current economic crisis. (As a New Yorker, I appreciated Cass's growing sense of dissonance with the gentrified Lower East Side, as well.)
The novel's moral ambiguity is fascinating in the genre of mystery/thriller -- some people did Very Bad Things in the past, but morality is relative. I would have liked to see the Norse neo-paganism of the black metal scene more developed/described, though we see exactly what Cass would have seen, and what would have satisfied me more would have been major infodump in the novel's progress. Cass's memories of her youthful relationship with Quinn reminded me of Patti Smith's memoir Just Kids, though obviously the characters diverge greatly in their subsequent paths.
I'm definitely looking forward to the next one.
The novel's moral ambiguity is fascinating in the genre of mystery/thriller -- some people did Very Bad Things in the past, but morality is relative. I would have liked to see the Norse neo-paganism of the black metal scene more developed/described, though we see exactly what Cass would have seen, and what would have satisfied me more would have been major infodump in the novel's progress. Cass's memories of her youthful relationship with Quinn reminded me of Patti Smith's memoir Just Kids, though obviously the characters diverge greatly in their subsequent paths.
I'm definitely looking forward to the next one.
August 24, 2016
Liz Hand describes music in prose as well as anybody I've ever seen. Scandanavian black metal is *not* my thing, but her description of the music -- and the photos -- in this book are a great counterargument for anyone who says you can't dance about architecture.
December 1, 2023
I enjoyed the series of three books, brilliantly macabre and unique. Off to read another!
June 15, 2020
Things Elizabeth Hand is great at describing:
1. drug use, esp. various pharmaceuticals found in other people's medicine cabinets (and alcohol, esp. Jack Daniels)
2. music, esp. punk rock of the 70s/80s and its culture
3. photography and photographic equipment/technique
4. bleak landscapes and bad weather
5. grisly murders and the macabre
In this, the second of her Cass Neary series, these ingredients get cooked up in a Nordic stew that draws some clever (and very dark) parallels between ancient Viking mythologies and the modern-day financial collapse of 2008 that hit Iceland particularly hard.
If you like noir fiction and a kick-ass female protagonist -- and can tolerate a heaping helping of 1 through 5 -- Cass Neary is your gal.
I had to stop this in the middle -- it can be a bit gruesome (see 5., above) -- but the story kept calling me back so I returned to it and I'm glad I did. Hand refers frequently, in both of the books in this series that I've read so far, to Cass's ability to sense damaged personalities. While her heroine is somewhat more neutrally observational about the damaged souls around her, Hand herself portrays them, including Cass, with sensitivity and compassion. Much of what she describes, and what her characters have endured, is hard and cruel ... but they themselves remain resilient, courageous and often kind and, for the reader, that offers more than a glimmer of hope in the darkness.
1. drug use, esp. various pharmaceuticals found in other people's medicine cabinets (and alcohol, esp. Jack Daniels)
2. music, esp. punk rock of the 70s/80s and its culture
3. photography and photographic equipment/technique
4. bleak landscapes and bad weather
5. grisly murders and the macabre
In this, the second of her Cass Neary series, these ingredients get cooked up in a Nordic stew that draws some clever (and very dark) parallels between ancient Viking mythologies and the modern-day financial collapse of 2008 that hit Iceland particularly hard.
If you like noir fiction and a kick-ass female protagonist -- and can tolerate a heaping helping of 1 through 5 -- Cass Neary is your gal.
I had to stop this in the middle -- it can be a bit gruesome (see 5., above) -- but the story kept calling me back so I returned to it and I'm glad I did. Hand refers frequently, in both of the books in this series that I've read so far, to Cass's ability to sense damaged personalities. While her heroine is somewhat more neutrally observational about the damaged souls around her, Hand herself portrays them, including Cass, with sensitivity and compassion. Much of what she describes, and what her characters have endured, is hard and cruel ... but they themselves remain resilient, courageous and often kind and, for the reader, that offers more than a glimmer of hope in the darkness.
February 20, 2012
Cassandra Neary receives a voice message from Investigator Jonathan Wheedler. It is partly due to this voice message that Cassandra accepts an assignment from Anton Bredahl, a guy she just met over email. The other reason being that Anton wants Cassandra to travel to famed photographer Illkka Kaltunnen’s house to assess some art work of his to verify that they are real. Plus, Anton is going to pay Cassandra a lot of money. Cassandra could really use the money and this is a good way to leave town and avoid the Investigator.
