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Diabolist's Library #2
Creatures of Want and Ruin
Amityville baywoman Ellie West fishes by day and bootlegs moonshine by night. It's dangerous work under Prohibition--independent operators like her are despised by federal agents and mobsters alike--but Ellie's brother was accepted to college and Ellie's desperate to see him go. So desperate that when wealthy strangers ask her to procure libations for an extravagant party, Ellie sells them everything she has, including some booze she acquired under unusual circumstances.
What Ellie doesn't know is that this booze is special. Distilled from foul mushrooms by a cult of diabolists, those who drink it see terrible things--like the destruction of Long Island in fire and flood. The cult is masquerading as a church promising salvation through temperance and a return to "the good old days," so it's hard for Ellie to take a stand against them, especially when her father joins - but Ellie loves Long Island, and she loves her family, and she'll do whatever it takes to ensure neither is torn apart.
What Ellie doesn't know is that this booze is special. Distilled from foul mushrooms by a cult of diabolists, those who drink it see terrible things--like the destruction of Long Island in fire and flood. The cult is masquerading as a church promising salvation through temperance and a return to "the good old days," so it's hard for Ellie to take a stand against them, especially when her father joins - but Ellie loves Long Island, and she loves her family, and she'll do whatever it takes to ensure neither is torn apart.
352 pages, Paperback
First published November 13, 2018
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September 22, 2022
I am on a bit of a Molly Tanzer roll this year, after devouring her earlier work that pastiches 18th century literature so wonderfully. Her “Diabolist’s Library” (*see note at the end of the review) series had started a bit rough with me, though: “Creatures of Will and Temper” had felt a bit rushed to me, but after enjoying “Creatures of Want and Ruin” as much as I did, I now wonder if I judged it too harshly and I’m considering revisiting it!
Set in Long Island during the Prohibition Era, this book has all the things I love about Molly Tanzer’s fiction: well-defined and unique female leads, some sexy times, some realistic and often frustrating human interactions and of course, some cosmic horror elements that creep and crawl all over!
Ellie West helps support her family by selling bootleg liquor to the Amityville citizens who enjoy such libations. It’s a risky job, but her family needs the money to send her brother Lester to medical school – and so she can save up for her wedding to Gabriel, a local carpenter and amateur of pulp fiction magazines. Fin Coulthead is a young woman from Philadelphia, vacationing on the island with her husband Jimmy and his posse of freeloading friends – she prefers the company of books and her archery equipment to their partying, and they also seem to prefer it when she is out of the way. Ellie and Fin’s paths cross after Ellie acquires some unusual liquor and sells it to the Coulthead for a big party they are throwing; sure, there is always a risk in drinking moonshine, but the party-goers who imbibed from Ellie’s weird bottles experience vivid hallucinations that Fin believes to have been visions of the future. A future where some… thing destroys Long Island. The scandal of this party gone awry is fuel for the sermons of a certain Reverend Hunter, who preaches temperance and a return to the good old days when Long Island belonged to those who were from there (i.e. not immigrants or anyone with a darker shade of skin). Ellie soon realizes that the strange liquor and stranger preacher may be linked, and that she may have to take drastic steps to save her home and her family.
Where I had had a hard time connecting to Dorina and Evadne in “Creatures of Will and Temper”, I took to Ellie and Fin almost instantly. Both of them are strong-willed, know their own minds and feel trapped in their respective settings. They also feel like no one understand who they are, that people make assumptions on them based on their clothes or status, but there is more to both of them than meets the eye. I loved Ellie and Gabriel’s relationship, which is honest, tender and sexy, and there too, I felt something very familiar in Ellie’s sense of independence that comes across as remoteness. Fin’s character is also cleverly drawn, especially in how she feels out of step with the crowd her husband prefers to spend time with; her husband took to being newly wealthy like a fish to water, but Fin did not let the money change her, and neither he nor his idiotic friends can understand that.
One of the things that really struck me with this story is that an easy parallel between the people who follow Hunter’s very obviously deluded and bigoted cult do it because they suddenly feel free to voice thoughts they had kept from their friends and loved ones for a long time. Ellie herself thinks, at some point, of some of the things her father had said which had made her raise an eyebrow but that she had ignored to preserve the peace. My heart honestly tightened reading that, because this book was published in 2018, and therefore, written before the MAGA and QAnon insanity really took off, but what Tanzer describes is essentially the same phenomenon, and her prescience freaks me out a little bit (or she just really gets the conservative demagogues’ social manipulation pattern). Another annoyingly prescient element is Fin’s past as a birth-control activist… But big kudos to Tanzer for mentioning period-accurate contraceptive devices and reminding her readers that sex is fun, but one needs to think about its consequences!
The only thing that really fault this book with is a certain abruptness in pace in the second half of the book. We spent a lot of time discovering the setting and the characters, and suddenly, it’s all action all the time. I feel like Tanzer could have taken her time a bit more ramping the reader up towards the more climactic elements.
Tanzer really has a gift for storytelling, and even if I preferred “The Pleasure Merchant”, this was a great addition to my library; definitely worth checking out if you like fantasy historical fiction with something intelligent to say, and weird tales that involve demons and sentient mushrooms. I will be trying to get my hands on “Creatures of Charm and Hunger” very soon!
*Just to clarify, while the “Diabolist’ Library” is a series, the novels are not sequels! You do not need to read them in publishing order to enjoy them, and as far as I can tell, the stories do not seem to be interconnected, they just take place in the same fictional universe.
Set in Long Island during the Prohibition Era, this book has all the things I love about Molly Tanzer’s fiction: well-defined and unique female leads, some sexy times, some realistic and often frustrating human interactions and of course, some cosmic horror elements that creep and crawl all over!
Ellie West helps support her family by selling bootleg liquor to the Amityville citizens who enjoy such libations. It’s a risky job, but her family needs the money to send her brother Lester to medical school – and so she can save up for her wedding to Gabriel, a local carpenter and amateur of pulp fiction magazines. Fin Coulthead is a young woman from Philadelphia, vacationing on the island with her husband Jimmy and his posse of freeloading friends – she prefers the company of books and her archery equipment to their partying, and they also seem to prefer it when she is out of the way. Ellie and Fin’s paths cross after Ellie acquires some unusual liquor and sells it to the Coulthead for a big party they are throwing; sure, there is always a risk in drinking moonshine, but the party-goers who imbibed from Ellie’s weird bottles experience vivid hallucinations that Fin believes to have been visions of the future. A future where some… thing destroys Long Island. The scandal of this party gone awry is fuel for the sermons of a certain Reverend Hunter, who preaches temperance and a return to the good old days when Long Island belonged to those who were from there (i.e. not immigrants or anyone with a darker shade of skin). Ellie soon realizes that the strange liquor and stranger preacher may be linked, and that she may have to take drastic steps to save her home and her family.
Where I had had a hard time connecting to Dorina and Evadne in “Creatures of Will and Temper”, I took to Ellie and Fin almost instantly. Both of them are strong-willed, know their own minds and feel trapped in their respective settings. They also feel like no one understand who they are, that people make assumptions on them based on their clothes or status, but there is more to both of them than meets the eye. I loved Ellie and Gabriel’s relationship, which is honest, tender and sexy, and there too, I felt something very familiar in Ellie’s sense of independence that comes across as remoteness. Fin’s character is also cleverly drawn, especially in how she feels out of step with the crowd her husband prefers to spend time with; her husband took to being newly wealthy like a fish to water, but Fin did not let the money change her, and neither he nor his idiotic friends can understand that.
One of the things that really struck me with this story is that an easy parallel between the people who follow Hunter’s very obviously deluded and bigoted cult do it because they suddenly feel free to voice thoughts they had kept from their friends and loved ones for a long time. Ellie herself thinks, at some point, of some of the things her father had said which had made her raise an eyebrow but that she had ignored to preserve the peace. My heart honestly tightened reading that, because this book was published in 2018, and therefore, written before the MAGA and QAnon insanity really took off, but what Tanzer describes is essentially the same phenomenon, and her prescience freaks me out a little bit (or she just really gets the conservative demagogues’ social manipulation pattern). Another annoyingly prescient element is Fin’s past as a birth-control activist… But big kudos to Tanzer for mentioning period-accurate contraceptive devices and reminding her readers that sex is fun, but one needs to think about its consequences!
The only thing that really fault this book with is a certain abruptness in pace in the second half of the book. We spent a lot of time discovering the setting and the characters, and suddenly, it’s all action all the time. I feel like Tanzer could have taken her time a bit more ramping the reader up towards the more climactic elements.
Tanzer really has a gift for storytelling, and even if I preferred “The Pleasure Merchant”, this was a great addition to my library; definitely worth checking out if you like fantasy historical fiction with something intelligent to say, and weird tales that involve demons and sentient mushrooms. I will be trying to get my hands on “Creatures of Charm and Hunger” very soon!
