“Profound and enthralling. This book is a delicate dream, mixing its own internal mythology with a brutal tale of prejudice and human frailty. I can’t recommend it enough. Tanzer is absolutely one to watch.” –Seanan McGuire, bestselling, award-winning author of In an Absent Dream Amityville baywoman Ellie West fishes by day and bootlegs moonshine by night. It’s dangerous work under … 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.
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Profound and enthralling. This book is a delicate dream, mixing its own internal mythology with a brutal tale of prejudice and human frailty. I can’t recommend it enough. Tanzer is absolutely one to watch.
Once again Molly Tanzer demonstrates a bootlegger’s knack for transforming glorious pulpy material into human spirit. Creatures of Want and Ruin is a riveting two-fisted weird pulp adventure with demons, smuggling, sex, archery, cults, and crime that doesn’t shrink from carving its predecessors open to poke around in their guts. Great fun!
Creatures of Will and Temper was my favorite fantasy of 2017, and sequel Creatures of Want and Ruin is even better — a perfect Prohibition-Era cocktail of bootleggers, demons, and high society that will leave you shaken and stirred.
The writing in Molly Tanzer’s Creatures of Want and Ruin is so smooth you don’t notice it past the first word. The story telling takes over and you just want more of Ellie West and the denizens of her world, the dead-on 1920s Long Island historical setting, the Great South Bay, the apocalyptic religious cult, the strangeness, until the end and there’s no more story to go. A wonderfully engaging read!
Creatures of Want and Ruin is my introduction to Molly Tanzer’s writing. This was a creepy supernatural read that dives into witchcraft and the occult. I truly enjoyed this story and its cast of characters. Ellie is an Amityville baywoman in Long Island, NY and to help support her family and send her brother to college she sells moonshine. It is during one of these runs that she encounters something unusual and her whole world changes. What follows is a battle between good and evil. I truly loved this story and all the spookiness plus the cast of characters. While spooky and a bit creepy it was not so scary that it keeps you up at night. Just the right amount of scare and tension that made it a fast-paced read for me.
Molly Tanzer writes human darkness, intimacy, and joy with equal skill and fervor. Her characters blaze with life, straining against the bonds of society. Creatures of Want and Ruin is horrific fantasy that races along at a breathless clip, with family drama as the revving engine. If you haven’t read Molly Tanzer yet, this is the perfect time to start!
With Creatures of Want and Ruin, Molly Tanzer has created a deliciously dark and satisfying follow-up to Creatures of Will and Temper. This Prohibition-era romp is rich with archery and moonshine; the bonds between siblings; the love between female friends; and the stark, chilly beauty of Long Island’s loneliest places. Oh — and a demon who is hell-bent on wreaking havoc. Creatures of Want and Ruin is a fun read and an easy page-turner, but it also grapples with hard and heavy stuff: the heartbreak of growing apart from people you once loved, and finding them strangers; the destructive forces unleashed by bigotry and hate; and the sacrifices we might be called upon to make in order to save our world. For a novel about demonic moonshine and nefarious fungus, Creatures of Want and Ruin is nevertheless grippingly timely.