Cassandra meets Illkka and views his photos. Everything seems to be going well until Cassandra sees on the news that Illkka has been murdered. Cassandra realizes than that she has been set up but by whom and why?
Ms. Hand is a new to me author. Ms. Hand has a unique style of writing. In what I mean by this is that I felt both connected and disconnected with this story and the characters in an odd, good sort of way. Connected in the fact that I could not stop reading this book as it was different and intriguing but disconnected in the way that it was like I was in the audience watching a movie but never relating to the characters and what they were going through in this story. I felt that the characters deserved what happened to them. Due to their sick and twisted obsession with death and preserving it through a photograph. I would categorize Available Dark as more on the suspense side than I would mystery. Overall, I was intrigued enough by Ms. Hand’s writing that I would try her again in the future.
Cassandra meets Illkka and views his photos. Everything seems to be going well until Cassandra sees on the news that Illkka has been murdered. Cassandra realizes than that she has been set up but by whom and why?
Ms. Hand is a new to me author. Ms. Hand has a unique style of writing. In what I mean by this is that I felt both connected and disconnected with this story and the characters in an odd, good sort of way. Connected in the fact that I could not stop reading this book as it was different and intriguing but disconnected in the way that it was like I was in the audience watching a movie but never relating to the characters and what they were going through in this story. I felt that the characters deserved what happened to them. Due to their sick and twisted obsession with death and preserving it through a photograph. I would categorize Available Dark as more on the suspense side than I would mystery. Overall, I was intrigued enough by Ms. Hand’s writing that I would try her again in the future.
May 26, 2012
This pacing of this crime novel is relentless--it's a true "page turner." But as action-packed as it is, what really stands out is the voice of the narrator. Cass Neary is morbid, burned out speed freak, occasional klepto with a dark sense of humor. Would I like to hang out with her in real life? Nope--she's too amoral and has a mean streak. But her narrative voice is additive, full of witty asides. She's a photographer with a dark-adapted eye and a subcultural autodidact, a chronicler of the wasted and fringe.
The milieu the book explores is the Scandinavian Black Metal scene, with set pieces in Helinski and Iceland. Hand's previous (and continued) incarnation as a fantasy writer comes into play, both in her conjured atmospheres and in the mythic subtexts of that scene (Odinism, Asatru, and heathen religions). She's also a stylist: symbolism abounds in the text (the character ain't called Cassandra for nothing). Photo and punk/metal geeks will find much to admire.
I read the book in 2 days.
The milieu the book explores is the Scandinavian Black Metal scene, with set pieces in Helinski and Iceland. Hand's previous (and continued) incarnation as a fantasy writer comes into play, both in her conjured atmospheres and in the mythic subtexts of that scene (Odinism, Asatru, and heathen religions). She's also a stylist: symbolism abounds in the text (the character ain't called Cassandra for nothing). Photo and punk/metal geeks will find much to admire.
I read the book in 2 days.
September 4, 2012
I absolutely loved this book! Unapologetically grim, Available Dark mines the ripe but overlooked black metal culture of the 80s and 90s to great effect. For anyone for who considers Mayhem a (not-so) guilty pleasure this is a must read. The same goes for readers who appreciate a good anti-hero but would love a female one, as Cass Neary is what you've been waiting for. It has a bit of Chuck Palahnuik vibe (think Diary), and is a great follow up to the excellent Generation Loss.
Although I definitely recommend starting with Generation Loss, not only is it a fantastic read but it offers a lot more insight into Cass's character, whereas Available Dark really hits the ground running.
Although I definitely recommend starting with Generation Loss, not only is it a fantastic read but it offers a lot more insight into Cass's character, whereas Available Dark really hits the ground running.
September 17, 2016
Egentligt betyg 3,5.
Uppföljare är ju alltid knepiga. Mina förväntningar var satta högt efter den gastkramande spänningen i Generation Loss, men tyvärr når inte Se Mörkret upp till samma nivå. Cass Neary är bokens stora behållning, men hjältinnan till trots har jag svårt att inte finna boken lite löjlig med all vikingavurm. Men även Cass är löjligare i denna bok, mindre punk och mer Miss Marple (bitsk men rätt tandlös), nåväl Miss Marple på droger!
