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    Creatures of Will and Temper
    Creatures of Will and Temper
    Creatures of Will and Temper
    Audiobook12 hours

    Creatures of Will and Temper

    Written by Molly Tanzer

    Narrated by Charlotte Gray

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    A Victorian urban fantasy featuring duelists, demons, and the dark arts, inspired by The Picture of Dorian Gray. Victorian London is a place of fluid social roles, vibrant arts culture, fin-de-siecle wonders . . . and dangerous underground diabolic cults. Fencer Evadne Gray cares for none of the former and knows nothing of the latter when she's sent to London to chaperone her younger sister, aspiring art critic Dorina. Unfortunately for Evadne, she soon learns too much about all of it when Dorina meets their uncle's friend, Lady Henrietta "Henry" Wotton. A semi-respectable aristocrat in public, in private she is secretly in the thrall of a demon obsessed with beauty and pleasure. When Lady Henry and Dorina immediately hit it off, Evadne abandons her chaperone duties and enrolls in a fencing school. There, she meets the fencing master she's always dreamed of. But soon, George reveals he is more than just a teacher. He has dedicated himself to eradicating demons and their servants, and he needs Evadne's help. As Evadne gets pulled further into this hidden world, she begins to suspect that Lady Henry might actually be a diabolist. Even worse, she believes Dorina may have joined her. Combining swordplay, demons, and high society, Creatures of Will and Temper shows a timeless world and adventure readers won't soon forget. Author bio: Molly Tanzer is the Sydney J. Bounds and Wonderland Book Award-nominated author of Vermilion (an NPR and io9 Best Book of 2015), A Pretty Mouth, the historical crime novel The Pleasure Merchant, and other works. She lives in Boulder, Colorado.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateNov 14, 2017
    ISBN9781501963865

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    Reviews for Creatures of Will and Temper

    3.5/5

    43 ratings2 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Creatures of Will and Temper is billed as a lesbian Picture of Dorian Gray. (Some reviews identify it as queer rather than lesbian, but let's be honest: queer Picture of Dorian Gray is just Picture of Dorian Gray, so one needs to be more specific and although there are queer characters who aren't lesbians in this book, of the significant on-page romantic relationships, the only same-sex one is between women.) That's accurate, but not sufficient. It's a bit of a retelling and a bit of an expansion. Although there are several characters with names taken obviously from the original, there's more than one Dorian figure, nor does it follow anything like the same story arc.The paranormal elements are also rather more pronounced than I recall from the original. Obviously a book in which one can sell one's soul so that his portrait will age instead of him isn't exactly what you'd call realistic fiction, but Creatures of Will and Temper fleshes the concept out with societies of demon-worshipers and, of course, fighting demons.Really, if this is the book for you, I shouldn't have to say anything else. You're probably already ordering it from your library or your favorite book seller. But I really ought to say a little more than one can get from the blurb, and so I'll say that although the basic concept of this book is a terrific hook, what really makes it is the relationship between young Dorina (beautiful, spoiled, in love with all things aesthetic) and her older sister, Evadne (homely, athletic, and a talented fencer). Ultimately, what matters isn't the search for beauty, or fighting demons, it's sisterly love. And sisterly antagonism, but not so much at the end of the day.
    • 4/5
      When Evadne Gray catches her younger sister, Dorinia, dallying with another teen aged girl right after the man Evadne loves informs her that he is marrying someone else, Evadne runs to their mother to tell and assumes it will put a stop to Dorinia’s planned visit to their uncle in London. (Dorinia has the ambition to become an art critic, and there is no art to be seen out in the country where she lives.) Instead, their mother decides that Evadne will accompany Dorinia, something Evadne has no interest in doing. Upon arrival at their uncle’s house, they meet his friend Lady Henrietta Wotton, who goes by Henry and wears men’s clothing. Dorinia is immediately smitten by Henry, and Henry has taken it upon herself to introduce the girls to London. Evadne is shocked and revolted by Lady Henry because of her dress and open smoking. But Evadne has learned to fence and is thrilled to have an invitation to a fencing school from both Henry and the friend (and erstwhile boyfriend) who taught her. While still living with their uncle, Evadne and Dorinia go their separate ways. Dorinia manages to convince Henry to invite her to a meeting of her secret society. The meeting seems totally harmless- a dinner devoted to one of the sense, so she cannot imagine why it’s considered secret. True, there is a short time where Dorinia is asked to step outside the room, but what could go on in that small space of time? Evadne is taken on by the top instructor at the fencing school, and finds herself invited to a secret club, too. And she is shocked to discover that there is some common ground between that club and Henry’s… The story took a very long time to get moving. There was a lot of gorgeous description, perhaps too much. There is a lot of going and coming and eating. I found it hard to really like any of the characters- I didn’t *dislike* them, but they just left me flat. I found it hard to believe that Evadne, who attends a fencing club where she is the only woman, is shocked and disgusted by Henry’s wearing of male attire, especially since she is unshocked by homosexual love. (yes, I know that homosexuality and cross dressing are two different things. But it just seems to me that if a person is okay with one, they’d most likely be okay with the other) I found it equally hard to believe that their uncle, who had left the secret society, would allow Dorinia to go. The book *almost* made me love it, but not quite. It’s a first novel, so I have great hope for this author. And the cover is absolutely gorgeous. Four stars.