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Creatures of Will and Temper is a historical fiction and fantasy novel that takes some of the magic contained in The Portrait of Dorian Gray and mixes it with some demons, and a pair of extraordinary sisters.

"Death is an illusion, just like anything else - like distance, for example, or time, or the separateness of one thing from another. The whole universe is only matter forming and reforming itself, endlessly, beautifully." pg 6

The author, Molly Tanzer, builds layered characters with distinctive personalities who are a pleasure to read about. However, she takes so long doing this, that I nearly put the book down before I hit page 200 and the main story arc took off.

"Never let anyone tell you demons are unnatural things - they are perpetual, like fragile flowers that blossom anew each year, like the majestic pine that never goes brown." pg 53

Prior to around page 200, Creatures of Will and Temper reads like a historical fiction with magical realism rather than the fantasy it actually is. The pace was incredibly slow.

But once I was over that two-thirds slump, the rest of the story (another 150 or so pages) was fantastic. I couldn't put the book down at that point.

"We must give in to beauty, surrender ourselves to pleasure and enjoyment. We must return to hedonism, but we must also make it our own - for we are not sentimentalists, seeking to recreate an emotion time and again. It is our holy duty to create a new hedonism, a philosophy of passionate experience." pg 170

The strength of this book is in the complex demonic world Tanzer hints at throughout. I wish she had focused on that world instead of this one! What a unique story it would have been.

As it stands, only recommended for readers who can tolerate a glacial pace on the way to a breath-taking ending.