*An advanced reader ebook copy was provided by the publisher’s blog tour campaign via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

trigger warnings: self-harm, alcoholism, abuse

Emily A. Duncan’s Wicked Saints combines Slavic folklore, religious zealotry, warring countries, a band of misfits, teen angst, and a good dose of Dungeons & Dragons and creates a bloody and brutal narrative.

Nadezhda “Nadya” Lapteva is a Kalyazi cleric who can channel a pantheon of gods via religious devotion. She is the first in a generation to be able to connect with the gods and is fated to help save her country in a ongoing war between Kalyazin and their heretical neighbor, Tranavia. Tranavia is a supposed “heretical” nation in this holy war because their mages use blood and spell books to cast magic rather than relying on divine blessings. Nayda grows up in a monastery away from the war front until the monastery is attacked by blood mages. Realizing the fight is lost, Nayda and a companion escape their enemies eventually linking up with a band of misfits set on ending the holy war, all for their own reasons. Meanwhile, the reader also see Serefin’s, the Tranavian high prince, perspective. Serefin is wary after years at the battle front before being recalled to Tranavia to marry. Serefin fears it’s a set up for his father to murder him and replace him with an heir that will act as a puppet. Nayda and Serefin’s stories alternate and converge as the plot plays out.

I liked this and I think a lot of YA fantasy fans will enjoy this new series.

I enjoyed the Slavic folklore and Russian-esque setting of the story layered with the cleric magic versus blood magic. I loved how these two systems were competing and religious or non-religious aspects of the magic. The excerpts of the fictitious Codex of the Divine at the beginning of chapters added a nice depth to this religious world building. Additionally, though we’re introduced to this holy war via Nadya who’s been raised to view Tranavians as heretical monsters, Duncan does an excellent job of creating morally grey areas because ultimately war is ugly on all sides while people have monstrous sides they can be more complicated than merely evil.

As someone who has played Dungeons & Dragons, at times the plot and magical system seem straight out of a D&D campaign or a fantasy video game. I went back and forth over whether I like this incorporation or not. Similarly, the Slavic inspired setting and world-building seemed reminiscent of Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse. I’m not a huge fan of that so again at times this worked for me and at other times it seemed forced. When done well I love a good background love story in a fantasy novel. However, the instalove was a bit much for me as I could see it mile off. The banter between the love interests didn’t always hold my attention.

Despite of few of my gripes about clearly seeing creative inspiration from other works and one of my least favorite tropes, instalove, I thought the novel was interesting, well paced, and highly readable (i.e. you’ll likely consume this in a few days). While it is not a perfect book, I think it’s a solid debut and I want to read the rest of the series! This has the whiff of a popular YA series in the making! If you’re a YA fantasy fan I think this will right up your alley!

An unusual fantasy- paranormal book and original. The tone was creepy. There were demons and mad preachers and a secret cabal and a plan to rule the world, or at least Long Island. Mwahaha! Will a group of disparate people to stop the evil before it goes too far? Read on! This plays on the B movie vibe. I love the idea of seeing giant pulsating mushrooms wreaking havoc! Great read. Thanks to Netgalley for an arc of this book.

This book started out much more violently than I had anticipated, but it is a fast, vivid read, Interesting premise and characters.

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.

I will say the book was good, however, just not one I will rant and rave about. It could possibly be that I just wasn’t in the right mood for a book like this, but I can see the hype over Molly Tanzer’s books. I enjoyed Creatures of Will and Temper so I was curious to give this next book a shot. I overall preferred book one in this case. I have heard others compare these books to Libba Bray’s Gemma Doyle series - A Great and Terrible Beauty. I can agree with that to an extent, mainly when considering the characters as well as the historical feel.

I would say if you enjoy historical atmospheric books and some dark horror feels, I’d give this book and Creatures of Will and Temper a try for sure!

