The Book of Lamps and Banners by Elizabeth Hand

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Cass Neary #4 was worth the wait! In the first 50 pages it hit all my buttons for “ancient occult book thriller” and didn’t let up on the thriller for a moment. I was surprised by the challenges and unexpected changes of location Cass experienced along the way, which made for a really exciting and fresh read. I was not surprised that Cass was hitting bottom in this book, and I was rooting for her the whole time, not only to find the book but to decide to take care of instead of destroy herself. Hand uses the titular book to both introduce the is it/isn’t it supernatural element of the story and to dig out Cass’s trauma and force her to confront it and the ruin it’s wrought over decades of her life. The ending perfectly straddles that line between confronting the harsh reality of the present and being hopeful about the future.



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