Förmodligen är felet att boken är för kort, storyn blir för snabb, karaktärerna mer stereotypa, den förväntade spänningen lite antiklimax...
Men klart läsvärd ändå!
Uppföljare är ju alltid knepiga. Mina förväntningar var satta högt efter den gastkramande spänningen i Generation Loss, men tyvärr når inte Se Mörkret upp till samma nivå. Cass Neary är bokens stora behållning, men hjältinnan till trots har jag svårt att inte finna boken lite löjlig med all vikingavurm. Men även Cass är löjligare i denna bok, mindre punk och mer Miss Marple (bitsk men rätt tandlös), nåväl Miss Marple på droger!
Förmodligen är felet att boken är för kort, storyn blir för snabb, karaktärerna mer stereotypa, den förväntade spänningen lite antiklimax...
Men klart läsvärd ändå!
May 26, 2021
If you like noir, you'll love this one. Noir both in tone and in actual darkness--Finland & Iceland in the winter. Add in some Nordic black metal music and, just for fun, art photos of dead people. Oh, yeah. For those of you who have not met Cass Neary, her claim to fame is a photography book entitled Dead Girls. She did this when she was young and has been pretty much a burn-out since. Cass is not someone you warm up to, unless you like spending time with people addicted to alcohol and drugs. She attracts trouble--serious, dangerous trouble--the way a magnet attracts iron filings.
I almost put this down when I realized it was a Cass Neary story. I really do not like this woman. And yet, somehow the novel is compelling. Before I knew it, I actually couldn't put it down. At all. There are a lot of dead people, some appearing only in photos, others as murders. The live people who are not murdered tend to be pretty rough characters. Hence the trouble. There is one likeable character, seemingly kind and gentle. You can guess how that goes.
I would say, "Enjoy!" but that really is the wrong word. How about, "Take a little walk on the dark side"?
I almost put this down when I realized it was a Cass Neary story. I really do not like this woman. And yet, somehow the novel is compelling. Before I knew it, I actually couldn't put it down. At all. There are a lot of dead people, some appearing only in photos, others as murders. The live people who are not murdered tend to be pretty rough characters. Hence the trouble. There is one likeable character, seemingly kind and gentle. You can guess how that goes.
I would say, "Enjoy!" but that really is the wrong word. How about, "Take a little walk on the dark side"?
June 20, 2017
It's scary how much I relate to Cass Neary. Fiendishly good, but if you're new to this series start with #1.
April 13, 2016
I've read Elizabeth Hand before, and especially loved "Waking the Moon" (that book is 20 years old now, how did that happen?). But I've never read her mystery-thrillers. I decided to pick up this book because of an upcoming trip to Iceland, which is featured. It's the second in a series. I haven't read the first, but had no problem getting into this one.
I'm not sure anyone would want to visit the Iceland of Cass Neary's experience. For that matter, most of her world isn't exactly rainbows and fairies. The genius of this book is that it really updates noir and finds a true protagonist that fits into a dark world. Cass Neary is a washed-up photographer and drug addict. She's manipulative, dishonest, jaded, but her survival instincts have always managed to get her out of trouble so far. The detective-protagonist is kicked to the curb. Cass is a member of our underground, culturally, criminally on the edge.
Elizabeth Hand is a really visual, sensual writer. Cass is sent to evaluate a series of photos for authenticity, since her photography book of street addicts, published in the seventies before things went south for her, have garnered her sort of a cult following of those who like darkness in their art. The photos are by a Finnish photographer, so her somewhat mysterious employer sends her off to Finland. All the photos are of death. Cass never flinches from it, is appreciative of the beauty and artistry needed to record brutality. The author manages to paint a vivid picture that made me feel almost like I'd seen the photos myself. She captures the quality of light in the high North, the stark monochrome of Nordic architectural style. Although there's never a doubt that something really nasty is going on, Cass figures it's none of her business, and just focuses on artistic technique.
One thing follows another, and Cass ends up in the just post-economic crash Iceland. It's dark, it's grungy, it's full of people trying to figure out how to survive with all certainty gone. Cass has no problem making her way through this world because she's always been on the edge.