*Just to clarify, while the “Diabolist’ Library” is a series, the novels are not sequels! You do not need to read them in publishing order to enjoy them, and as far as I can tell, the stories do not seem to be interconnected, they just take place in the same fictional universe.
February 4, 2019
3.5 stars rounded up for Goodreads
This is my very first reading experience with Molly Tanzer. Ashley and I picked this book out as a read along for our curated horror book club, Night Worms. It came highly recommended to us by some authors who write urban/dark fantasy/horror: Alan Baxter, Chuck Wendig and Seanan MCGuire. New Year, New Fear!
After finishing this book last night, I would conclude that it's not horror and I don't want to create any false hope or expectations. It straddles a few different genres, mainly dark fantasy, historical fiction and maybe a touch of magical realism.
Despite that fact that this book wasn't horror, I enjoyed my time with this story for the most part. Ellie West is our main female protagonist. She's a little firecracker of a woman with a very decisive, sassy nature and a "do no harm, take no shit" persona that carries her through some pretty chaotic life turbulence. By trade, she delivers moonshine in a little boat to whomever is willing to pony up the cash and risk to get it.
She encounters Fin Coulthead delivering booze to Fin's Gatsby-esque style party. Fin seems trapped in a complicated marriage to a wealthy man who is a lot older than she is. He runs with a very materialistic, fake crowd of friends--Fin doesn't fit the mold and she's bored and tired of trying, so she doesn't--she reads poetry and looks for ways to escape her lifestyle.
I enjoyed reading about all these two ladies and was pretty engaged in the story even though it was a clear departure from my usual horror routine. I did keep feeling like I needed more teeth; something dark to start happening or I was going to get frustrated with all the romance and drama.
Fortunately there was a dark turn of events near the end of Part 2 that piqued my curiosity and kept me turning pages.
While the introduction of demons, cultish practices, magical mushrooms, murder and sex helped keep my attention and I finished the book, I will say that some parts seemed overly wrought and repetitive/ unnecessary. I felt like there was a missed opportunity to really spend more time unpacking the darker side of this story--Instead of the mildly amusing love triangles and Gatsby drama--I would have preferred to see more of Hunter (the evil cult leader) and his brood of hoodwinked followers.
So much of all that cult stuff was told secondhand by characters explaining what was going on instead of the reader actually getting to watch the sinister actions taking place. It would have made for great storytelling to have Hunter as a third narrative/perspective besides just Fin and Ellie. The readers would get to watch the secret gatherings and the intensity build unbeknownst to our hapless protagonists. But that's just me being a horror fan and wanting to see dark stuff going on instead of just hearing about it.
Molly sure has a great knack for dialogue, adventure, female characters with depth and personality as well as a great imagination. I can't wait to read another book by her--I have VERMILLION on my self!
This is my very first reading experience with Molly Tanzer. Ashley and I picked this book out as a read along for our curated horror book club, Night Worms. It came highly recommended to us by some authors who write urban/dark fantasy/horror: Alan Baxter, Chuck Wendig and Seanan MCGuire. New Year, New Fear!
After finishing this book last night, I would conclude that it's not horror and I don't want to create any false hope or expectations. It straddles a few different genres, mainly dark fantasy, historical fiction and maybe a touch of magical realism.
Despite that fact that this book wasn't horror, I enjoyed my time with this story for the most part. Ellie West is our main female protagonist. She's a little firecracker of a woman with a very decisive, sassy nature and a "do no harm, take no shit" persona that carries her through some pretty chaotic life turbulence. By trade, she delivers moonshine in a little boat to whomever is willing to pony up the cash and risk to get it.
She encounters Fin Coulthead delivering booze to Fin's Gatsby-esque style party. Fin seems trapped in a complicated marriage to a wealthy man who is a lot older than she is. He runs with a very materialistic, fake crowd of friends--Fin doesn't fit the mold and she's bored and tired of trying, so she doesn't--she reads poetry and looks for ways to escape her lifestyle.
I enjoyed reading about all these two ladies and was pretty engaged in the story even though it was a clear departure from my usual horror routine. I did keep feeling like I needed more teeth; something dark to start happening or I was going to get frustrated with all the romance and drama.
Fortunately there was a dark turn of events near the end of Part 2 that piqued my curiosity and kept me turning pages.
While the introduction of demons, cultish practices, magical mushrooms, murder and sex helped keep my attention and I finished the book, I will say that some parts seemed overly wrought and repetitive/ unnecessary. I felt like there was a missed opportunity to really spend more time unpacking the darker side of this story--Instead of the mildly amusing love triangles and Gatsby drama--I would have preferred to see more of Hunter (the evil cult leader) and his brood of hoodwinked followers.
So much of all that cult stuff was told secondhand by characters explaining what was going on instead of the reader actually getting to watch the sinister actions taking place. It would have made for great storytelling to have Hunter as a third narrative/perspective besides just Fin and Ellie. The readers would get to watch the secret gatherings and the intensity build unbeknownst to our hapless protagonists. But that's just me being a horror fan and wanting to see dark stuff going on instead of just hearing about it.
Molly sure has a great knack for dialogue, adventure, female characters with depth and personality as well as a great imagination. I can't wait to read another book by her--I have VERMILLION on my self!
February 11, 2019
An unusual fantasy- paranormal book and original. The tone was creepy. There were demons and mad preachers and a secret cabal and a plan to rule the world, or at least Long Island. Mwahaha! Will a group of disparate people to stop the evil before it goes too far? Read on! This plays on the B movie vibe. I love the idea of seeing giant pulsating mushrooms wreaking havoc! Great read. Thanks to Netgalley for an arc of this book.
January 31, 2019
CREATURES OF WANT AND RUIN is the first novel I have read by Molly Tanzer. This title felt like it would fit comfortably into several sub-genres; namely fantasy, historical fiction, occult, and even romance, to a lesser degree.
"Doing the right thing doesn't always mean doing the easy thing."
Two of the main characters are strong female leads--unusual for the Prohibition era in history. First we have Ellie West, who sells illegal moonshine in an effort to raise enough money to send her brother to college. Then there's Delphine Coulthead--Fin--an unhappily married woman whose husband and friends decided to move to Long Island for a temporary retreat. Only Fin seems to "belong" on the island, whereas the others in her group clearly do not.
"'I don't mind him throwing a party, if that's what you're asking' . . . a statement that was both untrue and absolutely not an answer . . . "
The story itself was a compelling read, with a couple of twists that I had never seen coming. I enjoyed the ending much more so because of the action scenes and revelations. The parts that took place at the Coulthead's rented mansion were a bit frustrating to read, as the treatment Fin got from her so-called "friends" was unimaginably cruel--especially given that her husband sided with them.
". . . It wasn't that she wanted to inconvenience them. She just wanted to be seen."
I also feel that the author's habit of repeating an incident, fully, to each character that entered the scene, was a bit much. As a reader, I wanted to convey "Yes, you've already said this several times. I understood it the first time." Omitting issues like that, I believe could have shortened the novel by nearly 100 pages without losing anything of importance to the main theme.
". . . It was disorienting that it was her memory alone that diverged from their narrative."
Other than those subjects, I felt this was an imaginative novel with beautiful language at times, some unconventional, interesting characters, and a plot that kept the action going--especially in the later half. If it weren't for all the repetitions of words/actions, I could see giving it an additional star, but the "stop, re-start" style got tiresome after a while.
"What fools men are."
Overall, if you're craving a dark story of fantasy/historical fiction, this might be just the book you're looking for.
Recommended.
"Doing the right thing doesn't always mean doing the easy thing."
Two of the main characters are strong female leads--unusual for the Prohibition era in history. First we have Ellie West, who sells illegal moonshine in an effort to raise enough money to send her brother to college. Then there's Delphine Coulthead--Fin--an unhappily married woman whose husband and friends decided to move to Long Island for a temporary retreat. Only Fin seems to "belong" on the island, whereas the others in her group clearly do not.
"'I don't mind him throwing a party, if that's what you're asking' . . . a statement that was both untrue and absolutely not an answer . . . "
The story itself was a compelling read, with a couple of twists that I had never seen coming. I enjoyed the ending much more so because of the action scenes and revelations. The parts that took place at the Coulthead's rented mansion were a bit frustrating to read, as the treatment Fin got from her so-called "friends" was unimaginably cruel--especially given that her husband sided with them.
". . . It wasn't that she wanted to inconvenience them. She just wanted to be seen."
I also feel that the author's habit of repeating an incident, fully, to each character that entered the scene, was a bit much. As a reader, I wanted to convey "Yes, you've already said this several times. I understood it the first time." Omitting issues like that, I believe could have shortened the novel by nearly 100 pages without losing anything of importance to the main theme.
