In Creatures of Want & Ruin by Molly Tanzer, it is the 1920s on Long Island. Ellie West, the daughter of a man who wanted to fight in the Great War but came back injured before he even finished training, does whatever it takes to raise money to send her younger brother to college to become a doctor, including selling illegal liquor. As long as she keeps the police properly bribed, it is a quiet life. That is until the night she tries to help an injured fellow boatman. The man she attempts to rescue lashes out at her, and both he and the stormy night sky take on unnatural colors before the fight ends with Ellie badly bruised and the man dead with a case of strange moonshine left behind, which Ellie takes, just in case.
Elsewhere in town, Delphine Coulthead, also known as Fin, is settling into a vacation home with her husband and friends. They’re there for a good time, but Fin, a political activist who, for the sake of her marriage, shifted from disseminating contraception in defiance of the law to hosting charity balls, is chaffing against her husband’s recent change from practicing law into the class of the idle rich. Her main balm against the growing estrangement between her and her companions is her growing love for the island’s natural beauty.
The two women’s paths cross when Fin’s husband and friends decide to throw a party requiring enough liquor for the cost to more than cover the school fees for Ellie’s bother. The only way for Ellie to scrape together enough product is to include the mystery moonshine. That moonshine turns out to give those who drink it, including Fin, terrifying visions of Long Island destroyed in fire and flood. Fin knows the vision is too vivid to be mere hallucination and seeks out Ellie for answers.
Their search will lead them to a cult in thrall to a demon, its leader convinced that helping the diabolical force to emerge will bring salvation to those who truly belong on Long island. What will it take to stop them, and can Ellie and Fin live with the costs?
Creatures of Want & Ruin slides easily from dream-like beauty to horrific nightmare, much like dreams and nightmares themselves, but is grounded by the steadily-growing plot and the two well-realized leads. Combined, they make for a perfect sense of dark enchantment. If you enjoy it, be sure to check out Tanzer’s other novel in this universe, Creatures of Will & Temper, which shifts focus to Victorian London, and keep an eye out for Creatures of Charm & Hunger, coming in 2020.
Rating: **** Stars (I really liked it!)
- Catherine, Librarian
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GENRE: Adaptations, Retellings, and Spin-Offs; Historical Fantasy; Multiple Perspectives PACE: Intensifying WRITING STYLE: Compelling; Descriptive; Lush STORYLINE: Intricately Plotted TONE: Atmospheric; Creepy CHARACTER: Well-Developed LOCATION: Long Island, New York TIME PERIOD: 1920s SUBJECT: Coastal Towns; Cults; Demons; Families; Nonconformists; Occultism; Prejudice; Prohibition; Racism; Supernatural; Violence; Women Bootleggers
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