Because Cass is no hero- I'm not even sure she's an anti-hero- the author has to give her a motivation related either to self-preservation or fixation. Cass doesn't want to solve any mystery, doesn't care who wins. But she does very much care about staying alive, and that's her goal through this book. No nosy librarian, no boy-scout detective, Cass is pretty much purely self-interested. That's what I mean by modern noir. True dark protagonists don't have ethical motivations that won't let them rest. They can't rest because if they do, they could end up dead. Cass has a really interesting style of gathering information which takes advantage of her chamelion-like nature. Once she has a target, she just sort of fakes like she knows more than she does. Her target then gives information, assuming Cass already has it. Much more realistic than most mysteries, where just asking a question is enough to get an honest answer.
Elizabeth Hand has long had a fascination with the darker side of religion, especially per-Christian ones. That interest is a big part of the book, which deals with death metal related to Norse rock bands who take on pagan religion either as a stylistic trapping or as a true path to power.
And finally, there's a long-gone ex who comes back on the scene. He's dangerous, truly dangerous, there's no doubt. Cass says that she "honed her sense of damage" on him. Reading about their relationship, I could feel the ache in my heart that's never left, given to me by a guy who was bad for me, but who I couldn't bring myself to leave because of that feeling. Cass, however, has never asked herself what the healthy course of action might be, has never gotten to the point of kicking an addiction, so she has nothing holding her back.
So, lots going on in this book. A new take on noir with a really interesting main character who makes sense as a point of view from which to explore darkness. A meditation on art, on death, on loss, on leftover feelings. Damn, she's good.
I'm not sure anyone would want to visit the Iceland of Cass Neary's experience. For that matter, most of her world isn't exactly rainbows and fairies. The genius of this book is that it really updates noir and finds a true protagonist that fits into a dark world. Cass Neary is a washed-up photographer and drug addict. She's manipulative, dishonest, jaded, but her survival instincts have always managed to get her out of trouble so far. The detective-protagonist is kicked to the curb. Cass is a member of our underground, culturally, criminally on the edge.
Elizabeth Hand is a really visual, sensual writer. Cass is sent to evaluate a series of photos for authenticity, since her photography book of street addicts, published in the seventies before things went south for her, have garnered her sort of a cult following of those who like darkness in their art. The photos are by a Finnish photographer, so her somewhat mysterious employer sends her off to Finland. All the photos are of death. Cass never flinches from it, is appreciative of the beauty and artistry needed to record brutality. The author manages to paint a vivid picture that made me feel almost like I'd seen the photos myself. She captures the quality of light in the high North, the stark monochrome of Nordic architectural style. Although there's never a doubt that something really nasty is going on, Cass figures it's none of her business, and just focuses on artistic technique.
One thing follows another, and Cass ends up in the just post-economic crash Iceland. It's dark, it's grungy, it's full of people trying to figure out how to survive with all certainty gone. Cass has no problem making her way through this world because she's always been on the edge.
Because Cass is no hero- I'm not even sure she's an anti-hero- the author has to give her a motivation related either to self-preservation or fixation. Cass doesn't want to solve any mystery, doesn't care who wins. But she does very much care about staying alive, and that's her goal through this book. No nosy librarian, no boy-scout detective, Cass is pretty much purely self-interested. That's what I mean by modern noir. True dark protagonists don't have ethical motivations that won't let them rest. They can't rest because if they do, they could end up dead. Cass has a really interesting style of gathering information which takes advantage of her chamelion-like nature. Once she has a target, she just sort of fakes like she knows more than she does. Her target then gives information, assuming Cass already has it. Much more realistic than most mysteries, where just asking a question is enough to get an honest answer.
Elizabeth Hand has long had a fascination with the darker side of religion, especially per-Christian ones. That interest is a big part of the book, which deals with death metal related to Norse rock bands who take on pagan religion either as a stylistic trapping or as a true path to power.
And finally, there's a long-gone ex who comes back on the scene. He's dangerous, truly dangerous, there's no doubt. Cass says that she "honed her sense of damage" on him. Reading about their relationship, I could feel the ache in my heart that's never left, given to me by a guy who was bad for me, but who I couldn't bring myself to leave because of that feeling. Cass, however, has never asked herself what the healthy course of action might be, has never gotten to the point of kicking an addiction, so she has nothing holding her back.
So, lots going on in this book. A new take on noir with a really interesting main character who makes sense as a point of view from which to explore darkness. A meditation on art, on death, on loss, on leftover feelings. Damn, she's good.
