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A review by sherwoodreads
Creatures of Will and Temper by Molly Tanzer
The best way I can think of to describe this weird fantasy set in fin-de-siecle London one universe over is to compare it to Shostakovich's Eleventh Symphony, which blends classical and modern musical themes as it tells the story of the 1905 Revolution.
It starts with deceptive slowness, as Victorian novels do, sedate, with attention to late-Victorian detail, but with contemporary viewpoints skewing the Victoriana, and period language mixed with modern.
Here and there sharp thematic hints: the mention of demons, pooh poohed, of course, by modern thinkers. Unabashedly queer-friendly, at a time when there were life-destroying courtroom dramas on this very subject.
Central are two sisters, ten years apart, Dorina Gray and Evadne. Dorina is seventeen, pretty and socially savvy, and knows what she wants. Evadne is not pretty, socially awkward, disappointed at pretty much everything, except her fencing. At that, she's very, very good.
The girls do not get along, though deep down they do care for each other, and wonder how to communicate. This aspect kept me reading, painful as it was a times, but Tanzer is very deft at characterization, never letting even minor characters remain one note, or predictable.
I totally believed in the sisters' arc (I have a sister exactly four years younger, and all the time we had to share a room we fought like hyenas, but as soon as we got our own rooms, we got along great; our blend of tearing at each other and yet having each other's back matches the difficult emotional arc I read here), which is very important. Meanwhile the demonic theme is tantalizingly dangled before the reader.
Then, like the Shostakovich, the relatively quiet beginning slowly begins to intensify, until the bloody and thunderous rush of the climax.
Very engrossing, vivid, intense, a real page turner.
Copy provided by NetGalley
It starts with deceptive slowness, as Victorian novels do, sedate, with attention to late-Victorian detail, but with contemporary viewpoints skewing the Victoriana, and period language mixed with modern.
Here and there sharp thematic hints: the mention of demons, pooh poohed, of course, by modern thinkers. Unabashedly queer-friendly, at a time when there were life-destroying courtroom dramas on this very subject.
Central are two sisters, ten years apart, Dorina Gray and Evadne. Dorina is seventeen, pretty and socially savvy, and knows what she wants. Evadne is not pretty, socially awkward, disappointed at pretty much everything, except her fencing. At that, she's very, very good.
The girls do not get along, though deep down they do care for each other, and wonder how to communicate. This aspect kept me reading, painful as it was a times, but Tanzer is very deft at characterization, never letting even minor characters remain one note, or predictable.
I totally believed in the sisters' arc (I have a sister exactly four years younger, and all the time we had to share a room we fought like hyenas, but as soon as we got our own rooms, we got along great; our blend of tearing at each other and yet having each other's back matches the difficult emotional arc I read here), which is very important. Meanwhile the demonic theme is tantalizingly dangled before the reader.
Then, like the Shostakovich, the relatively quiet beginning slowly begins to intensify, until the bloody and thunderous rush of the climax.
Very engrossing, vivid, intense, a real page turner.
Copy provided by NetGalley