[this review will be up on my blog, acquadimore.wordpress.com, on December 15, 2018]

This wasn't perfect, but queer fiction about fighting bigots is the best kind of fiction.
Creatures of Want and Ruin follows Ellie, a moonshine smuggler in prohibition-era Long Island. She is a polyamorous woman in an open relationship with a bisexual man, and in this story she will have to fight demon-raising bigots masquerading as religious people with the help of her diverse group of friends.

I thought I wasn't going to like this book. I DNFed its companion prequel earlier this year, and I still don't recommend it, but the good thing is that you don't need to read it to understand this one. It's just set in the same world, but it feels darker, and it features really creepy fungi that almost feel lovecraftian.

I thought this book said some really interesting things about what it's like to love a place even though the people who live there with you hate everything you stand for. Bigots are people who project their insecurities on people who - according to them - don't belong there, but just because there are bigots, it doesn't mean the place you grew up is any less a part of you, any less yours.
This book also talked about how bigotry works in general, and it was really interesting - and heartbreaking - to read.

However, there were many things I didn't love about Creatures of Want and Ruin. First of all, it's full of infodumps, and the main reason I read this book so quickly is that I skimmed a lot. Also, I didn't like how a certain disabled character is basically used as a plot device throughout the entire story.
This story is told through two PoVs: Ellie's and Fin's. Fin's just wasn't as interesting, I didn't care about her failed marriage - the resolution of that was obvious from the start - but I did end up liking how she and Ellie became allies. I also liked the side characters, there was black and Cuban side representation here.

In an age of the current political climate where the idea of morality and hate is taking on a skewed vision of itself, the proponent of finding a way to fight against a certain level of tyranny even in a structure of metaphor is an interesting exercise. In “Creatures Of Want & Ruin” [Molly Tanzer/John Joseph Adams & Mariner Books/352pgs], the lead character of Ellie, a bootlegger but ultramodern for the prohibition era she lives in, rallies against people’s expectations of her and the notions of class that revolve in her circles as she simply tries to be happy. At home, her father feels a sense of loathing for himself because he was injured in the war and feels he can longer effectively lead the family. Her brother Lester has polio but is training to be a doctor and yet the father belittles him for not being manly. Ellie’s boyfriend Gabriel is an artful type but truly loves her despite his slightly unusual sexual appetites which adds another layer to the proceedings. The structure of the book involves a would-be threat in the form of spores and mushrooms that is threatening to take over and destroy Long Island. It is not really an apocalyptic progression per se but in true form it is the work of demons under the tutelage of man bent on cleansing for the good of the island. The main antagonist is a would-be pastor named Hunter who has summoned a demon to help him manipulate and cleanse Amityville and further more the island of its sins. It alters his followers through the ironic use of tainted liquor turning them into brainwashed automatons who think everything he tells them is truth. Ellie along with a corrupt but trustworthy cop Jones, her second lover Rocky and two bootleggers who are black (and thereby targets of a would be Klan) set the stakes high. The character that balances the story is Fin, a young woman swirled in a Gatsby-type structure who feels disjointed from her life of wanting nothing. It is like Daisy in the famous Fitzgerald novel but one who takes control of her own destiny though through her backstory. She seems fated to do it. She succeeds where Ellie cannot but she could not take the necessary steps without Ellie. The imagery in the book is good but it is the idea of understanding identity versus living it and also the underlying sociological commentary that makes the book both intrinsic and a fun read though the stakes never take a rough edgy feeling in the way they could. The one shocking turn of events which results in a chilling murder should have more power than it has but that might have to do with writing structure. “Creatures Of Want & Ruin” is a effective social commentary set in a different era that brings all too specifically the ideas that face us today.

B

By Tim Wassberg

I really enjoyed Molly Tanzer's Creatures of Will and Temper, so I was quite excited about the sequel Creatures of Want and Ruin. I'm happy to say that it didn't disappoint.

The great thing is, this isn't directly a sequel. You can read either book on its own and enjoy it. The first book was a gender-bent reimagining of Dorian Gray. The second book has a more Lovecraftian feel, and is set on Long Island during the Prohibition. The two books have an ocean and several decades between, and their own unique cast of characters. However, they take place in the same world and both deal with the same concept of demons.

