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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.
tearsofphoenix's review against another edition
3.0
It's more weird and less wonderful (or what counts as wonderful for me.)
It was definitely creepy but nowhere where I felt scared or really creeped out. It built a good setting and I love how Molly Tanzer threaded everyone's stories and character arcs amazingly. The characters were nicely developed. And despite all that, I couldn't really love them. I felt like I would have wanted to be more creeped out/or scared but that's just me. Overall the writing and the plot are both more than decent.
Many thanks to NetGalley for providing me with thiseArC to review.
bwandungi's review against another edition
3.0
I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
What is this book about?
---------------------------
Ellie is a bootlegger, selling liquor to people up and down the south bay in Amityville. During a heavy storm, a man (who is known to her) seems high on some rainbow stuff (it's dribbling down his chin) and tries to kill her.
Fin is in a marriage that is souring and she's watching it slowly circle the drain into nothingness.
Both women are drawn into an unlikely friendship where together with a band of non-whites (and one person of Polish descent) they will uncover a plot to return Amityville back to the "good middle days".
Overall impression
---------------------
The author is a skilled writer, weaving a tale with vivid descriptions that draw you all the way into these characters and their lives. The only drawback is that the story was SOOOOOOOO slow. I kept skipping ahead and then turning back because I was impatient to find out what happened.
Who will love this book
--------------------------
1. People who enjoy seeing the good guys win.
2. Those who are interested in complex characters.
3. Those who've ever tried to defend their homes from "invading forces".
I have more thoughts down below!
↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓
***** SPOILERS AHEAD *****
*******SPOILERS BEGINNING - Watch out! ******
↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓
Stuff liked
-----------
1. This book was very well written with tons of interesting descriptions (which I'm stealing) and large as life characters who were mostly well developed.
2. Bravo for trying to tackle issues we're all dealing with right now that show how sometimes things change and sometimes things just really stay the same.
Stuff that made me go hmmm
---------------------------------
1. I couldn't figure Ellie out. Her character was quite unlike any other I've come across and on the whole quite unlikeable. I couldn't pin her down. One would imagine that a bootlegger isn't so concerned about how people consume their alcohol.
2. Her relationship with Gabriel. Hmmmmm. I'd be better convinced if it weren't quite so wholesome on the surface when all this cuckhold business is boiling just underneath the surface.
3. Very "white saviour-y". But then again we know that xenophobic white people listen better to their own people so... dunno. Made me a little uncomfortable.
Stuff I didn't like
------------------
1. Jones the Cuban uses the word Polack, but other people are bigots?
2. Right after Lester and Ellie fight (after she was almost killed by crazy-rainbow-drooler), there was dissolving into giggles. It seemed oddly out of place. AND it wasn't indicative of "conversation without words". Felt rushed into their familial happy feelings instead of letting the heat of their anger and disappointment take their course.
3. So, the hunter sisters look alike. Why would that elicit disgust? Are twins disgusting? Triplets? Any multiples that make anyone cringe. That was weird.
I think all these were just to highlight how strange and weird the shifting emotions in these characters were. Dissolving into giggles (Ellie giggled a LOT, which is hard to take from anyone who isn't 6 years old. I just realized I'm a curmudgeon).
Would have been 5 stars coz the writing was truly excellent, but MC was too weird and my emotions were being rushed, and yet the action was sooooo achingly slow. I can truly say I've never felt like this reading any book. I'll be looking out for other works from this author.
What is this book about?
---------------------------
Ellie is a bootlegger, selling liquor to people up and down the south bay in Amityville. During a heavy storm, a man (who is known to her) seems high on some rainbow stuff (it's dribbling down his chin) and tries to kill her.
Fin is in a marriage that is souring and she's watching it slowly circle the drain into nothingness.
Both women are drawn into an unlikely friendship where together with a band of non-whites (and one person of Polish descent) they will uncover a plot to return Amityville back to the "good middle days".
Overall impression
---------------------
The author is a skilled writer, weaving a tale with vivid descriptions that draw you all the way into these characters and their lives. The only drawback is that the story was SOOOOOOOO slow. I kept skipping ahead and then turning back because I was impatient to find out what happened.
Who will love this book
--------------------------
1. People who enjoy seeing the good guys win.
2. Those who are interested in complex characters.
3. Those who've ever tried to defend their homes from "invading forces".
I have more thoughts down below!
↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓
***** SPOILERS AHEAD *****
*******SPOILERS BEGINNING - Watch out! ******
↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓
Stuff liked
-----------
1. This book was very well written with tons of interesting descriptions (which I'm stealing) and large as life characters who were mostly well developed.
2. Bravo for trying to tackle issues we're all dealing with right now that show how sometimes things change and sometimes things just really stay the same.
Stuff that made me go hmmm
---------------------------------
1. I couldn't figure Ellie out. Her character was quite unlike any other I've come across and on the whole quite unlikeable. I couldn't pin her down. One would imagine that a bootlegger isn't so concerned about how people consume their alcohol.
2. Her relationship with Gabriel. Hmmmmm. I'd be better convinced if it weren't quite so wholesome on the surface when all this cuckhold business is boiling just underneath the surface.
3. Very "white saviour-y". But then again we know that xenophobic white people listen better to their own people so... dunno. Made me a little uncomfortable.
Stuff I didn't like
------------------
1. Jones the Cuban uses the word Polack, but other people are bigots?
2. Right after Lester and Ellie fight (after she was almost killed by crazy-rainbow-drooler), there was dissolving into giggles. It seemed oddly out of place. AND it wasn't indicative of "conversation without words". Felt rushed into their familial happy feelings instead of letting the heat of their anger and disappointment take their course.
3. So, the hunter sisters look alike. Why would that elicit disgust? Are twins disgusting? Triplets? Any multiples that make anyone cringe. That was weird.
I think all these were just to highlight how strange and weird the shifting emotions in these characters were. Dissolving into giggles (Ellie giggled a LOT, which is hard to take from anyone who isn't 6 years old. I just realized I'm a curmudgeon).
Would have been 5 stars coz the writing was truly excellent, but MC was too weird and my emotions were being rushed, and yet the action was sooooo achingly slow. I can truly say I've never felt like this reading any book. I'll be looking out for other works from this author.
lamusadelils's review against another edition
3.0
Tiene momentos muy creepy, especialmente lo que tiene que ver con hongos, pero creo que hay mucho dialogo y no muy bueno.