Approx length: Four novels of around 200-250 pages.
Where to find it: Anywhere that books are sold. They're on ebook and hard copy.
What is it, in summary?: Four noir mystery/suspense novels with elements of horror/dark fantasy. In the 1970s, Cass Neary was a photographer for the punk scene, specializing in the grittiest and darkest subjects imaginable. Now she's a drug addict and alcoholic with the morals of a raccoon, an eye for composition, and a tendency to get enmeshed in lurid crimes and weirdness that might or might not be supernatural. Sometimes she rescues people, but don't count on it.
What do you love about it?: The writing is gorgeous, the books often involve very cool settings and Maguffins (an app that gives you PTSD, a prehistoric ornament that might be a precursor to moving pictures, etc), and Cass is an unforgettable, unsentimentalized antiheroine.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: I'm going to request a focus on the horror/dark fantasy elements of canon.
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?: For my request, you could skip the first and last books, and just read Available Dark and Hard Light
Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence): What doesn't this series involve? Cass was raped in the past and it was a life-shattering event which comes up repeatedly. She's an active alcoholic and drug addict. There's lots of murder and violence, and some depiction/discussion of racism, sexism, Nazism, etc.
The Cass Neary series by Elizabeth Hand
Media: Books.
Approx length: Four novels of around 200-250 pages.
Where to find it: Anywhere that books are sold. They're on ebook and hard copy.
What is it, in summary?: Four noir mystery/suspense novels with elements of horror/dark fantasy. In the 1970s, Cass Neary was a photographer for the punk scene, specializing in the grittiest and darkest subjects imaginable. Now she's a drug addict and alcoholic with the morals of a raccoon, an eye for composition, and a tendency to get enmeshed in lurid crimes and weirdness that might or might not be supernatural. Sometimes she rescues people, but don't count on it.
What do you love about it?: The writing is gorgeous, the books often involve very cool settings and Maguffins (an app that gives you PTSD, a prehistoric ornament that might be a precursor to moving pictures, etc), and Cass is an unforgettable, unsentimentalized antiheroine.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: I'm going to request a focus on the horror/dark fantasy elements of canon.
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?: For my request, you could skip the first and last books, and just read Available Dark and Hard Light
Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence): What doesn't this series involve? Cass was raped in the past and it was a life-shattering event which comes up repeatedly. She's an active alcoholic and drug addict. There's lots of murder and violence, and some depiction/discussion of racism, sexism, Nazism, etc.