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3.5 

Creatures of Charm And Hunger

By Molly Tanzer
Creatures of Charm And Hunger by Molly Tanzer digital book - Fable

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Publisher Description

A compelling, fun, and thought-provoking story of magical adventure, coming of age, sacrifice, and family, with secrets that add a lingering darkness to the entire tale.Booklist

Two young witches, once inseparable, are set at odds by secrets and wildly dangerous magic

In the waning days of World War II, with Allied victory all but certain, desperate Nazi diabolists search for a demonic superweapon to turn the tide. A secluded castle somewhere in the south of Germany serves as a laboratory for experiments conducted upon human prisoners, experiments as vile as they are deadly.

Across the English Channel, tucked into the sleepy Cumbrian countryside, lies the Library, the repository of occult knowledge for the Société des Éclairées, an international organization of diabolists. There, best friends Jane Blackwood and Miriam Cantor, tutored by the Société’s Librarian—and Jane’s mother—Nancy, prepare to undergo the Test that will determine their future as diabolists.

When Miriam learns her missing parents are suspected of betraying the Société to the Nazis, she embarks on a quest to clear their names, a quest involving dangerous diabolic practices that will demand more of her than she can imagine. Meanwhile Jane, struggling with dark obsessions of her own, embraces a forbidden use of the Art that could put everyone she loves in danger.

As their friendship buckles under the stress of too many secrets, Jane and Miriam will come face to face with unexpected truths that change everything they know about the war, the world, and most of all themselves. After all, some choices cannot be unmade--and a sacrifice made with the most noble intention might end up creating a monster.

11 Reviews

3.5
“I read this book for a book club, so I haven’t read the other two. While I enjoy anything a little witchy, a little demonic, and heavy on cat presence, I do feel as though there’s quite a bit *missing* from this book. It felt like it was taking on a lot, there were a lot of ambitious storylines going on, and therefore the emotional stakes had to be split up quite a bit between all the different plots. I feel as though Jane, while working through some very real familial trauma issues, drew the short stick on emotional depth and exploring her emotions, because in no way will anything compare to the horrors and trauma that was inflicted during the Holocaust. No matter what, Miriam’s plot line was always going to be more serious and more impactful, and Jane’s plot line was going to seem frivolous and silly in comparison. I feel as though the storylines that are tackled in this book could have been divided up into a three part series of its own, so as to devote proper time to dive into what the characters are going through. Jane has never met her father, and then seeks him out, but hides it from her mother. In any other book this would be a huge event, it’s certainly something I would talk about in therapy! But the novel was so JAM PACKED with so many huge and traumatic events made it hard for anything to hold any sort of weight. Additionally, the novels are marketed as being able to stand alone, and you don’t have to read them in order to understand them. While this is true to an extent, I do believe that this is a novel that relies very heavily on the assumption that you’ve read the previous two books, and that the reader knows the baseline of the world and concepts explored. While overall an interesting and enjoyable read, it did not make me want to go back and read the first two. Edit Review”

About Molly Tanzer

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 Longmont, Colorado.

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