Waking the Moon

Oh boy the nineties were wild. This is a simmering stew of college days, archaeological exploration, pagan mysteries, secret societies, sinister modern empowerment cults, human sacrifice, divine avatars, sex, drugs and folk-rock and roll. It's wild and weird and evocative, post feminist in the sense that the threat is the return of an ancient moon-goddess, but handled in a way that is not remotely misogynist. And this was all mixed up in 1995? Can't believe I missed it. WONDERFULLY read.

quite a tour de force, this book, centered around an epic collision in the presentday of patriarchal and matriarchal culture. really a lot of fine research behind it on goddess lore, and it all gets put to good use in this horror story built on anthropology, secret societies, and pre-classical mythology, especially centered on Crete.

I can take fantasy once in a while and I like my novels lush sometimes, too. The occasional Anne Rice goes down well, but as much as I like some of Hand’s other work, this was too much. Way overblown, histrionic, hyperbolic and festooned with just too much language. It felt choked; as if it were strangling on itself and struggling to tell the story. Way to hit me over the head with the feminist message, too. Patriarchy=bad, ok already. The set-up was interesting enough; the religiously-bent liberal arts college, the “chosen ones” (Angelica and Oliver), the “norms” (Annie, Sweeney and Baby Joe), the sinister secret society, it was pretty good. Then it just went over the top. Like those blue hydrangeas that people festoon their show more gardens with. A little goes a long way. To get through it I skipped a lot. All the chanting, goddesses, prayers, rituals, arcane lineages, sex scenes, turmoil and sacrifices. Enough!! It wasn’t hard to see how things would ultimately end, but prolonging the showdown did nothing for the story. Oy. I have the sequel, but it will be a long time before I read it. If ever. show less

An interesting premise with lots of potential, but outdated in its clunky writing style: a covered-wagonful of telling-not-showing and detracting details for the sake of hyperrealism. The mystical element was interesting but bordered on cheap cinematics. But this was okay for me basically up until the MC meets her two "amazing" and "wonderful" and "smart" and "beautiful" and "mysteeeeerious" friends in class, who give off a Twilight series-esque sense of too-perfect-to-be-real-ness. It was shortly after this point that I stopped, when I realized that I was probably not the intended audience for this tale.

(D'ya like all the words and phrases I made up in this review?)

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1956219.html

This is a tremendous novel, ancient pagan mysteries linked with dubious academics and sinister conspiracies, all based around a fictional sinister Catholic university in Washington DC; not so very different from the plot elements of Dan Brown's novels, only much better written and much more interesting. Some brilliant scenes of simmering sexuality and emotional confusion; a satisfactory amount of drawing from genuine mythology, with extra lore invented by the author which plugs in rather neatly. I'm surprised that it is not better known, it feels like a taproot text for much of the recent wave of urban fantasies.

Mostly I really enjoyed the things that I suspect contributed to this winning the James Tiptree, Jr. Award. The goddess cult is more along the lines of Kali the Destroyer than Aphrodite. Key to the cults are sacrifices, usually of men. The book is not for the squeamish. The women are not bloodthirsty, but along stereotypical lines of Basic Instinct or Fatal Attraction. They are not just shrill, crazy harpies, but intelligent driven characters with purpose. The whole sense of impending collision between the Benandanti and the Moon Goddess is chilling.

But there are some drawbacks too, mostly in writing style rather than thematic substance. The book is far too long at 497 pages, particularly given that I knew exactly where it was going show more early on. Hand includes lengthy descriptions of everything that happens. A fight with a bull takes two plus pages, when it could have been a couple of paragraphs.

Full review: http://reading.kingrat.biz/reviews/waking-the-moon-elizabeth-hand show less

Waking the Moon is an incredibly engaging read. It is filled to the brim with Gothery and myth and mystery. I am a very big fan of dark and creepy novels, and it has been a long time since I have found anything as worthy of my reading time as this book.

The story centers on Katherine Sweeney Cassidy, who moves to DC to attend the University of the Archangels and St. John the Divine. In the midst of what you would consider her normal college experiences, such as falling in love with her two best friends and drinking and experimenting with various substances, she comes across a secret organization called the Benandanti, who secretly control everything in our world. After Katherine’s best friend Angelica receives a necklace from a former show more Benandanti member, we begin to see what it is the Benandanti are so afraid of.

I completely devoured this book. I found it to be very well written, and those dark angels and mind bending hallucination scenes really took me for a ride. I will certainly be recommending this book to everyone. So, why did I only give it 4 stars?

Possible Spoilers Ahead:
Honestly, I found myself slightly let down when it came to what I felt was the point of the novel. So women have been abused, used, raped, and treated as the lesser sex for ages. You bring up the possibility of a Goddess who wants to take her world back and smash this patriarchal system that has been in place. And let me tell you, I was excited and loving it. I didn’t think it would end with the Goddess taking complete control, because we were shown the problems arising from that situation, but I felt that something in the world would change at the end of this story. And how was it wrapped up? Well, let me just say, it wasn’t. It all stayed the same. Why couldn’t we find a middle ground between the evil matriarchy and evil patriarchy? In the end it totally felt like we were left with this idea that OMG females are scary and bad and no way should we give them any kind of power. Not cool. Not cool at all.

"I'll love you next time. I promise" show less