SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Creatures of Want and Ruin by Molly Tanzer

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Creatures of Want and Ruin by Molly Tanzer: https://t.co/jkHAMIz8oV Short Review: 7.5 out of 10 (1/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) December 29, 2018

Short Review: In prohibition-era Long Island, Bootlegger Ellie West and her friends find the Island in danger from a Demon-aided Preacher preaching hatred against outsiders...and the deaths of all who stand in his way. Two strong leads + an apt plot make this a solid read (2/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) December 29, 2018

Creatures of Want and Ruin is the second fantasy novel by Molly Tanzer that I've read this year, as this book is the stand-alone sequel to her Creatures of Will and Temper (Review Here).  This common thread in this series is the existence of demons who can commune with humans (diabolists) and have their own agendas, some more malevolent than others.  I very much enjoyed how this thread worked with Creatures of Will and Temper, so I have been looking forward to this sequel for a while, especially as the setting has moved to Long Island, where I'm from.

And Creatures of Want and Ruin is pretty good, albeit maybe not as good as its predecessor.  It's certainly a book that aims to be more relevant than the first book - whereas that book was an alternate take of "The Picture of Dorian Gray," this book features a struggle with an antagonist spreading hatred against the outsiders - foreigners and minorities - coming to Long Island and ruining the land (gee, wonder where that idea came from).  It works and the plot is well done, but the characters don't quite live up to those of the first book and the plot's clear black and white nature of things makes it just a small step down from its predecessor.

Note: As I mentioned above, this book is entirely stand-alone and reading the predecessor is completely unnecessary to enjoy this book - it takes place a few decades later on a different continent and while the events of the former book are very very vaguely referenced, this book doesn't even really spoil the first book either.  So you can start here or start with the first book without any problems.  


-------------------------------------------------Plot Summary--------------------------------------------------
In prohibition era Long Island - in Amityville - Ellie West supplements her family income by smuggling moonshine at night to locals who want it.  Taught to drive a boat by her father before he went to war and came back harder and shamed, Ellie wants to save up enough money to put her polio-suffering brother through medical school and to get married to her fiance Gabriel, as well as to support her struggling parents. But Ellie's father, under the influence of a wandering Reverend, is starting to grow angry with her for working and beginning to rant about the influences of outsiders on Long Island, and it is hard for her to take.

But when Ellie accidentally kills a neighbor at night in self-defense and takes the neighbor's stash of moonshine, she finds the stuff is strange and thinks she sees the presence of the supernatural.  And when she sells this strange drink to a group of rich newcomers to the Island, it causes them to go mad, and mass havoc is wreaked.

One those rich newcomers is Fin, a suffering wife who feels like she's lost control of her life, who secretly wishes the demons she has read about in a few books are true.  And when she drinks the moonshine Ellie gives her, she sees a vision of a demon cracking Long Island in half, and knows that she has to finally make a stand and do something.

Together, Ellie and Fin will find themselves arrayed against a group preaching hatred across Long Island and wielding strange powers to their wicked ends....and it may take communing with their own otherworldly beings to find the truth needed to save Long Island from the destructive hatred spreading across it......
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Creatures of Want and Ruin is clearly channeling the current cultural moment in America, as the book's antagonists are led by a reverend who is preaching hatred toward outsiders - whether they be POC, Irishmen, or other "immigrants" - which include many of our heroines' friends.  The group is preaching a return to the days of old and their message is catching on with much of the populace, including the older father of the main protagonist.  So you can see where the book is going with this, and if you know the book's predecessor at all or have read the plot summary, it should come as no surprise that the antagonist is using the powers of a demon to aid his cause.

This could wind up being really tacky or awful, but actually is done really well here, as the book makes it quite clear that while the message of hate is being spread through the use of supernatural power, these words resonate and have such devastating effect because the people are already inclined to believe such hateful thoughts.  The book thus doesn't make an excuse out of the supernatural for its characters and that makes the story rather chilling to read.

The result is a plot that works rather well, with some beats being pretty well expected for the reader and others being rather surprising as they come up.  Like the first book in the series, the plot takes a while to set up (especially as the reader is well aware that the demons are going to come into play somewhere), but after the first act things start moving a bit more briskly to its ultimate conclusion.  The two main characters Ellie and Fin are done rather well and make good characters to follow no matter which POV (the book is told about 66% from Ellie's POV and 33% from Fin's) the book is following at any given time.

The book has some issues - there are a number of side characters in this book but they rarely get enough pagetime to be of much interest (the black woman who Ellie gets her supply of moonshine from gets not nearly enough page-time for the teases we see of her, and the book's focus on the white women protagonists makes it a bit more noticable for example).  And whereas the first book had the conflict between those with demons and those without as not being so black and white, this book makes the conflict rather clear.  And the negative effects of the demon worship are kept largely to the side and the epilogue, which makes it feel kind of weak.

Still, I enjoyed Creatures of Want and Ruin and look forward to the third book in the series (scheduled for 2020) which moves to World War 2.  There's certainly more fresh material to be mined out of the concept of this world with demons.