Rust in the Root

by Justina Ireland

The author of the visionary New York Times bestseller Dread Nation returns with another spellbinding historical fantasy set at the crossroads of race and power in America.

It is 1937, and Laura Ann Langston lives in an America divided—between those who work the mystical arts and those who do not. Ever since the Great Rust, a catastrophic event that blighted the arcane force called the Dynamism and threw America into disarray, the country has been rebuilding for a better future. And everyone knows the future is industry and technology—otherwise known as Mechomancy—not the traditional mystical arts.

Laura disagrees. A talented young mage from Pennsylvania, Laura hopped a portal to New York City on her seventeenth birthday with hopes of earning her mage’s license and becoming something more than a rootworker

But six months later, she’s got little to show for it other than an empty pocket and broken dreams. With nowhere else to turn, Laura applies for a job with the Bureau of the Arcane’s Conservation Corps, a branch of the US government dedicated to repairing the Dynamism so that Mechomancy can thrive. There she meets the Skylark, a powerful mage with a mysterious past, who reluctantly takes Laura on as an apprentice.

As they’re sent off on their first mission together into the heart of the country’s oldest and most mysterious Blight, they discover the work of mages not encountered since the darkest period in America’s past, when Black mages were killed for their power—work that could threaten Laura’s and the Skylark’s lives, and everything they’ve worked for.

Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Young Adult, Historical, Fiction, Magic, LGBT

448 pages, Hardcover

First published September 20, 2022

About the author

Justina Ireland is the New York Times bestselling author of numerous books including Dread Nation and its sequel Deathless Divide, the middle-grade novel Ophie's Ghosts, which won the Scott O'Dell award for historical fiction, and a number of Star Wars books including Flight of the Falcon: Lando’s Luck, Spark of the Resistance, A Test of Courage, Out of the Shadows, and Mission to Disaster. She is a former editor in chief of FIYAH Literary Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction, for which she won a World Fantasy Award. She holds a BA in History from Georgia Southern and an MFA in Creative Writing from Hamline University.

Reviews

[☀️Carden☀️ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved Dread Nation. If Justina Ireland can keep pumping out historical fantasy books with badass black queens, I will read just about anything she writes.

[Jamie (TheRebelliousReader) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars. This was a really busy novel. Too many ideas and not enough follow through on any of those ideas. It lacks focus. I get what Ireland was going for and it is a really cool plot but this had too much going on. I liked the writing and the main character Laura but the world building, magic system, and execution left so much to be desired. I don’t know if this is going to stay a stand alone but I personally think it would benefit from at least one more book to really flesh everything out. Overall, it wasn’t terrible but it left me wanting more from it.

[*mk* · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really cool world building, though I wish this book had been longer and the characters more fleshed out. I almost wish this was an adult fantasy, I think there was a lot of really interesting stuff in here that I wanted to read more about.

[laurel [the suspected bibliophile] · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was so damn good.

Good alternate history is surprisingly hard to do well, and Ireland is a master of the craft. There's the Great Rust (like the great depression, but with magic), the African Genocide (Black people were enslaved and murdered so their souls could power machinery), and Prohibition (the ban of magical use without a license), and so many other little tweaks that work perfectly within this imagined world.

The magic system is also fascinating, as is the concept of the blighted areas.

I loved the adventure (no spoilers), the mentor/mentee relationship between Laura and Skylark, and the band of misfit family that emerges during the course to figure out what the hell is happening in Ohio.

It's a little bit Ring Shout, a little bit Thirteenth Child, and entirely its own creation.

[Marje · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this book! Read this book! Read this book!

Especially if you love magic and social issues and Depression era stories and dragons.

