Waking the Moon

Leaving her protective parents to go away to college, Sweeney Cassidy goes wild. She skips classes, stays out all night, and basically spends her first semester constantly drunk. Into this haze come the ethereal Oliver and the seductive Angelica, who become her best friends, and with both of whom Sweeney falls in love. The only trouble is, the school is controlled by an Illuminati-esque secret society; Angelica is a chosen avatar of a vengeful goddess; and Oliver is marked as her first sacrifice. This situation plays out tragically, and a shaken Sweeney transfers to another school, where she gets her degree and settles into "normal" life. Then, eighteen years later, her college ghosts come back to haunt her, as old friends come out of the woodwork, and Angelica prepares for the final denouement with the secret society. Sweeney is suddenly back in the mysterious world she glimpsed as a teenager. Mixed in with this hypnotically written story is a political battle between the Matriarchy (represented by Angelica) and the Patriarchy (the secret society); between the Goddess and the world that has ignored her for millennia. One of the best touches of Hand's book is that she doesn't really take sides, except maybe to hint that the fault of both philosophies is the extremes they go to. Even when Sweeney makes her decision at the end, she makes it for personal reasons and not because she agrees with either side. This was the book that got me investigating Goddess mythology several years ago, and it's also a fever-dream of a story, with a sympathetic heroine and a unique style. I've read it a gazillion times.

All things considered, this was one of the best books I have ever read. Sure, the writing was awkward at points, and the narrative could be confusing, but the plot, the imagery, the characters and the obviously extensive research more than made up for any shortcomings. Waking the Moon tells of Sweeney Cassidy, a college student caught up in a battle between a patriarchal order of scholar/magicians and a reawakened Indo-European goddess. When Sweeney's best friend unwittingly inheirits an artifact of the goddess's original cult and becomes possessed by the ancient deity, Sweeney spends the next twenty years protecting those she loves and, in the end, all of humanity, from the goddess's power. Anyone interested in archeology, feminism, fantasy or simply a good read should definitely pick up this book!

I found this novel to be everything a novel should be-- entertaining. OK, so it's not exactly the highest standard, but when you come right down to it that's what I found _Waking the Moon_ to be. Sure, it was full of rich imagery, and descriptions of the fantastic that made you think you were seeing the actual events take place. Plus, Sweeney is a great protagonist. But all in all, the book was just a great experience. However, anyone who approaches it looking for a ghost story, or a horror novel, or fantasy, is going to be sorely disappointed. The book does not fit firmly into any genre, but stradles them all. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a "novel" read.

Ditto to almost everything written heretofore. Add to that prose of great facility and voluptuousness. Language that in a controlled and wonderful way suggests the very best of Jack Vance and Clark Ashton Smith, with exactly the right words to describe precisely what is occuring in the scene. The scenes become tangible, livable entities, increasing the horror and the delight.

Convincing characters, original use of old horror themes, sharp social commentary and the smooth integration of research makes Elizabeth Hand's "Waking the Moon" a novel worth any reader's time. Hand makes the characters practically live and breathe on the page; readers will relate to main character Sweeney's longing for the "Beautiful Ones," and cheer on her unlikely May-December romance with Dylan. Hand avoids making anyone in the novel the "bad guy," as so many horror novels do. Even as the reader is terrified of Angelica, they can empathize with her sadness over killing those she loves. Also, Hand rises above the cliched horror plot of friends reunited to confront an evil from their past, by making each friend unique. The novel enthralls as well as educates the reader. It's well-researched, and Hand skillfully mixes this information in along with the plot. Lastly, with Angelica's cult, Hand comments on today's society and women's role in it, and takes today's "goddess" movements one horrifying step further. A wonderful novel in every way