Black Light is the book Elizabeth Hand's growing legions of fans have been awaiting--her most mature, most gripping, and most deeply arousing novel to date.

Like her friends in upstate Kamensic, Charlotte, "Lit", Moylan is a child of privilege. Blessed with a famous father (Uncle Cosmo on "Tales of the Bar Sinister") and a notorious mother (soap queen Livia Prentiss), Lit is ready to enjoy one last, wild fling before college and adulthood.

She is far from alone. In fact, the whole town is ready to party. Alex Kern is coming back to Kamensic. The legendary film director, who made his way to Hollywood via Warhol's "black light" scene, is going to reopen his fabulous mansion, Bolerium, for a party. But not just any party. The Halloween party of the decade.of the century.

The whole town is invited, young and old, famous and obscure. Lit, who is Kern's goddaughter, will be there for sure. So will her best friends, Ali and Hillary. Plus the new kid in town, Jamie, with his mysterious father and troubled smile.

But other, more disturbing guests are arriving daily. They are seen at the edges of the forest, at the margins of the night: a great stag, extinct for two millennia; a horned man robed in blood; a forgotten god, lusting to tell a young girl what she desperately wants to hear. For Kern's connections extend far beyond Hollywood, beyond even the modern age.and in Bolerium's echoing halls a fearsome confrontation is gathering, between the ancient powers of the Malandanti and the immortals sworn to stop them at any cost, no matter what the sacrifice.

Even Youth. And certainly Innocence.

In this haunting story of a young woman trembling on the brink of adulthood, Elizabeth Hand has captured, as no writer has since J. D. Salinger, the stark terror and ineffable promise of youth's first sunset, and final dawn.