[Katie Hanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fantasy monsters in the Great Depression. Fascinating concepts, but weirdly paced and too much talking rather than adventure. Also, I don't care much for Justina Ireland's tendency (demonstrated over several books) to be like "my MC is queer!" and then give us Not One Single Jot of Queer Romance from the first page to the last--

[Charmaine Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 another banger from Justina Ireland. It has stronger horror-esque moments than Dread Nation did and got quite eerie at times, which was surprising to me. But the plot was too good for my scaredy-cat self to abandon ship.

[Lata · Rating 5 out of 5]

Justina Ireland returns to Earth, from the High Republic, and gives us a new, terrific story about a young woman determined to make her way in New York City, the different magical systems at work in the country (Dynamism and Mechomancy (on the rise with technological advancements)), and frightening Rust blight and beasts held at bay by the combined efforts of a magical organization.

Laura's frank, tough, and desperate when we first meet her. She wants to open a bakery and use her magic (Floramancy, a form of Dynamism) to create beautiful and tasty confections. She's having no luck finding an apprenticeship, and ends up unwillingly joining the Bureau of the Arcane's Conservation Corps, Coloured Auxiliary, which fights the blight. Before Laura can even catch her breath, she and the division head, Agent Skylark, are off to deal with a serious rust problem. The two are soon coopted into dealing with an even bigger Rust outbreak with other magic workers (e.g. Floramancers, Sanamancers, Faunomancers, etc.) The whole team is walloped and on the run in no time, and Laura begins discovering new abilities, and has an enigmatic old woman intruding into her thoughts.

Laura is magnificent. Justina Ireland is fantastic at making me care for Laura and want her to somehow end up running that bakery. And if that doesn't happen, become adept at wielding her new powers with her new friends, the survivors of the deadly situation the auxiliary was sent to deal with. Ireland successfully melds New York City of 1936 together with her magic systems and practitioners of the mystical arts. I tore through this book and dearly hope Ireland returns to this world again.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading reviews I was very scared I wouldn't enjoy this book. Butttttt. I loved it. Yes there is A LOT to take in and I do believe this book could do with a prequel and a sequel and I found some things to be lacking but overall, the author gave us a really solid foundation. Fingers crossed for more books in this world.

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is how you do it!!

Before I started this book last night, I had been trying to force myself through a fantasy book that was just a *slog* of characterless exposition. Putting that book down and starting Rust in the Root was like day after night. Fantastic character voice, a great frame narrative, characters I loved, and magic that really felt magical. From a writer perspective, it was a masterclass in character-based exposition and worldbuilding; from a reader perspective, I just had to keep turning pages to find out what happened. I woke up this morning excited because a new day meant I would get to finish this book, even if I had to get through my work day first. I hope there’s more to come in this world, but even if not, I will pick up whatever historical fantasy Ireland writes next.

There were some spoiler elements that were *particular* catnip for me, but I fell in love with the book long before that.

[Madison · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first 200 pages of this book were a long, slow slog for me, but the second half was a much more engaging reading experience. I don't really love alternate history, especially stories like this where every single historical event--Prohibition, the Great Depression, The New Deal, etcetc--is rewritten to be entirely about magic/steampunk stuff. I also felt a little weird about some of the real-life Depression-era photos of people that the author labeled with fictional character names and magical backstories--I don't think there's anything inherently unethical about it, but I just didn't love it.

I did like Laura's voice a lot, though, as well as how dark/intense this book got toward the end.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

One young woman's simple pursuit of happiness as a mage-confectioner leads her into a dangerous magical battlefield.

A harrowing metaphor for how our present is built directly on our past and how much more resources are consumed by upholding dysfunctional systems in place than changing them.

Read if you enjoy books about:
YA fantasy
alternate history
racism, structural & systemic inequality
fear and control
pursuit of happiness
magical world-building
gaslamp fantasy
allegory

[Ashley Hart · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was such a cool concept. Sometimes there was a lot of world building, but once you understood the dynamics, it moved at a fun pace. If there was a sequel, I believe more of this would make sense.

I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everything about this book is phenomenal. I absolutely love Justina Ireland. This is now one of my favorite books. The world and characters and plot are all perfection. I want more.