March 24, 2015
Is there any metric less suited to evaluating books than a “star” rating? It’s one I rarely mess with at all, but when I do, I always find myself second-guessing however many little icons I have awarded. In this case, it’s because I find myself giving the same rating to both Available Dark and its predecessor, Generation Loss. Both get four stars—but for different reasons, and readers of one might not be as taken with the other. Because star ratings are meaningless. I shouldn’t even bother. Anyway, here’s my thinking on it:
What I loved most about about Generation Loss is also present in Available Dark, and it’s the overall cosmos presented. If you were to take HBO’s “True Detective” and remove the girl-in-the-refrigerator motivations, and the badass-men-fighting-evil mindset behind it, you might have something comparable to what Hand was does with her Cass Neary books—and does better. Though these aren’t supernatural stories, there is a dark, numinous, and—for lack of a better word—magical undercurrent throughout them. Cassandra’s artistic vision sets her apart from the society in which she lives, and her lifelong devotion to a dark aesthetic has damaged her—and made her a magnet for damage. As a photographer, she is a seer—a witness to the black magic of the decay, debauch, and death-spirals of modern subcultures. This essence is always connected to something older, something pagan, and something that is—in the context of our current age—insane.
Generation Loss explored this among the remains of a hippie-artist commune off the coast of Maine, a place still potent with acid-casualty heathenism. Available Dark takes her explorations overseas to Finland and Iceland, where the savagery of the fading ‘90s black metal scene, influenced by Scandinavian neo-paganism, has led to artistic endeavors that are as beautiful as they are horrifying.
As a black metal fan, it’s a treat to see the music portrayed with the sort of outlaw credibility and criminal-mindedness it had some twenty years ago. Hand gets most of it right, and what she misses isn’t enough to bother most readers. (A Mayhem song title is misstated, things like that.) Most of this is pretty first-level mythology familiar to anyone who has leafed though Lords of Chaos once or twice, and not substantial to the story of Available Dark—or maybe even the story of the music itself. Where Hand excels is in the sonic and conceptual appreciation of black metal that Cass experiences—its connection to something primal and dangerous. This dark magic is sanitized out of art as it becomes commerce, just as her own punk rock became pop with a studded wristband, just as ancient spirits became plastic Smurfs, and just as black metal iconography is now referenced in cartoons and pizza commercials.
Available Dark is not perfect, but what is? Some pieces of evidence are discovered much too easily, characters are more than forthcoming with expository dialogue, and events pile up in the book’s final act to provide a violent and convenient climax. These issues are more apparent in Available Dark than in Generation Loss. (Or maybe I was too spellbound to notice them my first time reading Hand’s crime material--not entirely a bad thing.) That being said, these are conventions of the genre’s structure. The way Hand imaginatively works within these conventions, like the twisted scene photographers and rock musicians who populate her novels, elevates them to another level.
Hand’s “crime novels” are always about uncovering the darkness of the past. While this is fundamental to any detective-type story, it’s also central to ghost stories and much of what we call horror fiction. The Cassandra Neary novels brilliantly play with this idea in multiple ways. Fans of Generation Loss will find much to love in Available Dark. I would recommend reading the first before the second because they’re both worth it, and you’ll get more out each if you do.
What I loved most about about Generation Loss is also present in Available Dark, and it’s the overall cosmos presented. If you were to take HBO’s “True Detective” and remove the girl-in-the-refrigerator motivations, and the badass-men-fighting-evil mindset behind it, you might have something comparable to what Hand was does with her Cass Neary books—and does better. Though these aren’t supernatural stories, there is a dark, numinous, and—for lack of a better word—magical undercurrent throughout them. Cassandra’s artistic vision sets her apart from the society in which she lives, and her lifelong devotion to a dark aesthetic has damaged her—and made her a magnet for damage. As a photographer, she is a seer—a witness to the black magic of the decay, debauch, and death-spirals of modern subcultures. This essence is always connected to something older, something pagan, and something that is—in the context of our current age—insane.
Generation Loss explored this among the remains of a hippie-artist commune off the coast of Maine, a place still potent with acid-casualty heathenism. Available Dark takes her explorations overseas to Finland and Iceland, where the savagery of the fading ‘90s black metal scene, influenced by Scandinavian neo-paganism, has led to artistic endeavors that are as beautiful as they are horrifying.
