Book 29 – Generation Loss
I can’t begin to describe how much I enjoyed this book! It’s an unconventional mystery novel that tells the story of Cassandra Neary, a gritty, middle-aged, single woman who is decidedly unapologetic about her addiction to drugs and alcohol and lack of any kind of normal life. She does, however, regret failing to capitalize on a potentially successful career as photographer.
Elizabeth Hand writes this novel using a first-person perspective, which is an interesting choice given how unsympathetic a character her protagonist is. Cass does some questionable things (to understate things a tad), but often doesn’t choose to explain her actions. When she hides a set of keys from one character for no apparent reason, we never really get to understand why she does it.
Just like Gillian Flynn, Hand seems to have incredible insight into the minds of damaged and dysfunctional people. Cass is morally reprehensible, but I liked her, and most of the time I was rooting for her, hoping she would find a way out of her darkness.
Rating: Borrow it, it’s definitely worth reading.