". . . It was disorienting that it was her memory alone that diverged from their narrative."
Other than those subjects, I felt this was an imaginative novel with beautiful language at times, some unconventional, interesting characters, and a plot that kept the action going--especially in the later half. If it weren't for all the repetitions of words/actions, I could see giving it an additional star, but the "stop, re-start" style got tiresome after a while.
"What fools men are."
Overall, if you're craving a dark story of fantasy/historical fiction, this might be just the book you're looking for.
Recommended.
May 11, 2022
It’s been a number of years since I read Creatures of Will and Temper, the first in the Diabolist’s Library series, and I had almost forgotten about it. Not because I didn’t love the book (I did!) or because Molly Tanzer isn’t a competent author (she is!), it just happens you get distracted sometimes when there are so many exciting books coming out. But I re-connected with more demon business in this second offering Creatures of Want and Ruin (don’t you just love these titles?). First book is set in Victorian times, this one is set in the roaring twenties during Prohibition (the third will be set in World War II).
Alas, not as gay as the first one, but let that not stop you. Our heroines are kick-ass! Moonshine smuggler and Amityville local Ellie West finds an unlikely bond with jet-setting society girl Delphine (Fin) Coulthead over a demon. A demon brought into this world by a cult of diabolists lead by a preacher named Hunter. As mushrooms sprout all over Long Island and the locals get swept up into a frenzy by the preacher’s hate speech, Ellie and Fin are the only ones that see what is about to go down and it ain’t pretty! Something needs to be done, maybe even call in some otherworldly assistance?
I loved it. It’s just as out there as the first book, and I mean that in a good way. Tanzer writes truly inspired stuff and I certainly won’t wait another 3 years to read the third book!
m/f
Themes: Amityville, mushrooms, archery, a reclusive poet, I am not his sister, daddy issues, tripping on weird moonshine, The Demon in the Deep.
5 Stars
Alas, not as gay as the first one, but let that not stop you. Our heroines are kick-ass! Moonshine smuggler and Amityville local Ellie West finds an unlikely bond with jet-setting society girl Delphine (Fin) Coulthead over a demon. A demon brought into this world by a cult of diabolists lead by a preacher named Hunter. As mushrooms sprout all over Long Island and the locals get swept up into a frenzy by the preacher’s hate speech, Ellie and Fin are the only ones that see what is about to go down and it ain’t pretty! Something needs to be done, maybe even call in some otherworldly assistance?
I loved it. It’s just as out there as the first book, and I mean that in a good way. Tanzer writes truly inspired stuff and I certainly won’t wait another 3 years to read the third book!
m/f
Themes: Amityville, mushrooms, archery, a reclusive poet, I am not his sister, daddy issues, tripping on weird moonshine, The Demon in the Deep.
5 Stars
Read
March 14, 2024dnf-ing this for now, might come back to it, i'm just so incredibly bored
March 4, 2019
I'm bumping this one up to 5 stars because I'm still thinking about it. If a book sticks with you days after you finish reading it, then it's safe to say you found it amazing.
I honestly wasn't sure what to think about this one before I started it. The cover is lovely, but the synopsis didn't immediately grab me. I got this one in my Night Worms subscription package, and I most likely would not have bought it own my own, so I owe them a debt of gratitude. I really, really enjoyed this one.
At the beginning I was still a bit on the fence, but once the characters start to come together and the action picks up I was fully invested. I love a book where you have a group of characters that are united against some form of evil and all of them are so likable that you truly feel anxious when they are in peril. And this one has two amazing female protagonists. I love the way Tanzer introduces you to their lives, and then brings them together. Both of them are strong-willed and unapologetic. We need more women like this in novels. I can relate to both of them on some level, and I know both Ellie and Fin will stick with me for a long time.
So many different things made this book stand out for me. Ellie's life is fascinating, and I loved reading about her bootlegging operation. Fin is a socialite who doesn't quite fit in with her party-loving husband and group of friends, and would much rather practice archery alone in the woods of their massive rented home. The two women couldn't have been more different, and yet when they come together out of necessity, they realize they have quickly become fast friends.
I also liked the secondary characters, and the setting quite a bit. I was rooting for them pretty hard, so when the final confrontation happened, I was on the edge of my seat. I'm not going to rehash the blurb on the back of the book, but I will say that this isn't necessarily straight up horror. If you are expecting that, then this one may not be for you. I don't go into a novel with expectations, so a good story is a good story for me, regardless of the label you put on it. And this is a good story well told.
I honestly wasn't sure what to think about this one before I started it. The cover is lovely, but the synopsis didn't immediately grab me. I got this one in my Night Worms subscription package, and I most likely would not have bought it own my own, so I owe them a debt of gratitude. I really, really enjoyed this one.
At the beginning I was still a bit on the fence, but once the characters start to come together and the action picks up I was fully invested. I love a book where you have a group of characters that are united against some form of evil and all of them are so likable that you truly feel anxious when they are in peril. And this one has two amazing female protagonists. I love the way Tanzer introduces you to their lives, and then brings them together. Both of them are strong-willed and unapologetic. We need more women like this in novels. I can relate to both of them on some level, and I know both Ellie and Fin will stick with me for a long time.
So many different things made this book stand out for me. Ellie's life is fascinating, and I loved reading about her bootlegging operation. Fin is a socialite who doesn't quite fit in with her party-loving husband and group of friends, and would much rather practice archery alone in the woods of their massive rented home. The two women couldn't have been more different, and yet when they come together out of necessity, they realize they have quickly become fast friends.
I also liked the secondary characters, and the setting quite a bit. I was rooting for them pretty hard, so when the final confrontation happened, I was on the edge of my seat. I'm not going to rehash the blurb on the back of the book, but I will say that this isn't necessarily straight up horror. If you are expecting that, then this one may not be for you. I don't go into a novel with expectations, so a good story is a good story for me, regardless of the label you put on it. And this is a good story well told.
November 7, 2018
I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
My first introduction to Molly Tanzer was with last year's Creatures of Will and Temper and I was really impressed by her Dorian Gray inspired tale. Of course as soon as I caught wind of her newest release I knew I had to try it as well and luckily for me I managed to get approved for it via NetGalley. This new companion story (you don't need to be familiar with her previous release, but it will certainly make things much more interesting if you already are) is also a historical horror fantasy set during the Roaring Twenties in New York which has to be one of my favorite genres and time periods to read about. I couldn't help but think of The Diviners series by Libba Bray while I was reading this novel. Anyway, my favorite aspects of this slow burn novel are Tanzer's eerily lush world-building and visual descriptions. She does a magnificent job of making the era and the characters come to life. The only issues were with the characters themselves, while they were all intriguing to follow none of them exactly grew on me. I wasn't particularly interested in any of them. Overall, if you're looking for a new fantasy novel with set in the 1920s during Prohibition with just the right amount of atmospheric horror, you'll absolutely need to try Molly Tanzer's Creatures of Want and Ruin.
My first introduction to Molly Tanzer was with last year's Creatures of Will and Temper and I was really impressed by her Dorian Gray inspired tale. Of course as soon as I caught wind of her newest release I knew I had to try it as well and luckily for me I managed to get approved for it via NetGalley. This new companion story (you don't need to be familiar with her previous release, but it will certainly make things much more interesting if you already are) is also a historical horror fantasy set during the Roaring Twenties in New York which has to be one of my favorite genres and time periods to read about. I couldn't help but think of The Diviners series by Libba Bray while I was reading this novel. Anyway, my favorite aspects of this slow burn novel are Tanzer's eerily lush world-building and visual descriptions. She does a magnificent job of making the era and the characters come to life. The only issues were with the characters themselves, while they were all intriguing to follow none of them exactly grew on me. I wasn't particularly interested in any of them. Overall, if you're looking for a new fantasy novel with set in the 1920s during Prohibition with just the right amount of atmospheric horror, you'll absolutely need to try Molly Tanzer's Creatures of Want and Ruin.
January 28, 2019
This isn’t a book I would generally choose for myself to read, but that’s what is fun about subscription services like the Night Worms box. I don’t know what I’m going to get, but I know the books are carefully curated and I can trust that it’s going to be an interesting ride.
A tale set during prohibition following a badass bootlegging boatwoman and a society girl with a penchant for disturbing the peace, there is a lot to like in the set-up of this book. The main characters are women with dreams, who aren’t afraid to articulate and act on their desire, who are working through their issues and railing against a world and society that would prefer they just fit in rather than mix things up. It is a lot of fun to see them turn expectations upside down and be the heroes instead of some dude stepping in to save the day.
The book is very interested in place: what it means to live in a specific place, love that place, and feel a part of the community—or not. What does it mean to be a part of where you live? What if you live on the outskirts of society, if you don’t fit in? And what happens when the place you live is threatened?