As a black metal fan, it’s a treat to see the music portrayed with the sort of outlaw credibility and criminal-mindedness it had some twenty years ago. Hand gets most of it right, and what she misses isn’t enough to bother most readers. (A Mayhem song title is misstated, things like that.) Most of this is pretty first-level mythology familiar to anyone who has leafed though Lords of Chaos once or twice, and not substantial to the story of Available Dark—or maybe even the story of the music itself. Where Hand excels is in the sonic and conceptual appreciation of black metal that Cass experiences—its connection to something primal and dangerous. This dark magic is sanitized out of art as it becomes commerce, just as her own punk rock became pop with a studded wristband, just as ancient spirits became plastic Smurfs, and just as black metal iconography is now referenced in cartoons and pizza commercials.
Available Dark is not perfect, but what is? Some pieces of evidence are discovered much too easily, characters are more than forthcoming with expository dialogue, and events pile up in the book’s final act to provide a violent and convenient climax. These issues are more apparent in Available Dark than in Generation Loss. (Or maybe I was too spellbound to notice them my first time reading Hand’s crime material--not entirely a bad thing.) That being said, these are conventions of the genre’s structure. The way Hand imaginatively works within these conventions, like the twisted scene photographers and rock musicians who populate her novels, elevates them to another level.
Hand’s “crime novels” are always about uncovering the darkness of the past. While this is fundamental to any detective-type story, it’s also central to ghost stories and much of what we call horror fiction. The Cassandra Neary novels brilliantly play with this idea in multiple ways. Fans of Generation Loss will find much to love in Available Dark. I would recommend reading the first before the second because they’re both worth it, and you’ll get more out each if you do.
April 6, 2014
I’ve always said I don’t really like mysteries. Thinking about it recently, I’ve realized this is not true. I don’t like predictable mysteries. A well-plotted mystery, especially when written by a writer I’ve loved for years, will get my attention.
Available Dark is the sequel to Generation Loss, Hand’s excellent novel that introduced photographer, junkie, and aging punk rocker Cassandra Neary. In that first book, Neary was left with a new scar and police wanting to ask her about an unexplained death. Now, we open with Neary’s strong desire to get out of New York and avoid legal scrutiny for as long as possible. She has a reputation for ingesting drugs and alcohol in stunning amounts, but she’s also known for having an eye for transgressive art. When offered a job vetting some unusual photographs in Finland, she takes it, then heads to Iceland to see if she can reconnect with an old friend. That’s when the bodies begin to show up, all with a possible connection to the local underground music scene. Time for Neary to think fast in order to stay ahead, often with pharmaceutical help.
Although Available Dark uses the basic mystery plot device (there have been murders, who’s the killer?), this is not your standard mystery story. Hand’s prose is sharp, and her gift for description shines, as seen in these lines about Iceland’s beautiful but intimidating scenery:
I’d always assumed agoraphobics simply felt unnaturally attached to their cramped rooms, but now I realized what it must be like to sense the sky waiting outside the door, ready to crush you like a monstrous fist.
Naturally, the Scandinavian setting has drawn comparisons to Steig Larsson, but I saw no resemblance. Themes of outsiders and hostile terrain are not unusual to Hand; she utilized it in the Glimmering, with its scenes of the post-apocalypse United States, and in Waking the Moon, which explored the origins of an ancient religion, and a similar theme is seen in Available Dark. Think Scandinavia is Santa Claus, elves, and reindeer? The original versions that were sanitized by the 20th century are somewhat less cuddly.
When it comes to protagonists, Larsson’s Lisbeth Salander always struck this aging punk/goth chick as the middle aged man’s fantasy of why a woman would “dress like that.” By contrast, I found Cassandra Neary’s appearance to ring quite true (unsurprising, since Hand was at ground zero in the 1970s New York punk scene). It’s clear that Hand knows and loves the music involved. She also knows photography, including some fascinating facts about photo development that never occurred to this photographer’s wife to ask. But best of all, Hand doesn’t explain or tell you these things. She shows you, and you get it. I love authors that show instead of tell.
