es42's review against another edition
2.0
I loved Creatures of Will and Temper, so I was looking forward to Want and Ruin! But ultimately I found it lacking when compared to its predecessor. Perhaps it would work better as a stand-alone book, if I didn't have such high expectations... What I liked about Will and Temper was that it centered around the human-demon relationship, and had a strong concept at its core (helped by the Dorian Gray allusions). The characters in Want and Ruin are likable, well-written. The setting is nice. The plot, however, is somewhat bland. But the main problem is that the book lacks in the demonology department, which was the most innovative and interesting element of Will and Temper. Molly Tanzer uses the same tactics: introduces in-universe texts ("The Demon in the Deep" and the poem "The Ginger-Eaters" - a connection to the previous novel), but we don't learn as much about the demons as I'd prefer. For the most part of the book, the characters are more like "investigators" of the demonic phenomena than active participants.
Overall, Creatures of Want and Ruin is still a fun, thrilling occult adventure novel, and the low rating I give reflects my subjective expectations.
I anticipate Tanzer's next book, Creatures of Charm and Hunger, with its promise ofliving deliciously "two girls living in the north of England during World War II, where they are studying to be master diabolists..." - I hope I will get to see more of the author's unique vision of demonology!
* Additional rant, with spoilers:
The main antagonist demon is just this vaguely Lovecraftian entity that wants to devour the world and is served by a mind-controlled cult. There is no additional lore. We get glimpses of the second demon through the aforementioned text, "The Demon in the Deep", but the actual entity makes its appearance quite late in the novel. It is more interesting, but, well, I'd have preferred for the novel to start at the end...
Overall, Creatures of Want and Ruin is still a fun, thrilling occult adventure novel, and the low rating I give reflects my subjective expectations.
I anticipate Tanzer's next book, Creatures of Charm and Hunger, with its promise of
* Additional rant, with spoilers:
The main antagonist demon is just this vaguely Lovecraftian entity that wants to devour the world and is served by a mind-controlled cult. There is no additional lore. We get glimpses of the second demon through the aforementioned text, "The Demon in the Deep", but the actual entity makes its appearance quite late in the novel. It is more interesting, but, well, I'd have preferred for the novel to start at the end...
nefari_'s review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
jackiebetrue's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Animal death
jonmhansen's review
4.0
"How about you?" He eyed the final crate of booze. "You need any help?"
"Thanks, but this is the last of it. I better get going... SJ ran me off like a dog."
"Nah, she likes dogs."
"Thanks, but this is the last of it. I better get going... SJ ran me off like a dog."
"Nah, she likes dogs."
raforall's review against another edition
4.0
Review on blog and Booklist Magazine [11/1/18]: http://raforall.blogspot.com/2018/11/what-im-reading-2-great-speculative.html
maggietokudahall's review against another edition
4.0
I loved every character in this book, but the plot felt smaller than the stakes to me.
sierrainstitches's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
4.0
lightfoxing's review against another edition
4.0
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.