It is also at its core a story of bigotry, and through the lens of history and fantasy takes a look at how prejudice and intolerance can prey on a small town and the people who live there. Heartbreaking but realistic, and it is so especially relevant right now.
I never quite connected with the writing style of the book, which seemed to hold me at a distance from getting fully into the story. There was a tendency to tell instead of show, which often made me feel like I was having my hand held through the story, like I needed an info-dump or I wouldn’t understand what was going on. I was also confused by this strange narrative repetition that kept happening, where a character would repeat what had happened to them to multiple new characters entering the scene even though the reader already knew what happened—it felt so unnecessary. There are also several characters who seem only there to provide a specific purpose for the narrative rather than acting as a living, breathing part of the story, and they definitely stuck out to me.
I really wanted to love this book because the themes and characters were so badass. But in the end, it was just an average read for me, which is definitely based in part because it didn’t leave me feeling anything special.
A tale set during prohibition following a badass bootlegging boatwoman and a society girl with a penchant for disturbing the peace, there is a lot to like in the set-up of this book. The main characters are women with dreams, who aren’t afraid to articulate and act on their desire, who are working through their issues and railing against a world and society that would prefer they just fit in rather than mix things up. It is a lot of fun to see them turn expectations upside down and be the heroes instead of some dude stepping in to save the day.
The book is very interested in place: what it means to live in a specific place, love that place, and feel a part of the community—or not. What does it mean to be a part of where you live? What if you live on the outskirts of society, if you don’t fit in? And what happens when the place you live is threatened?
It is also at its core a story of bigotry, and through the lens of history and fantasy takes a look at how prejudice and intolerance can prey on a small town and the people who live there. Heartbreaking but realistic, and it is so especially relevant right now.
I never quite connected with the writing style of the book, which seemed to hold me at a distance from getting fully into the story. There was a tendency to tell instead of show, which often made me feel like I was having my hand held through the story, like I needed an info-dump or I wouldn’t understand what was going on. I was also confused by this strange narrative repetition that kept happening, where a character would repeat what had happened to them to multiple new characters entering the scene even though the reader already knew what happened—it felt so unnecessary. There are also several characters who seem only there to provide a specific purpose for the narrative rather than acting as a living, breathing part of the story, and they definitely stuck out to me.
I really wanted to love this book because the themes and characters were so badass. But in the end, it was just an average read for me, which is definitely based in part because it didn’t leave me feeling anything special.
February 1, 2019
Ellie West is a moonshine bootlegger living in a small town in Long Island, known as Amityville. Here she finds herself working to assist her family and send her brother to college through any means necessary. Fishing by day and avoiding Prohibition regulations by night. When a wealthy stranger propositions Ellie to procure a large amount of moonshine for a party they’re throwing, she finds herself selling them everything she has, along with a few bottles of booze that she came across under unusual circumstances.
Unbeknownst to Ellie, the booze in those bottles has the ability to make people see terrible visions. This liquor is distilled from a strange population of mushrooms that have been slowly sprouting around the island. At the source of this product is a group of men heading up a religious group that preaches about returning the island back to the glory of the old days. The days before the village was filled with immigrants and vacationers. This group ties it’s allegiance to a god, but in reality it is cult of diabolists. In an epic battle to save her home on Long Island and those she holds dear, Ellie will need to work against the clock to defeat this cult. She’ll turn to those she’s known longest, as well as an out-of-towner, Fin, who might just hold the answers on how to win.
Molly Tanzer has created a story about two badass women, Ellie and Fin, within the pages of CREATURES OF WANT AND RUIN. The story launches with passages from a book called FROM THE DEMON IN THE DEEP, which focuses on a demonic possession. I was a little confused where the book related to everything, but trust me, it’ll tie in later! From there you enter Ellie and Fin’s worlds. These two ladies lead completely different lives. Ellie is a hard-working, independent woman trying to make a better life for her family. Fin’s background is from a privileged family and friend circle that would rather focus on parties than work. Unlike her background, Fin wants to help make the world a better place and feels stuck with a group of people and a husband who she cannot relate to.
The two main characters of Ellie and Fin are truly the center of the book, although you are introduced to a handful of others. I really enjoyed the supporting cast of characters with a particular interest in those who end up banding together to fight against the cult invading their town. While Tanzer does not provide an in-depth background on these characters, there is nothing lacking that would have made the story better. In fact, I think if she had chosen to focus on the secondary characters backstories more the plot would have become diluted. That being said, there were quite a few I would love to know more about!
CREATURES OF WANT AND RUIN is broken down into three parts, which flow together perfectly and serve as great transition points to propel the story. There are no strange gaps of time or continuity to distract the progress of the events happening on Long Island. Tanzer’s unpacking of the story is very methodical and lends itself to this structure. Throughout the early sections there are hints to how things may play out, but the delivery is truly well done. Tying together horror, fantasy, and historical fiction is a tough combination to deliver. CREATURES OF WANT AND RUIN succeeds in melding these genres together to create an entertaining and enjoyable book!
Unbeknownst to Ellie, the booze in those bottles has the ability to make people see terrible visions. This liquor is distilled from a strange population of mushrooms that have been slowly sprouting around the island. At the source of this product is a group of men heading up a religious group that preaches about returning the island back to the glory of the old days. The days before the village was filled with immigrants and vacationers. This group ties it’s allegiance to a god, but in reality it is cult of diabolists. In an epic battle to save her home on Long Island and those she holds dear, Ellie will need to work against the clock to defeat this cult. She’ll turn to those she’s known longest, as well as an out-of-towner, Fin, who might just hold the answers on how to win.
Molly Tanzer has created a story about two badass women, Ellie and Fin, within the pages of CREATURES OF WANT AND RUIN. The story launches with passages from a book called FROM THE DEMON IN THE DEEP, which focuses on a demonic possession. I was a little confused where the book related to everything, but trust me, it’ll tie in later! From there you enter Ellie and Fin’s worlds. These two ladies lead completely different lives. Ellie is a hard-working, independent woman trying to make a better life for her family. Fin’s background is from a privileged family and friend circle that would rather focus on parties than work. Unlike her background, Fin wants to help make the world a better place and feels stuck with a group of people and a husband who she cannot relate to.
The two main characters of Ellie and Fin are truly the center of the book, although you are introduced to a handful of others. I really enjoyed the supporting cast of characters with a particular interest in those who end up banding together to fight against the cult invading their town. While Tanzer does not provide an in-depth background on these characters, there is nothing lacking that would have made the story better. In fact, I think if she had chosen to focus on the secondary characters backstories more the plot would have become diluted. That being said, there were quite a few I would love to know more about!
CREATURES OF WANT AND RUIN is broken down into three parts, which flow together perfectly and serve as great transition points to propel the story. There are no strange gaps of time or continuity to distract the progress of the events happening on Long Island. Tanzer’s unpacking of the story is very methodical and lends itself to this structure. Throughout the early sections there are hints to how things may play out, but the delivery is truly well done. Tying together horror, fantasy, and historical fiction is a tough combination to deliver. CREATURES OF WANT AND RUIN succeeds in melding these genres together to create an entertaining and enjoyable book!
November 24, 2018
Brilliant fun. A wonderfully written dark weird adventure built around prohibition era moonshine running in Long Island. Recommended.
February 5, 2019
The first time I ever laid eyes on this book my initial impression was that it looked like a creepy Alice in Wonderland. The similarity stops at the cover. Reading the book actually felt like a mix of The Great Gatsby and Stranger Things.
I loved the excerpts from the fictional book, The Demon in the Deep, even though I was very confused about the book’s significance at first.
The two main characters are strong females and I enjoyed reading both of their back stories. It gets even better when their paths finally cross. There were so many great supporting characters as well! I don’t think there was a single person I didn’t like (besides the obvious antagonists of the story).
For a good portion of the book it feels more like a historical fiction/fantasy read, but the horror aspect becomes apparent in the second half. I enjoyed the mix and the slow build to tension.
Overall a fantastic read with a strong ending and a new author that I wouldn’t hesitate to pick up again.
I loved the excerpts from the fictional book, The Demon in the Deep, even though I was very confused about the book’s significance at first.
The two main characters are strong females and I enjoyed reading both of their back stories. It gets even better when their paths finally cross. There were so many great supporting characters as well! I don’t think there was a single person I didn’t like (besides the obvious antagonists of the story).
For a good portion of the book it feels more like a historical fiction/fantasy read, but the horror aspect becomes apparent in the second half. I enjoyed the mix and the slow build to tension.
Overall a fantastic read with a strong ending and a new author that I wouldn’t hesitate to pick up again.
Read
September 9, 2022
notes while reading:
• these books are always a little difficult to get into
• i didn’t know this was part of a series
• wait! she has a fiancé?!?
• then WTH is she doing flirting with someone else?
