2017 book 206

Elizabeth Hand's Waking the Moon
This was a weird moment to read this particular book, because a large part of my brain was yelling "BURN IT ALL DOWN!" and almost cheering on the character trying to resurrect the moon goddess and her matriarchal, sacrificial murder cults, despite the, y'know, murders. But to back up for a second: I like Elizabeth Hand a lot, though I do find some of her books to be a bit unsettling, and this was definitely one of those times. The action starts at a mysterious college in DC in the 1970s, where warring religious secret societies enter the lives of some first-years. The protagonist is your usual girl who feels out of place and doesn't really know what's going on and is consumed by feelings for various beautiful people, and then things go very awry and her story picks up almost twenty years later. I did like this book but thinking about it too much makes my head hurt, and I am not gonna get into the inappropriate yet mystical romances. It is VERY atmospheric though. A-.