[Patty (IheartYA311) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originality, seamless character development, spectacular world building, and flawless writing, as expected from Ireland in this entertaining historical fiction fantasy. While I liked Rust in the Root, Dread Nation still holds the top spot. One of my favorite authors!

[Dini - dinipandareads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Special thanks to Grace Fell at Spark Point Studio and Balzer + Bray for providing a digital ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

TL;DR: Rust in the Root is an exciting and engaging historical fantasy set in a reimagined 1930s America, specifically the events of the Great Depression, Jim Crow, and slavery, with a magical and fantastical twist. I found Ireland's writing to be entertaining, and I loved the characters and the magic, which I found fascinating and wanted entirely more of! This had a darkness to it that I surprisingly really enjoyed and the social commentary felt very timely. I think you would enjoy this if you've read books by this author before and if you like your history with a bit of a magical twist!

Despite a somewhat confusing first few chapters, I quickly found myself absorbed in the story and eagerly pressed on to see how the action would unfold. The story is told through alternating perspectives and in a mixed media format that I wasn't sure about at first but came to really enjoy the more I read—we get letters, newspaper clippings, report extracts and photographs that added to the realistic historical aspect. Ireland's writing was engaging and entertaining, with a good dose of dry/witty humour that had me laughing out loud at the most unexpected of times, but it was also incredibly atmospheric. America is in throes of recovery from the "Great Rust" and there's a sense of bleakness that permeates the writing, which shifts into a dogged sense of foreboding as the story progresses. The social/historical commentary was also great and I appreciated how the author doesn't shy away from showing how even though it's New York, racism and prejudice still made life for Black people incredibly difficult, and some of the scenes had me wanting to rage so badly! I felt completely immersed in the time period.

Once the details of the world start to make a bit more sense around the 10-15% mark, the story took off and kept a pretty steadily fast pace until the end. That said, one of the main issues I had was with the world-building. Ireland tries to do a lot here and although I loved the whole concept and found it fascinating, I felt that the world-building, particularly the magical system, suffered for it. What made the beginning confusing is that we're thrown into this world in such a way that it felt like we should've already understood what was happening when we didn't. The magical concept was very cool and I loved the different ways it manifested through flora, fauna, elemental and healing, but it was explained in such a haphazard and clunky way that we're still learning new things about how the magic works at the very end. At times it kind of felt like reading something while explicitly only knowing half of what you need to so that the picture never really clears up. Having so much packed into this story made the ending also feel a little rushed and at times I felt like Ireland was setting us up for a second book, only for the book to end and have everything be very neatly wrapped up.

Though the world-building left me a little wanting, I do think the main characters made up for it. I loved our main characters Laura and Skylark and it was equally enjoyable to read from both their perspectives! Laura was a fantastic character who has grand dreams when she moves to New York to earn her mage's license and it's by a stroke of unicorn luck that she winds up interviewing at the Bureau of the Arcane's Conservation Corps. I loved her confidence in the face of so much uncertainty and I admired how she wasn't afraid to put herself out there and try new things even when it scared her. She was so easy to root for and I loved seeing how she grew more confident in her abilities and into her own skin as the story progressed. As Laura's mentor, Skylark was definitely more reserved and there was a coldness to her perspective that I wasn't sure about at first but eventually made sense the more we learn about her—it really fit her character and everything she has been through! We're also introduced to quite a few supporting characters, such as the apprentices, Louise and the Grimalk, who I found really interesting but we don't really get to know them aside from their magical talent and the mere surface of their personalities, which made them feel quite flat. I did enjoy their group dynamic though and how a sort of 'found family' was created between them, I just wished they had been better fleshed out.

Overall, despite some minor issues I had with world-building and character development, I still managed to really enjoy this book and sped through almost 70% of it in one sitting cos I didn't want to put it down. I definitely wouldn't mind if we got more of this historical setting and these characters in another book because they were so fun to read about!