Available Dark is the sequel to Generation Loss, Hand’s excellent novel that introduced photographer, junkie, and aging punk rocker Cassandra Neary. In that first book, Neary was left with a new scar and police wanting to ask her about an unexplained death. Now, we open with Neary’s strong desire to get out of New York and avoid legal scrutiny for as long as possible. She has a reputation for ingesting drugs and alcohol in stunning amounts, but she’s also known for having an eye for transgressive art. When offered a job vetting some unusual photographs in Finland, she takes it, then heads to Iceland to see if she can reconnect with an old friend. That’s when the bodies begin to show up, all with a possible connection to the local underground music scene. Time for Neary to think fast in order to stay ahead, often with pharmaceutical help.
Although Available Dark uses the basic mystery plot device (there have been murders, who’s the killer?), this is not your standard mystery story. Hand’s prose is sharp, and her gift for description shines, as seen in these lines about Iceland’s beautiful but intimidating scenery:
I’d always assumed agoraphobics simply felt unnaturally attached to their cramped rooms, but now I realized what it must be like to sense the sky waiting outside the door, ready to crush you like a monstrous fist.
Naturally, the Scandinavian setting has drawn comparisons to Steig Larsson, but I saw no resemblance. Themes of outsiders and hostile terrain are not unusual to Hand; she utilized it in the Glimmering, with its scenes of the post-apocalypse United States, and in Waking the Moon, which explored the origins of an ancient religion, and a similar theme is seen in Available Dark. Think Scandinavia is Santa Claus, elves, and reindeer? The original versions that were sanitized by the 20th century are somewhat less cuddly.
When it comes to protagonists, Larsson’s Lisbeth Salander always struck this aging punk/goth chick as the middle aged man’s fantasy of why a woman would “dress like that.” By contrast, I found Cassandra Neary’s appearance to ring quite true (unsurprising, since Hand was at ground zero in the 1970s New York punk scene). It’s clear that Hand knows and loves the music involved. She also knows photography, including some fascinating facts about photo development that never occurred to this photographer’s wife to ask. But best of all, Hand doesn’t explain or tell you these things. She shows you, and you get it. I love authors that show instead of tell.
May 4, 2012
I like books about people I like. (I recognize the challenge of making readers root for the unlikeable.) I dislike crime novels. And I love Elizabeth Hand's characters, storytelling, language. When Generation Loss introduced the world to has-been Dead Girls photographer Cass Neary a handful of years ago, I listened to the eerie recording Hand had made of the first chapter in Scary Neary's own voice, preordered the book from the estimable Small Beer Press, and promptly put off reading it. For a year.
Here's the thing. Liz Hand has been one of my favorite writers since my friend Heather told me I couldn't go another day without reading Waking the Moon. I had just turned eighteen and was about to head off to college. I devoured her other books, even the out-of-print titles that took ages to track down, and consider "Chip Crockett's Christmas Carol" one of my favorite short stories ever. Mortal Love is the perfect meditation on creativity and love and madness, Bibliomancy a treasure. Hand's prose is lush in the way of jungle foliage: beautiful, intense, sometimes uncomfortable and overwhelming. I still return to Waking the Moon, to Sweeney and Oliver (oh, Oliver) and the city on a regular basis, Nick Drake and Roky Erickson my soundtrack.
I wouldn't want to run into Cass on the street — I don't think she'd have much time for me. But I can't help but feel a grudging respect for her, because for all my fear she won me over, and now, in her second tale, she heads to Finland, to Iceland, to those cold climes that feel like homes we haven't yet returned to, especially at this time of year, when the chill never quite leaves the damp air blanketing us and we (well, I) wonder again why New Zealanders just don't get insulation. It's visceral and terrifying and unexpectedly beautiful, full of black humor and metal, a world that's easy to imagine so long as we leave ourselves out of it — and what a privilege it is to catch a glimpse of darkness and goodness tangled in an embrace so artful that the violence becomes secondary to the vision. I guess I'm trying to say that hell has frozen over (except for the volcanoes disrupting air traffic), and I loved this crime novel.
Here's the thing. Liz Hand has been one of my favorite writers since my friend Heather told me I couldn't go another day without reading Waking the Moon. I had just turned eighteen and was about to head off to college. I devoured her other books, even the out-of-print titles that took ages to track down, and consider "Chip Crockett's Christmas Carol" one of my favorite short stories ever. Mortal Love is the perfect meditation on creativity and love and madness, Bibliomancy a treasure. Hand's prose is lush in the way of jungle foliage: beautiful, intense, sometimes uncomfortable and overwhelming. I still return to Waking the Moon, to Sweeney and Oliver (oh, Oliver) and the city on a regular basis, Nick Drake and Roky Erickson my soundtrack.