I greatly enjoyed the Long Island setting. The story takes place in and around Amityville, NY. My in-laws live on Long Island and my brother-in-law used to work in Amityville. Obviously it's changed a lot in the decades since the fictional events of this book, but I still had a strong geographical sense of place based on my visits there.

True story: I once saw a weird mushroom in Amityville and I was going to use it as the seed for a book in the series I was working on at the time. This book also involves weird mushrooms in Amityville. Other than that, and Lovecraftian inspo, my unwritten book has nothing to do with this book, but it was a funny coincidence that just deepened my enjoyment of what I was reading.

Creatures of Want and Ruin focuses on two main characters. Ellie is Long Island born and bred, and also a rumrunner. Fin is a wealthy woman, summering on Long Island with her husband and her friends, although she's starting to feel like she doesn't fit in. The two of them end up drawn into strange events surrounding a cult masquerading as a tent revival style church.

This book doesn't shy away from 1920s racism. The church isn't just concerned with religion, they're concerned with race. They believe that Long Island belongs to native Long Islanders -- and of course, their definition of "native" is white people who have been on the island for enough generations. Ellie's Polish fiance isn't white enough for them, for instance, and they certainly don't like SJ, the black woman who brews the hooch that Ellie delivers.

I think it's easy for us to forget, here in 2018, that racism has always been a shifting thing. People have drawn lines and said "Everyone on this side of the line is OK, no one else is." They look for perceived differences and use those to "prove" that others are inferior, or dangerous, or both. Cultural differences have been used as excuses for discrimination, as well as skin color and national origin. Hateful people will always find something to hate people for, whether it is race, religion, sexual orientation, or something else.

And in this book, even some of the "good guys" show a degree of racism. Ellie's cop friend regularly refers to her fiance as a "Pollack."

Ultimately, there are a lot of clashes in this book. Clashes based on generational expectations, race, class differences, disagreements within relationships. The protagonists have to overcome their conflicts with each other in order to face the growing menace of the murderous, racist cult. Some people ultimately decide that their own comfort is more important than doing the right thing. Not everything works out how everyone would want it to. It's messy, but life is messy.

One thing I enjoyed about both of the books in this series is how the author finds ways to make her female characters competent combatants. The first book centered around fencing. In this book, Ellie is an amateur boxer, and Fin does archery. I also loved how independent Ellie was, sailing the bay alone in her little rumrunning boat.

Content warning: There is a dog in this book. The dog does not make it. I know this is a deal breaker for some, and it was hard for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for generously providing me with an ARC of this novel!

First, for what I liked: The cover art is gorgeous and I loved the title.
Once beyond that, there is just too much I did not like: I could not get invested in any of the characters or any of the dialog.

I received an Advance Reader Copy from NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt / John Joseph Adams/Mariner Books in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to the NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review!

I really enjoyed this strange, but entertaining speculative fiction story! There were elements of this that nodded to Molly Tanzer’s previous book, Creatures of Will and Temper, which I also really enjoyed so that was fun!

Just as in Creatures of Will and Temper, humans can commune with demons through the ingestion of certain foods or liquids specific to said demon, in Will and Temper it was ginger, and in this story it just so happens to be a special mushroom-based moonshine! This is a fitting libation because this story takes place on Prohibition-era Long Island. In Want and Ruin the story primarily revolves around Ellie West, a young baywoman who is Long Island born and bred, she fishes and crabs during the day and distributes bootlegged moonshine at night. Ellie is desperately doing everything she can to help her family send her younger brother off to college to become a doctor. She is so desperate in fact, that one night she agrees to supply libations to a few of the wealthy elite in town, throwing in some strange moonshine that she procured in not-so-ordinary circumstances. Unbeknownst to Ellie, this moonshine is distilled by a cult of diabolists on the island who have started to gain power, and drinking the booze causes consumers to have terrible visions of the destruction of Long Island.