• never mind. i guess Gabe likes to share his women
• he find is kinky and hot LOL
• ok so first who the fuck is Fin and her people?!
• Bobbie is a thorn on my side.
• actually ALL of Fin’s friends suck
• literally can’t stand her!!!!
• why is Fin Married to Jimmy when they don’t even seem to like each other
• so many questions?!?!?
• i think Bobbie and Jimmy are having an affair …
• what just happened?!
• was Fin hallucinating?
• Gabriel and Ellie would be the kind of people to have a BDSM room. if they knew what it was lol
• ooof so many things … ok first they get attacked by some men in masks, after that ordeal they just continue on as if nothing happened.
• the masks people just left! which i get since they can’t defend themselves with guns but STILL
• a dog dies and that’s it!!! i would feel absolutely devastated. especially if that dog was my companion!
• Gabriel is angry for some reading ?!?!
• and Ellie is blushing and also realized she’s the same height as Officer Jones and somehow she can read his mind ?!?! like what’s happening?
• OK now i know why Gabriel is upset
• Lester death was so random, i didn’t even see it coming.
• Ellie is so indifferent about her brother’s death!
like, there’s no reaction to it
• or maybe she’s trying to hold together until the ordeal is over …?
• these people (husband & friends) are gaslighting the fuck outta Fin
• “you really want me to come, huh?” LOL through the entire novel Ellie was being such a horn dog
• oh look she finally got to bang. let’s all forget about Lester tho lol
• i mean, what else can they do anyway
• kind of feel bad for Fin.
• these books are always a little difficult to get into
• i didn’t know this was part of a series
• wait! she has a fiancé?!?
• then WTH is she doing flirting with someone else?
• never mind. i guess Gabe likes to share his women
• he find is kinky and hot LOL
• ok so first who the fuck is Fin and her people?!
• Bobbie is a thorn on my side.
• actually ALL of Fin’s friends suck
• literally can’t stand her!!!!
• why is Fin Married to Jimmy when they don’t even seem to like each other
• so many questions?!?!?
• i think Bobbie and Jimmy are having an affair …
• what just happened?!
• was Fin hallucinating?
• Gabriel and Ellie would be the kind of people to have a BDSM room. if they knew what it was lol
• ooof so many things … ok first they get attacked by some men in masks, after that ordeal they just continue on as if nothing happened.
• the masks people just left! which i get since they can’t defend themselves with guns but STILL
• a dog dies and that’s it!!! i would feel absolutely devastated. especially if that dog was my companion!
• Gabriel is angry for some reading ?!?!
• and Ellie is blushing and also realized she’s the same height as Officer Jones and somehow she can read his mind ?!?! like what’s happening?
• OK now i know why Gabriel is upset
• Lester death was so random, i didn’t even see it coming.
• Ellie is so indifferent about her brother’s death!
like, there’s no reaction to it
• or maybe she’s trying to hold together until the ordeal is over …?
• these people (husband & friends) are gaslighting the fuck outta Fin
• “you really want me to come, huh?” LOL through the entire novel Ellie was being such a horn dog
• oh look she finally got to bang. let’s all forget about Lester tho lol
• i mean, what else can they do anyway
• kind of feel bad for Fin.
January 30, 2019
Ellie West runs moonshine during prohibition. She is trying to help her brother who has been accepted to college and can’t afford to go. Ellie has the opportunity to provide alcohol for a large party. She sells them some booze that includes some kind of special mushrooms that cause those to drink it to see apocalyptic things. Ellie teams up with Fin (another female character, who couldn’t be more different from Ellie) to try to set things right. We’ve got demons, religious nuts, bootleggers and two women who are pretty bad-ass. I enjoyed this one quite a lot. I’d like to see what else Molly Tanzer has written.
January 22, 2019
"Looking away from something doesn't make it disappear."
Ahhhhhh words can not express how much I enjoyed this book!! I loved Creatures of Will and Temper, and while I know they aren't exactly a series, I hoped this one would also be awesome, and it did not disappoint.
We have 2 strong leading ladies (in their own ways), openness about sexual preferences, other subject matter that's highly relevant today (like prejudices of all kinds), oh and of course, your average cult of diabolists and some special 'shroom booze that causes visions and hallucinations. Ellie and Fin come together to save their island from said cult, which is pushing temperance and a return to "the old days."
This book was so fun, and while Will & Temper hit me right in the feels in more ways, Want & Ruin had me mentally clapping and highfiving these ladies and admiring their attitudes. Fin was my favorite, her character growth was fantastic, albeit a bit bittersweet. I felt a kinship with her in many ways.
Molly Tanzer really knows how to write a great story!
Ahhhhhh words can not express how much I enjoyed this book!! I loved Creatures of Will and Temper, and while I know they aren't exactly a series, I hoped this one would also be awesome, and it did not disappoint.
We have 2 strong leading ladies (in their own ways), openness about sexual preferences, other subject matter that's highly relevant today (like prejudices of all kinds), oh and of course, your average cult of diabolists and some special 'shroom booze that causes visions and hallucinations. Ellie and Fin come together to save their island from said cult, which is pushing temperance and a return to "the old days."
This book was so fun, and while Will & Temper hit me right in the feels in more ways, Want & Ruin had me mentally clapping and highfiving these ladies and admiring their attitudes. Fin was my favorite, her character growth was fantastic, albeit a bit bittersweet. I felt a kinship with her in many ways.
Molly Tanzer really knows how to write a great story!
October 20, 2018
My introduction to the work of Molly Tanzer was her novel, Creatures of Will and Temper, a 19th century urban fantasy revolving around The Portrait of Dorian Gray, and demonic possession. Creatures of Want and Ruin takes place in the Roaring Twenties on Long Island, New York. The common thread between the two books is the role of demons controlling human lives. Demons take possession of people who freely agree to the arrangement, granting their hosts long life, wealth, beauty, or in this case the ability to detect falsehoods and to compel others to tell the truth. In exchange demons receive various experiences that can come about only through physical incarnation. Some demons are benign, but others are highly malevolent. Demons pass summoning instructions through generations or encoded in children’s books, as is the case here.
In this story two women from very different walks of life encounter unsettling changes in the sleepy community of Amityville. (The Amityville Horror, it should be said, lies decades in the future and does not play a part in this story.) One of the women is a boat woman engaged in the moonshine smuggling trade during Prohibition. The other is the wife of a newly wealthy Gatsby type of social idler who finds herself increasingly alienated from her husband and his party loving, booze zwilling friends. Spooky things are afoot: illegal liquor that causes most people to hallucinate. a preacher who gathers bigger and bigger crowds, bent on ridding their community of immigrants and anyone who isn't a white Protestant. And creepiest of all, slimy fungus growths that appear and spread.
As in the novel the characters are engaging and the story moves right along. The creepiness grows, step by Lovecraftian step. Just when you think nothing more terrible could happen, something else goes disastrously wrong. Stopping the white nationalist mob and defeating the fungus-monster necessitate finding out the truth, which is where the bargain with the demon comes in. There are moments of sweetness, of courage, and of terrible but necessary choices. I loved every page of it and I'm eagerly looking forward to Tanzer’s next.
The usual disclaimer: I received a review copy of this book, but no one bribed me to say anything about it.
In this story two women from very different walks of life encounter unsettling changes in the sleepy community of Amityville. (The Amityville Horror, it should be said, lies decades in the future and does not play a part in this story.) One of the women is a boat woman engaged in the moonshine smuggling trade during Prohibition. The other is the wife of a newly wealthy Gatsby type of social idler who finds herself increasingly alienated from her husband and his party loving, booze zwilling friends. Spooky things are afoot: illegal liquor that causes most people to hallucinate. a preacher who gathers bigger and bigger crowds, bent on ridding their community of immigrants and anyone who isn't a white Protestant. And creepiest of all, slimy fungus growths that appear and spread.
As in the novel the characters are engaging and the story moves right along. The creepiness grows, step by Lovecraftian step. Just when you think nothing more terrible could happen, something else goes disastrously wrong. Stopping the white nationalist mob and defeating the fungus-monster necessitate finding out the truth, which is where the bargain with the demon comes in. There are moments of sweetness, of courage, and of terrible but necessary choices. I loved every page of it and I'm eagerly looking forward to Tanzer’s next.
The usual disclaimer: I received a review copy of this book, but no one bribed me to say anything about it.
Read
October 12, 2019First, the good. The premise was intriguing, the setting very interesting, and the character of Finn developed, in my opinion. I usually adore a good thriller, horror, or mystery, and the book cover gave me a feeling that I was in for a treat! I like much of Tanzer's word choices when discussing setting. I think the plot outline was terrific and really unique to what's on the market today.
I wanted to like this one so badly. Like other reviewers have mentioned, the narrative style really got to me after about 30% through. I would live a scene through the eyes of one of the characters, then that character would explain to others what had happened, then I would endure a page and a half of the character mulling it over again in her mind. I could have used more show than tell.