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Check out my full video review: https://youtu.be/Q7HdY4Y04mU

This is a really cool historical fiction that follows our main character Laura, she is a mage and takes a job at the government to survive! In this job they need to fight The Blight, which is causing havoc in America in 1937.

I think this story reminds me of Annhilation meets Miss Peregrine Home for Peculiar Children, but it it is not white! The way the mission is set up is veeery much like Annhilation, and there are eerie black and white photos throughout the book. I loved the snealy foreshadowing, the queer relationship and the complex relations our main character goes through in this time because she is not white (basically people are racist ok). I found however the world building and plot a bit lacking for me to fully and completely love the story. Don't get me wrong, it was an enjoyable and interesting book I just wish it had expanded more on the cool parts (like the magic!). 3.75/5 stars.

[Haunna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like the exposition in this book was a little long. It felt like we were still building the world and the points of the plot until the end almost. I just wish there had been a little bit better of an introduction into the story, because I think the bones were good. I can tell this is a well researched book. It is interesting to read. I'm just not sure if the person to recommend it to anyone mostly because it wasn't a stand out fantasy for me.

Representation: lesbian, main character, gender fluid side character, Achillean side relationship

[KaylaTRBG · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic intro to Justina Ireland! I love alternative histories (I don’t read enough) and this was so creative and well researched! So excited for what’s to come 🫶🏾

[Katie.dorny · Rating 3 out of 5]

I will always enjoy queer poc historical fantasy.

I just personally didn’t love this as much as her first duology.

[Christabel · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 stars
Really slow to start off and hard to get into? but once things started actually happening in the second half it was fun.

[Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating concept, felt very "but of course". Liked the characters, I believe there is another volume planned and I very much hope so.

[Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

In 1937 Laura has big dreams for herself. She's not doing too well in the big NYC, and after she gets kicked out of her place, she takes an apprenticeship at the Bureau of the Arcane’s Conservation Corps, Through them she hopes to gain her mage's license and eventually open her own bakery.

So the basic premise of this book is history meets magic. I really enjoyed the world Ireland built, and it's evident that a lot went into it. That said, there is A LOT in this book. Sometimes the world-building stuff was too much, and it took away from character development. If you know me, you know I'm always characters over everything else. So the fact that this book suffers from its insanely detailed world made it a difficult read for me. I liked Laura and Skylark, but I felt there could just be a little more to them. The story was good, the world building was great, and the characters were likable.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC.

[Damon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ireland did it again!

I love the alternative history with a focus on Black people and how they face and overcome the same and wildly different adversities. I know a number of her readers probably are unaware how much of those adversities are based on our actual history but hopefully they'll be inspired to look deeper.

A masterful novel with well-crafted characters and a fascinating premise. I highly recommend it.

[Laura]

DNF. Could be format (audio) but am still not feeling it at 40% through. I loved the Dread Nation books, so this saddens me.

[Renata · Rating 4 out of 5]

OOh this was cool! For me, I've been a fan of Justina Ireland's online presence and activism for a long time but her books haven't always hit for me. I thought Dread Nation sounded like an amazing concept but the book itself didn't quite live up to my hopes for it. But the premise for this one sounded so cool I had to check it out and I'm glad I did! There's a lot of world building to set up and it's a liiil clunky at times but overall really cool shit, great characters, great social/historical commentary.

[Sara (A Gingerly Review) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had a fantastic premise and I was all for it, but it felt like it moved too slow.

[Diana-christie Biancardi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kind of hard to get into. I keep reading them for the covers and magic! I loved Dread Nation.

[ivana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was brilliant! From the intricacy of the plot to the characters. 4.5!

[Diana]

Dnfed at page 261

I have been pushing myself to keep on reading but reading shouldn't feel like a forced chore... I loved Dread Nation, but I just couldn't enter the world of this book (and not for lack of trying)