I loved reading along as Ellie tried to make sense of the supernatural and sinister goings-on around her. Want and Ruin also took a way more diabolical bent than Will and Temper in my opinion, with lots of xenophobia, racism, religious prejudice and misogyny thrown into the inner belief systems of the diabolists. In both of these books I really felt like Tanzer did a great job of showing that though there is a strong sense of the supernatural in her world, true evil occurrences always stem from the power (via prejudices and other vices) that everyday people supply to the demons. As scary as this book was in parts, some of the key points were very relevant to the world that we live in today.

Another thing that I really loved about both Creatures of Will and Temper and Want and Ruin are the amazing main characters in both stories. Molly Tanzer’s characters are always so beautiful and diverse, and open. I loved the two female leads in this story even more than I liked the two leads in Will and Temper. Every female character that she writes always ends up being a complex individual in their own right. I really enjoyed both Ellie and Fin in this story, but for very different reasons. Ellie is strong, independent, stubborn, clever, and remarkably self-sufficient. We also get to see that Fin has all of these qualities as well, but has been tamped down and demeaned by her friends and husband so much so that she has become insecure. I ended up loving Fin the most throughout the story because she just makes such tremendous growth and truly comes into her own by the end of this book.

Overall I really enjoyed this sinister story with it’s intriguing characters and amazing setting. And I can’t leave this review without saying that both the covers for this book and for Creatures of Will and Temper are some of the creepiest, most gorgeous covers ever!

I requested this book because i was super drawn to the cover and description.
i did like the story, it became a bit slow but started to pick up with again. really liked the concept overall

I have waited for a sequel to Creatures of Will and Temper for a year now! I was very excited to be able to read it, and very thankful to both the publisher and Molly Tanzer herself who was so sweet to help me out to procure a review copy as an international reviewer - considering how NetGalley makes us nearly invisible. I enjoyed the book for sure, although my heart still belongs to part one - Creatures of will and Temper - both because of the lighter nature of the book, and the characters involved, who were just more relatable to me personally, as well as of the time period. Despite that, Creatures of Want and Ruin is a great read that I can truly recommend. And now let me give you several reasons for reading it!

It's about...

Ellie fishes by day and bootlegs by night - she's a capable young lady. Even capable of defending herself, if need be. Oh, and need there will be. Because dark and mysterious things are going on in Amityville, and the worst part is that they're to do with hate crimes. There will be a few unwilling heroes and unfortunate events, but peace has got to be restored. And of course... Demons are involved.

Molly Tanzer Writes Strong Females So Well
I love Molly's strong female characters - in the last novel, we had a sword fighting and headstrong independent girl, plus a rebellious and flamboyant younger sister, and this time we have a few girls who are just as strong - a bootlegger street kid who is quite tough and a married archer who finds herself in the wrong society. Those are not all the strong females though! There are male characters, of course, but the driving force of the story lies in the women's hands. Molly succeeds wonderfully in giving young women a voice - and I have to say, not just plain old young women, but diverse young women - queer (even poly!) and straight, rich and poor, black and white. It's truly wonderful.

And it's not just that these women are diverse, and that's all. These women are also immensely CAPABLE. They are physically strong - one used to take boxing lessons, another is good at archery, the third can defend herself with a crossbow. They are all physically capable and do not set the example of cowering behind a man - they're more likely to defend a man. And that's not all! These women are nearly all, with an exception of one who is wealthy, gainfully employed or even have their own businesses, despite the odds and the oppression. They won't let themselves be put down. they are inspiring.

Relevant Topics: Immigration and Minorities
The main theme in the book focuses on hate crimes and oppression of non-locals, or simply people who have a different heritage. These themes are so important right now, in the current political climates. One of the things that really touched me was how the bigots of Long Island claimed that they wanted to return to the "good old days" when the land was "theirs", because they came first. Except, no - you didn't come first, people. The Indigenous came first. Americans never remember that. I wish that had been touched on in this book - in fact, that would have brought it up to five stars for me. But the racial and national minorities talk still remains very important and I'm really happy that the book was centered around it.