I wouldn't want to run into Cass on the street — I don't think she'd have much time for me. But I can't help but feel a grudging respect for her, because for all my fear she won me over, and now, in her second tale, she heads to Finland, to Iceland, to those cold climes that feel like homes we haven't yet returned to, especially at this time of year, when the chill never quite leaves the damp air blanketing us and we (well, I) wonder again why New Zealanders just don't get insulation. It's visceral and terrifying and unexpectedly beautiful, full of black humor and metal, a world that's easy to imagine so long as we leave ourselves out of it — and what a privilege it is to catch a glimpse of darkness and goodness tangled in an embrace so artful that the violence becomes secondary to the vision. I guess I'm trying to say that hell has frozen over (except for the volcanoes disrupting air traffic), and I loved this crime novel.
April 17, 2012
Perhaps one of the best "Scandinavian" mysteries/crime pieces I've read since "The Inspector and Silence" by Hakan Nesser and "The Snowman" by Jo Nesbo. (Those may have been the last two I read; or, rather, the last two I could finish. I try to read more of those than ever get reported on this site.)
The only difference this title brings is that it is a true "crime" novel, rather than a "mystery." The protagonist is a photographer with a talent that has almost left her, and a woman desperate for a high of any kind. I enjoyed the hallucinatory quality of the description of this character on drugs and alcohol (the book in these scenes is more like "A Sheltering Sky" than "Naked Lunch).
Cassandra (the character) becomes the perfect narrator to describe Iceland, especially its flat, featureless inland, which she sees for the first time on crank. The author is able to portray what Cass is experiencing, while having her describe clearly what she sees. Perhaps that would be impossible in real life, but maybe not?
My enjoyment of this book was truly enriched by the fact that I read A.S. Byatt's "Ragnarok" this year. I understood all of the Nordic god references, something I would have had trouble doing last year. Be sure you, as a reader, know your gods before sallying forth into this one.
Note: not for the faint of heart.
The only difference this title brings is that it is a true "crime" novel, rather than a "mystery." The protagonist is a photographer with a talent that has almost left her, and a woman desperate for a high of any kind. I enjoyed the hallucinatory quality of the description of this character on drugs and alcohol (the book in these scenes is more like "A Sheltering Sky" than "Naked Lunch).
Cassandra (the character) becomes the perfect narrator to describe Iceland, especially its flat, featureless inland, which she sees for the first time on crank. The author is able to portray what Cass is experiencing, while having her describe clearly what she sees. Perhaps that would be impossible in real life, but maybe not?
My enjoyment of this book was truly enriched by the fact that I read A.S. Byatt's "Ragnarok" this year. I understood all of the Nordic god references, something I would have had trouble doing last year. Be sure you, as a reader, know your gods before sallying forth into this one.
Note: not for the faint of heart.
April 7, 2014
Thoroughly refreshing read which breaks down to a crime novel, but it would be very wrong to call it that. It fits the 'noir' genre better due chiefly to the nature of the photography that the chief character involves herself in. Cass photographs the dead herself and collects the work of others.
The authoress manages to make almost everything about the book dark - even the title. Reykjavik has never appeared such a desolate place; certainly not in my visits or in the work of other writers.
Which characters should we trust? All seem devoid of any sympathy.
This is a very special 'crime' novel and extremely different. The reader should not be surprised therefore by the end, but I was. Credit once more to Hand.
I was also surprised to see this is the second book in a series. It certainly can stand alone, and actually having read the first may spoil something of the experience here. I will seek out Generation Loss, but I am not particularly keen on more Cass Neary. I fear more would dilute this innovative tale, and I'm keen to see what else Hand can produce.
The authoress manages to make almost everything about the book dark - even the title. Reykjavik has never appeared such a desolate place; certainly not in my visits or in the work of other writers.
Which characters should we trust? All seem devoid of any sympathy.
This is a very special 'crime' novel and extremely different. The reader should not be surprised therefore by the end, but I was. Credit once more to Hand.
I was also surprised to see this is the second book in a series. It certainly can stand alone, and actually having read the first may spoil something of the experience here. I will seek out Generation Loss, but I am not particularly keen on more Cass Neary. I fear more would dilute this innovative tale, and I'm keen to see what else Hand can produce.
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