Characters were not particularly interesting or likable. I did rather enjoy Finn, even though others seemed to like her the least. Ellie seemed too bored and restless and not particularly compelling. I don't need my mains to be likable, perse, but at least believable. Gabriel was Polish, but he could have been any ethnicity, save for the rude remarks about him being Polish -- and the perogies.
I feel that there was so much potential with the time period that could have been explored, but other than being told that these characters were from history (and a setting to confirm it), their actions and language didn't seem to match the time. Much of the dialogue seemed to be unnaturally overexplanatory and modern. I wanted to hear some things that would have been reflective of the places each girl had in society. Did a bootlegger really speak the same as a high-class gal? If not, show me.
This didn't feel like horror, was barely a mystery, and -- in the end -- I sadly abandoned this book. I hardly ever stop reading before the end, but I felt like I was grinding it out. What finally got me was the fact that the protagonist kept announcing that she was going to get to the bottom of this. Why? Because she had to. I needed a bit more motivation than just a sense of a call of duty in the beginning. While the stakes were raised quite beautifully as the story moved on (and put the motivation question at ease), the first half of the book had me asking why anyone would engage the evil in this book in such a half-cocked manner. She felt petulant in her demands for everyone to stay put while she handled things.
I will give Tanzer another try, because I love her beautiful choice of words, and I think this idea is solid. I just felt like it fizzled for so much of it that I never felt fear, dread, or any of the things you need to want your characters to live in the end. By the middle of the book, I could have cared less if the main character got on a boat and never came back.
I wanted to like this one so badly. Like other reviewers have mentioned, the narrative style really got to me after about 30% through. I would live a scene through the eyes of one of the characters, then that character would explain to others what had happened, then I would endure a page and a half of the character mulling it over again in her mind. I could have used more show than tell.
Characters were not particularly interesting or likable. I did rather enjoy Finn, even though others seemed to like her the least. Ellie seemed too bored and restless and not particularly compelling. I don't need my mains to be likable, perse, but at least believable. Gabriel was Polish, but he could have been any ethnicity, save for the rude remarks about him being Polish -- and the perogies.
I feel that there was so much potential with the time period that could have been explored, but other than being told that these characters were from history (and a setting to confirm it), their actions and language didn't seem to match the time. Much of the dialogue seemed to be unnaturally overexplanatory and modern. I wanted to hear some things that would have been reflective of the places each girl had in society. Did a bootlegger really speak the same as a high-class gal? If not, show me.
This didn't feel like horror, was barely a mystery, and -- in the end -- I sadly abandoned this book. I hardly ever stop reading before the end, but I felt like I was grinding it out. What finally got me was the fact that the protagonist kept announcing that she was going to get to the bottom of this. Why? Because she had to. I needed a bit more motivation than just a sense of a call of duty in the beginning. While the stakes were raised quite beautifully as the story moved on (and put the motivation question at ease), the first half of the book had me asking why anyone would engage the evil in this book in such a half-cocked manner. She felt petulant in her demands for everyone to stay put while she handled things.
I will give Tanzer another try, because I love her beautiful choice of words, and I think this idea is solid. I just felt like it fizzled for so much of it that I never felt fear, dread, or any of the things you need to want your characters to live in the end. By the middle of the book, I could have cared less if the main character got on a boat and never came back.
September 24, 2018
I wanted to like this so much. The storyline was intriguing, the cover was fantastic...I couldn’t wait to read it.
But then I started it...and it went downhill from there. It took me ages to get through it because it felt like a chore. I ended up skimming it around 35%.
The characters are unlikable. The conversations seemed forced and often uncomfortable. Actually the entire book was uncomfortable. Which could be purposeful, but it didn’t work for me. I think this may be a sequel, but this is my first book by this author.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
But then I started it...and it went downhill from there. It took me ages to get through it because it felt like a chore. I ended up skimming it around 35%.
The characters are unlikable. The conversations seemed forced and often uncomfortable. Actually the entire book was uncomfortable. Which could be purposeful, but it didn’t work for me. I think this may be a sequel, but this is my first book by this author.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
December 17, 2018
Molly Tanzer's Creatures of Want and Ruin is a loose follow-up to Creatures of Will and Temper, which I read at the beginning of the year and then browbeat every single person I know into reading, or close to. I was worried picking this one up - would it live up to my expectations? Would it live up to its predecessor? In some ways, it doesn't. I found I liked Ellie and Fin just a bit less than Will and Temper's sisters, and main characters can make or break a novel. But Ellie and Fin, and the cast and crew around them (Gabriel, Lester, SJ, Aaron, Jones (oh, Jones)) are wonderful, in their own ways. Tanzer gives us the bored society wife and the tomboyish bootlegger with a great deal of insight into both psyches, playing with tropes in a way that makes both incredibly human to the reader.
What's truly spectacular, though, is that Tanzer has delivered an extremely topical political novel couched in diabolism, occultism, fantasy, and a head-spinning adventure. Creatures of Want and Ruin is set in the 20s in Long Island, in the town of Amityville. It's been mostly a quiet town, where Ellie runs moonshine made by her friend SJ, who lives in a small shack in the woods with her brother, as much because she makes moonshine as because she's one of the few black women in Amityville. Ellie's fiance is Polish, a carpenter, and SJ's brother's boss. It is the rest of Amityville, however, that Tanzer digs into incisively. A preacher has come to Amityville, sowing seeds of unrest and dissatisfaction - how dare men like Ellie's fiance, like SJ's brother, like Officer Jones (half-Cuban on his mother's side) flourish, when men like Ellie's father, wounded in a training accident during World War I, good Long Islanders, true Long Islanders, are forced into genteel poverty? If this rhetoric sounds familiar, it's because it should be. Tanzer gives the hatred we feel seething below the 49th parallel occult legs, but she makes it clear that this takes root only where the seeds have already been sown.
It's an incredibly fun read, if sometimes disorienting because of how close it hits to home politically. Canada is certainly not immune to the hate that has become part and parcel of political discourse in the United States, and to see it exposed under the light of fantasy is unsettling. It is easy to believe oneself immune to it, and easier still to doubt the fact of it in our friends and family. Tanzer shows how easily one can let oneself succumb to it, or flourish under it, but she also exposes our privileges in believing ourselves immune to it, or unaffected by it. She's provided us with a deft statement on how we act when it would be easier not to do so, with scintillating characters, clever humour, and a great deal of fun.
What's truly spectacular, though, is that Tanzer has delivered an extremely topical political novel couched in diabolism, occultism, fantasy, and a head-spinning adventure. Creatures of Want and Ruin is set in the 20s in Long Island, in the town of Amityville. It's been mostly a quiet town, where Ellie runs moonshine made by her friend SJ, who lives in a small shack in the woods with her brother, as much because she makes moonshine as because she's one of the few black women in Amityville. Ellie's fiance is Polish, a carpenter, and SJ's brother's boss. It is the rest of Amityville, however, that Tanzer digs into incisively. A preacher has come to Amityville, sowing seeds of unrest and dissatisfaction - how dare men like Ellie's fiance, like SJ's brother, like Officer Jones (half-Cuban on his mother's side) flourish, when men like Ellie's father, wounded in a training accident during World War I, good Long Islanders, true Long Islanders, are forced into genteel poverty? If this rhetoric sounds familiar, it's because it should be. Tanzer gives the hatred we feel seething below the 49th parallel occult legs, but she makes it clear that this takes root only where the seeds have already been sown.
It's an incredibly fun read, if sometimes disorienting because of how close it hits to home politically. Canada is certainly not immune to the hate that has become part and parcel of political discourse in the United States, and to see it exposed under the light of fantasy is unsettling. It is easy to believe oneself immune to it, and easier still to doubt the fact of it in our friends and family. Tanzer shows how easily one can let oneself succumb to it, or flourish under it, but she also exposes our privileges in believing ourselves immune to it, or unaffected by it. She's provided us with a deft statement on how we act when it would be easier not to do so, with scintillating characters, clever humour, and a great deal of fun.
November 8, 2018
I have waited for a sequel to Creatures of Will and Temper for a year now! I was very excited to be able to read it, and very thankful to both the publisher and Molly Tanzer herself who was so sweet to help me out to procure a review copy as an international reviewer - considering how NetGalley makes us nearly invisible. I enjoyed the book for sure, although my heart still belongs to part one - Creatures of will and Temper - both because of the lighter nature of the book, and the characters involved, who were just more relatable to me personally, as well as of the time period. Despite that,
Creatures of Want and Ruin
is a great read that I can truly recommend.
And now let me give you several reasons for reading it!