The Book Is Very Dark
I don't know if this is a turn-on or a turn-off for you. Most likely, you will like it being dark! I am at a place in my life right now where I don't enjoy dark and that might have influenced my rating. As I've mentioned before, Creatures of will and Temper had its darkness - demons after all, right? But it was also very whimsical. Creatures of want and Ruin is not. It's dark in a much more serious way, where loss and death are real, and so is the hate. Judging by the book's name, this was the plan! I would say it's executed well, the demons are believably dark and evil, as is their plan.

Connections To The Previous Book
What I liked most of all were the connections to Creatures of Will and Temper! I'm sure there were more of them than I even noticed, as I read the sequel a year later. But we do get to see the demonic entity from the first book, as well as mentions of the "family unit" from it. The lore in this one is much darker than in the previous one, and it's interesting to compare.

But Beware Of The Triggers

Triggers include [spoiler]hate crimes against immigrants, scary visions, murder, assault on women, pet death, death in general.[/spoiler]

Overall, I definitely enjoyed it, although it was a little bit hard to get into it at first, because it has quite a lot of characters. Readers of the first book will definitely enjoy Creatures of Want and Ruin, and I must say it can be read as a stand-alone as well - although I definitely recommend reading the first one, because it's simply brilliant! You can find my review of Creatures of Will and Temper here and here's the Goodreads info for the first book:

I thank HMH Books and Molly Tanzer for giving me a free copy of the book in exchange to my honest opinion. Receiving the book for free does not affect my opinion.

My first introduction to Molly Tanzer was with last year's Creatures of Will and Temper and I was really impressed by her Dorian Gray inspired tale. Of course as soon as I caught wind of her newest release I knew I had to try it as well and luckily for me I managed to get approved for it via NetGalley. This new companion story (you don't need to be familiar with her previous release, but it will certainly make things much more interesting if you already are) is also a historical horror fantasy set during the Roaring Twenties in New York which has to be one of my favorite genres and time periods to read about. I couldn't help but think of The Diviners series by Libba Bray while I was reading this novel. Anyway, my favorite aspects of this slow burn novel are Tanzer's eerily lush world-building and visual descriptions. She does a magnificent job of making the era and the characters come to life. The only issues were with the characters themselves, while they were all intriguing to follow none of them exactly grew on me. I wasn't particularly interested in any of them. Overall, if you're looking for a new fantasy novel with set in the 1920s during Prohibition with just the right amount of atmospheric horror, you'll absolutely need to try Molly Tanzer's Creatures of Want and Ruin.

A creepy, enthralling, and entertaining book. I loved the style of writing and the characters.
The plot hooked me since the beginning and I had to read it as fast as I can.
As far as I understand this is a series but I had no problems in understanding the plot or the characters and their relationship.
Recommended!
Many thanks to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Netgalley for this ARC

It’s hard out there for a young woman with a bitter, disabled father who has to support her family and help pay for her polio-stricken brother’s medical college fees. Her only marketable skills are her ability to pilot a ship around Long Island and a certain disregard for being strictly legal. Fortunately, with Prohibition in place, a woman like Ellie West can make a fair amount of money running alcohol if she’s careful. And, indeed, Ellie is muddling along quite well until a storm at sea causes her to bump into a supernatural problem way above her pay grade. Creatures of Want and Ruin, by Molly Tanzer, is the sequel to Creatures of Will and Temper. When I reviewed Creatures of Will and Temper, I called it a very slow burn of a novel. Creatures of Want and Ruin starts with a bang and never slows down. This book is a fantastic ride.

Creatures of Want and Ruin takes place decades later and an ocean away from the first book in the series. The rules are the same however. Demons can be summoned in this world and, in exchange for something priceless, will grant gifts to humans. There are demons who are somewhat benign. Others are creatures of pure evil that want to destroy every living thing. At the beginning of Creatures of Want and Ruin, Ellie has the bad luck to run into one of these one night when she’s sheltering in a small bay when a storm whips up next to Long Island. She finds a fellow bootlegger apparently unconscious on his boat. When Ellie tries to help him, he attacks her. During the fight, Ellie sees strange things that she initially attributes to lack of oxygen or imagination. She only escapes when she pushes him and he breaks his neck falling. Ellie, being the pragmatic type, swaps the strange smelling alcohol in his hold—with serious consequences when she later sells it to a group of rich vacationers.

As the novel rolls on, Ellie’s father gets tangled up with a pack of throwback racist evangelists, her police friend tries to track down who is responsible for a series of violent attacks on immigrants and Black residents, and patches of evil looking mushrooms start to appear every where. Meanwhile, Fin Coulthead, the wife of a wealthy heir who has no ambitions except to have a good old Jazz Age time, grows bored with her life and annoyed at the way her husband and so-called friends pay no attention to her. After a party goes wrong due to the bad booze Ellie sold them, she starts her own investigation into what the hell is going on. By the time Ellie and Fin figure out that their problems are anything but earthly, things have built up into a terrifying fever pitch.

Creatures of Want and Ruin is packed with gripping plot lines and wonderfully drawn characters. At times, some of the secondary characters—like Ellie’s prickly friend and supplier, SJ—threaten to steal the show. This book also has the addition of Ellie and her fiancé’s interestingly semi-polyandrous relationship to make things even more interesting. All this and a spectacular ending made for a highly entertaining read. I would strongly recommend this book to readers who like their historical fiction with a strong dose of the weird.

My introduction to the work of Molly Tanzer was her novel, Creatures of Will and Temper, a 19th century urban fantasy revolving around The Portrait of Dorian Gray, and demonic possession. Creatures of Want and Ruin takes place in the Roaring Twenties on Long Island, New York. The common thread between the two books is the role of demons controlling human lives. Demons take possession of people who freely agree to the arrangement, granting their hosts long life, wealth, beauty, or in this case the ability to detect falsehoods and to compel others to tell the truth. In exchange demons receive various experiences that can come about only through physical incarnation. Some demons are benign, but others are highly malevolent. Demons pass summoning instructions through generations or encoded in children’s books, as is the case here.

In this story two women from very different walks of life encounter unsettling changes in the sleepy community of Amityville. (The Amityville Horror, it should be said, lies decades in the future and does not play a part in this story.) One of the women is a boat woman engaged in the moonshine smuggling trade during Prohibition. The other is the wife of a newly wealthy Gatsby type of social idler who finds herself increasingly alienated from her husband and his party loving, booze zwilling friends. Spooky things are afoot: illegal liquor that causes most people to hallucinate. a preacher who gathers bigger and bigger crowds, bent on ridding their community of immigrants and anyone who isn't a white Protestant. And creepiest of all, slimy fungus growths that appear and spread.

As in the novel the characters are engaging and the story moves right along. The creepiness grows, step by Lovecraftian step. Just when you think nothing more terrible could happen, something else goes disastrously wrong. Stopping the white nationalist mob and defeating the fungus-monster necessitate finding out the truth, which is where the bargain with the demon comes in. There are moments of sweetness, of courage, and of terrible but necessary choices. I loved every page of it and I'm eagerly looking forward to Tanzer’s next.

The usual disclaimer: I received a review copy of this book, but no one bribed me to say anything about it.

I wanted to like this so much. The storyline was intriguing, the cover was fantastic...I couldn’t wait to read it.

But then I started it...and it went downhill from there. It took me ages to get through it because it felt like a chore. I ended up skimming it around 35%.

The characters are unlikable. The conversations seemed forced and often uncomfortable. Actually the entire book was uncomfortable. Which could be purposeful, but it didn’t work for me. I think this may be a sequel, but this is my first book by this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

What if the scariest childhood stories you ever read were real? What if the horrors that haunted those pages stepped into your adult world and threatened to destroy your home and family - everything you've ever loved?

Would you have the courage to face your fears and find a way to conquer your fears and save the world?