Molly Tanzer Writes Strong Females So Well
I love Molly's strong female characters - in the last novel, we had a sword fighting and headstrong independent girl, plus a rebellious and flamboyant younger sister, and this time we have a few girls who are just as strong - a bootlegger street kid who is quite tough and a married archer who finds herself in the wrong society. Those are not all the strong females though! There are male characters, of course, but the driving force of the story lies in the women's hands. Molly succeeds wonderfully in giving young women a voice - and I have to say, not just plain old young women, but diverse young women - queer (even poly!) and straight, rich and poor, black and white. It's truly wonderful.
And it's not just that these women are diverse, and that's all. These women are also immensely CAPABLE. They are physically strong - one used to take boxing lessons, another is good at archery, the third can defend herself with a crossbow. They are all physically capable and do not set the example of cowering behind a man - they're more likely to defend a man. And that's not all! These women are nearly all, with an exception of one who is wealthy, gainfully employed or even have their own businesses, despite the odds and the oppression. They won't let themselves be put down. they are inspiring.
Relevant Topics: Immigration and Minorities
The main theme in the book focuses on hate crimes and oppression of non-locals, or simply people who have a different heritage. These themes are so important right now, in the current political climates. One of the things that really touched me was how the bigots of Long Island claimed that they wanted to return to the "good old days" when the land was "theirs", because they came first. Except, no - you didn't come first, people. The Indigenous came first. Americans never remember that. I wish that had been touched on in this book - in fact, that would have brought it up to five stars for me. But the racial and national minorities talk still remains very important and I'm really happy that the book was centered around it.
The Book Is Very Dark
I don't know if this is a turn-on or a turn-off for you. Most likely, you will like it being dark! I am at a place in my life right now where I don't enjoy dark and that might have influenced my rating. As I've mentioned before, Creatures of will and Temper had its darkness - demons after all, right? But it was also very whimsical. Creatures of want and Ruin is not. It's dark in a much more serious way, where loss and death are real, and so is the hate. Judging by the book's name, this was the plan! I would say it's executed well, the demons are believably dark and evil, as is their plan.
Connections To The Previous Book
What I liked most of all were the connections to Creatures of Will and Temper! I'm sure there were more of them than I even noticed, as I read the sequel a year later. But we do get to see the demonic entity from the first book, as well as mentions of the "family unit" from it. The lore in this one is much darker than in the previous one, and it's interesting to compare.
But Beware Of The Triggers
Triggers include
Overall, I definitely enjoyed it, although it was a little bit hard to get into it at first, because it has quite a lot of characters. Readers of the first book will definitely enjoy Creatures of Want and Ruin, and I must say it can be read as a stand-alone as well - although I definitely recommend reading the first one, because it's simply brilliant! You can find my review of Creatures of Will and Temper here.
I thank HMH Books and Molly Tanzer for giving me a free copy of the book in exchange to my honest opinion. Receiving the book for free does not affect my opinion.
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Molly Tanzer Writes Strong Females So Well
I love Molly's strong female characters - in the last novel, we had a sword fighting and headstrong independent girl, plus a rebellious and flamboyant younger sister, and this time we have a few girls who are just as strong - a bootlegger street kid who is quite tough and a married archer who finds herself in the wrong society. Those are not all the strong females though! There are male characters, of course, but the driving force of the story lies in the women's hands. Molly succeeds wonderfully in giving young women a voice - and I have to say, not just plain old young women, but diverse young women - queer (even poly!) and straight, rich and poor, black and white. It's truly wonderful.
And it's not just that these women are diverse, and that's all. These women are also immensely CAPABLE. They are physically strong - one used to take boxing lessons, another is good at archery, the third can defend herself with a crossbow. They are all physically capable and do not set the example of cowering behind a man - they're more likely to defend a man. And that's not all! These women are nearly all, with an exception of one who is wealthy, gainfully employed or even have their own businesses, despite the odds and the oppression. They won't let themselves be put down. they are inspiring.
Relevant Topics: Immigration and Minorities
The main theme in the book focuses on hate crimes and oppression of non-locals, or simply people who have a different heritage. These themes are so important right now, in the current political climates. One of the things that really touched me was how the bigots of Long Island claimed that they wanted to return to the "good old days" when the land was "theirs", because they came first. Except, no - you didn't come first, people. The Indigenous came first. Americans never remember that. I wish that had been touched on in this book - in fact, that would have brought it up to five stars for me. But the racial and national minorities talk still remains very important and I'm really happy that the book was centered around it.
The Book Is Very Dark
I don't know if this is a turn-on or a turn-off for you. Most likely, you will like it being dark! I am at a place in my life right now where I don't enjoy dark and that might have influenced my rating. As I've mentioned before, Creatures of will and Temper had its darkness - demons after all, right? But it was also very whimsical. Creatures of want and Ruin is not. It's dark in a much more serious way, where loss and death are real, and so is the hate. Judging by the book's name, this was the plan! I would say it's executed well, the demons are believably dark and evil, as is their plan.
Connections To The Previous Book
What I liked most of all were the connections to Creatures of Will and Temper! I'm sure there were more of them than I even noticed, as I read the sequel a year later. But we do get to see the demonic entity from the first book, as well as mentions of the "family unit" from it. The lore in this one is much darker than in the previous one, and it's interesting to compare.
But Beware Of The Triggers
Triggers include
Overall, I definitely enjoyed it, although it was a little bit hard to get into it at first, because it has quite a lot of characters. Readers of the first book will definitely enjoy Creatures of Want and Ruin, and I must say it can be read as a stand-alone as well - although I definitely recommend reading the first one, because it's simply brilliant! You can find my review of Creatures of Will and Temper here.
I thank HMH Books and Molly Tanzer for giving me a free copy of the book in exchange to my honest opinion. Receiving the book for free does not affect my opinion.
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January 31, 2019
This is my first experience reading through the world Molly Tanzer has created. I enjoyed this book because it is my first supernatural read. 1920's prohibition era story + a couple strong leading female characters + questionable religious leader = dark, twisted fantasy. Yes, please!
October 9, 2024
2,5/5 ⭐️
Inget fan av att det används slurs explicitly. Den hade potential, men det är för många saker jag inte gillar med boken för att ge 3 stjärnor.
Also, hunden dör??? Ursäkta??? Fuck off. Jag borde sänka betyget bara på grund av det.
Inget fan av att det används slurs explicitly. Den hade potential, men det är för många saker jag inte gillar med boken för att ge 3 stjärnor.
Also, hunden dör??? Ursäkta??? Fuck off. Jag borde sänka betyget bara på grund av det.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 18, 2019
Maybe more of a 1.5 stars in Goodreads terms: it was okay, and for some parts I didn't like it (including the climax -- I voluntarily put this book down to go do something else a couple hours. During the big confrontation!).
Possibly a good part of my enjoyment only comes from the obviously fond descriptions of rural and coastal Long Island. Sigh...
Dragging my score down:
- the paaaaaaaacing. I have mixed feelings, because sure, you want to lay proper groundwork for everything and everyone... But cripes, to still be laying exposition at the halfway mark! Surely that's excessive.
- And despite the time spent moving everyone into place, I still didn't buy the relationships that arose (or a couple illogical, plot convenient decisions/conclusions). It was especially bad with the (red herring, it turned out, basically) budding chemistry between two characters: we literally get one line of inane dialog from each before we step back into POV characters narration about gee whiz! They're talking and just crackling with chemistry! Ooh!
-- just realized, too, we don't see the other character again. He was more small plot device than character. Huh.
- couldn't get a firm grasp of some things/people. How old was Fin supposed to be again? Ellie is 25 but feels younger. I completely forgot she was into poetry: certainly she's been a bit stressed and busy during the book, but her connection to the water and her attempts at boxing are much more visible. Surely that could have been reinforced, too.
Enjoyments:
- Long Island
- Contraceptives being employed before characters have sex. So rare!
- There were a couple times I made eyerolling notes only for a sentence or paragraph later, the author answered my concern. Good!
- Holy rollers disturb me in real life: the supernaturally creepy ones definitely punch my buttons as credible threats. See also: Libba Bray's The Diviners (first book and the barely decent parts of the third book).
- nice title, nice cover art
Mixed bag:
I'm not a pacifist, at least not for fictional characters, and normally I'm gritting my teeth when the heroes can't bring themselves to kill bad guys. Here, the bad guys are fellow townsfolk with the btw SUPER COMMON in the 20s (and today, 100 years later, it turns out) bigotry that c'mon, this shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone, this was peak eugenics time, too... I digress. Anyway, bunch of hopped-up-on-demon-moonshine townies are the mooks, and our leads very quickly and relatively easily get right to the "better kill them to be safe" mode of thinking. Refreshing...but also you definitely just killed a bunch of neighbors -- not generic demons or such, but regular crappy ol' people who you can identify... And we don't see any follow-up to that! Actual townsfolk are dead now! What's the reaction? What's the investigation? How do people react in the wake of losing the influence of the lead antagonist?