I can imagine this being the driving concept behind Molly Tanzer's Creatures of Want and Ruin. The story is told in three main parts; Susan's, Ellie's and Fin's. While we start off with a snapshot of Susan discovering what's happened to her friend, Ms. Depth, we're soon brought into Ellie's world. The enterprising bootlegger is independent, resourceful and soon forced to fight for her life when she tries to help a man who appears injured, who then tries to kill her.

Saying too much about the specifics of the women's roles would risk spoilers. At it's core this is a story about the high price of selling your soul to a demon, and the unintended horrors that ensue when people embrace evil. It isn't just the horrific elements and supernatural aspects of the story that wreak havoc; embracing evil threatens families and relationships with tragedies that are all too real. 

Creatures of Want and Ruin is a horror story about battling ancient evils. Tanzer takes her time to develop her characters and their dynamics as the plot unfolds, and the pace and intensity build to bring us to the climax. Tanzer blends the fantastical and horrific with the real world in a way that make you feel as though you could turn a corner and find one of those oily mushroomy things growing in the woods behind your home, threatening to erupt with demonic force or swallow you whole. 

That alone is an accomplishment. Tanzer goes deeper, though. Like the strange growths networked beneath the earth on Long Island that she writes about, there are threads of other stories and themes that are also being told. Fin and Ellie are both strong women who must take heroic actions. I think one of the crucial things of note is that, although this story is set during Prohibition, it centers on strong women who are not inclined to run to a man to solve their problems for them. These women are learning to stand up for themselves and others and are not willing to be pushed around by the people who try to coddle or control them. They are characters that resonate in the wake of the #metoo movement.

There are other timely themes at work. Those who have embraced the demons are anti-immigrant and are responsible for assaulting anyone they don't feel has an acceptable bloodline. Even those born in America are attacked if their parents are foreigners. 

Fin's husband and his entourage are also used to convey a message. They are the idle rich. Indulged. Unaware and unconcerned about anything other than their own entertainment. 

There are a lot of important truths Tanzer's story highlights. The real genius is that it never does this at the expense of the story. At no point did I ever feel like a character got on a soap box and preached to the reader (although there was a sermon, but it was part of the story). In fact, it was the forward thinking of these women that was a key part in addressing the threat the demons posed. Like all great stories, the core of the characters informed their choices, which had a direct bearing on the plot and its resolution.

** This review will appear on Toe Six Press: https://toesixpress.wordpress.com/

Ellie West navigates her skiff by moonlight distributing SJ's moonshine liquor to her local customers. Although it's not the safest or most proper job for a young woman, especially during the prohibition, Ellie needs the money to send her brother to medical school. During one of her deliveries a storm diverts her to the cove for shelter. Ellie sees a local man who appears to be injured lying on his boat. Ellie attempts to help him but he becomes violent and tries to kill her. He doesn’t appear to be fully human with glowing eyes and black blood and Ellie accidently kills him trying to defend herself. Uncertain of what she witnessed, she steals a crate of unusual liquor from his smugglers hold and leaves, telling nobody what happened. When Ellie is asked to procure a large amount of booze for a local party, she gives them the strange brew. What Ellie doesn’t know is that it has been distilled by an evil cult using some very unusual mushrooms that cause anyone who drinks it to have horrible hallucinations like the annihilation of Long Island. Ellie must take a stand against the cult to protect her home and family before it's too late.

Creatures of Want and Ruin is a fascinating fantasy/horror novel with a rebellious young protagonist who doesn’t bend to societal expectations. Ellie’s character is young, proud, and self-sufficient but she also has a vulnerability which prompts many of her local clients and friends to want to help her. When a local cult, masquerading as a religious group, converts her father and begins their attempts to eliminate anyone who is not part of the founding community, Ellie stands up to them. I really enjoyed the narrative and the setting of this novel and found it both interesting and entertaining to read. With diabolical cults, demonic accounts, and malevolent deeds, this novel was perfect for my fall reading list.

A clever little novel, and not a bad first (I think?) go! I really loved the plot, and the writing style was very accessible. A fun read!