And this is purely subjective personal preference, but I was expecting evil fairies, not demons. Was it just the rainbow sheen on the first guy? I think rainbows (and mushrooms and questionable comestibles), I think fairies before I think demons? It wouldn't, I think, change much one way or the other. Just mildly surprising: oh. Demons. Okay.
Possibly a good part of my enjoyment only comes from the obviously fond descriptions of rural and coastal Long Island. Sigh...
Dragging my score down:
- the paaaaaaaacing. I have mixed feelings, because sure, you want to lay proper groundwork for everything and everyone... But cripes, to still be laying exposition at the halfway mark! Surely that's excessive.
- And despite the time spent moving everyone into place, I still didn't buy the relationships that arose (or a couple illogical, plot convenient decisions/conclusions). It was especially bad with the (red herring, it turned out, basically) budding chemistry between two characters: we literally get one line of inane dialog from each before we step back into POV characters narration about gee whiz! They're talking and just crackling with chemistry! Ooh!
-- just realized, too, we don't see the other character again. He was more small plot device than character. Huh.
- couldn't get a firm grasp of some things/people. How old was Fin supposed to be again? Ellie is 25 but feels younger. I completely forgot she was into poetry: certainly she's been a bit stressed and busy during the book, but her connection to the water and her attempts at boxing are much more visible. Surely that could have been reinforced, too.
Enjoyments:
- Long Island
- Contraceptives being employed before characters have sex. So rare!
- There were a couple times I made eyerolling notes only for a sentence or paragraph later, the author answered my concern. Good!
- Holy rollers disturb me in real life: the supernaturally creepy ones definitely punch my buttons as credible threats. See also: Libba Bray's The Diviners (first book and the barely decent parts of the third book).
- nice title, nice cover art
Mixed bag:
I'm not a pacifist, at least not for fictional characters, and normally I'm gritting my teeth when the heroes can't bring themselves to kill bad guys. Here, the bad guys are fellow townsfolk with the btw SUPER COMMON in the 20s (and today, 100 years later, it turns out) bigotry that c'mon, this shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone, this was peak eugenics time, too... I digress. Anyway, bunch of hopped-up-on-demon-moonshine townies are the mooks, and our leads very quickly and relatively easily get right to the "better kill them to be safe" mode of thinking. Refreshing...but also you definitely just killed a bunch of neighbors -- not generic demons or such, but regular crappy ol' people who you can identify... And we don't see any follow-up to that! Actual townsfolk are dead now! What's the reaction? What's the investigation? How do people react in the wake of losing the influence of the lead antagonist?
And this is purely subjective personal preference, but I was expecting evil fairies, not demons. Was it just the rainbow sheen on the first guy? I think rainbows (and mushrooms and questionable comestibles), I think fairies before I think demons? It wouldn't, I think, change much one way or the other. Just mildly surprising: oh. Demons. Okay.
December 9, 2018
This may be my favorite Molly Tanzer novel. The plot is smart, the pacing is perfect, the historical setting is convincing without becoming precious, and the nods to Weird Fiction's forbearers are organic, not contrived. Tanzer's characters are vividly drawn, and she excels at writing smart capable women.
In 1920s Amityville, baywoman Ellie West is saving every penny she makes to put her brother through medical college. Her bootlegging has consequences far beyond the expected scrapes with the Long Island mafia when she accidentally delivers a batch of demonic moonshine to wealthy clients Fin and Jimmy and their tedious friends. The consequences of the mistake draw unwanted attention from local bigoted cultists. Ellie, African-American distiller SJ, the friendly local Cuban-American cop, and her Polish fiance are Long Island's only hope against the demon-raising temperance preacher. Fin realizes she's better off without her husband and joins Ellie to summon a demon of their own and sacrifice everything to prevent the impending cataclysm, as one does in such situations.
This is the second book in the loosely connected Creatures series with the next volume promised next year.
In 1920s Amityville, baywoman Ellie West is saving every penny she makes to put her brother through medical college. Her bootlegging has consequences far beyond the expected scrapes with the Long Island mafia when she accidentally delivers a batch of demonic moonshine to wealthy clients Fin and Jimmy and their tedious friends. The consequences of the mistake draw unwanted attention from local bigoted cultists. Ellie, African-American distiller SJ, the friendly local Cuban-American cop, and her Polish fiance are Long Island's only hope against the demon-raising temperance preacher. Fin realizes she's better off without her husband and joins Ellie to summon a demon of their own and sacrifice everything to prevent the impending cataclysm, as one does in such situations.
This is the second book in the loosely connected Creatures series with the next volume promised next year.
April 7, 2019
I enjoyed the first Creatures book quite a bit, I think this is a great premise for a series, and in theory, Want and Ruin is a great entry in that world. The setting is both fun and particular enough to feel embodied, and the cast of characters has Molly's trademark blend of strength, sex, humor, and idiosyncracy. The problem is that the story itself just feels way too rushed and superficial, and while the characters come through well enough, the worldbuilding is weak and contrived, and most importantly, there's no real drama. Where Will and Temper built its mythology into a charming and witty web of interesting relationships, this time the main plot swamps the character work almost immediately, and things only get worse as the conflict grows. The villains are thin, the relevance of their plot to the protagonists is undersold, and everything just feels tenuously asserted where it should be felt and grounded. None of the intricate and layered construction of the first book is evident this time.
October 16, 2018
I received an ARC copy of this book from Edelweiss
I really enjoyed Creatures of Will and Temper from this author, but I had a bit of trouble getting into this one. This isn't a sequel really so you don't need to have read the first book to enjoy it, although I think they might have name dropped a few characters briefly. This story blends the supernatural elements of weird plants and demons with an unfortunately still all too realistic preacher who basically wants to 'make Long Island great again'. It's both an interesting piece of historical fiction and an incredibly relevant commentary on our society today. I honestly don't know why I had such trouble getting into it - it took me over two weeks to read - but I feel like if I was in a different mood it would have easily been a four star book. I would definitely recommend it to people who like historical fiction with awesome female protagonists.
I really enjoyed Creatures of Will and Temper from this author, but I had a bit of trouble getting into this one. This isn't a sequel really so you don't need to have read the first book to enjoy it, although I think they might have name dropped a few characters briefly. This story blends the supernatural elements of weird plants and demons with an unfortunately still all too realistic preacher who basically wants to 'make Long Island great again'. It's both an interesting piece of historical fiction and an incredibly relevant commentary on our society today. I honestly don't know why I had such trouble getting into it - it took me over two weeks to read - but I feel like if I was in a different mood it would have easily been a four star book. I would definitely recommend it to people who like historical fiction with awesome female protagonists.
January 29, 2020
I loved this book! A diverse cast of likable characters teams up against human and otherworldly horrors to save their beloved island. (The bad guys are motivated by a pick 'n' choose xenophobia that sounds very familiar...) Betrayals and a character death complicate the plot enough to be suspenseful but not feel manipulative or unrealistic. And win or lose, actions have consequences.
I was uncomfortable with how the characters discussed disability, but so was the heroine! She knows the issues are complicated but is understandably unequipped to deal with them while the fate of her world is at stake. The conflict feels accurate to the time period, as well as to the mixed emotions of a traumatized family. Tanzer is realistic about human nature without condoning its flaws.
I was uncomfortable with how the characters discussed disability, but so was the heroine! She knows the issues are complicated but is understandably unequipped to deal with them while the fate of her world is at stake. The conflict feels accurate to the time period, as well as to the mixed emotions of a traumatized family. Tanzer is realistic about human nature without condoning its flaws.
December 9, 2018
Creatures of Will and Temper had just a little less imagination, a little less adventure, a little less of that dirty creativity I look for in Molly Tanzer books.
Creatures of Want and Ruin has a bit less than that.
I’m not sure if it’s the attempt at a series that is making the “Creatures” books seem forced, slow, and awkward. Perhaps it’s an attempt to be a bit more mainstream? All I know is that this book was a slog, when I usually devour a new Tanzer book in hours.
If the next in the series, set in a girls’ boarding school, doesn’t have that dirty, scary frisson, well, I will probably still keep reading Tanzer, I love her that much.
I guess some are going to hit. And some are going to Mis(katonic).
Creatures of Want and Ruin has a bit less than that.
I’m not sure if it’s the attempt at a series that is making the “Creatures” books seem forced, slow, and awkward. Perhaps it’s an attempt to be a bit more mainstream? All I know is that this book was a slog, when I usually devour a new Tanzer book in hours.
If the next in the series, set in a girls’ boarding school, doesn’t have that dirty, scary frisson, well, I will probably still keep reading Tanzer, I love her that much.
I guess some are going to hit. And some are going to Mis(katonic).
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