Source: From Harpercollins Publishers in exchange for an honest review. This in no way alters my opinion or review.
Rust in the Root by Justina Ireland
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Publication Date: September 20, 2022
Format: Hardback
Rating:
Goodreads Synopsis: 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.
Review: Laura aka the Peregrine has joined up with the Bureau of the Arcane’s Conservation Corps in order to gain her mage license. It was her last resort, and she has no idea what she has gotten herself into.
The story is set in an alternate reality to our own, instead of the Great Depression, they suffer the Great Rust when magic and science clashed and caused climate/temperature anomalies called Blights. Now there are divisions of the government assigned to try to prevent the spread. There agencies are made up of mages that focus on various fields and work together to contain the Blight, however there is one spot in Ohio that is resisting their prevention efforts.
This book had such an interesting premise, mages, historical fiction, alternate reality all mixed together. I also really liked the rep; the main characters are all Black and there is also aspects of the LGBTQ+ community as well. I thought that Laura/ Peregrine was a great character arch to follow. She was determined and pushed for her own boundaries, and she was pretty badass throughout the book, but she had enough emotion and fear to feel real and relatable. I really loved all the characters; they were all interesting and mysterious and built each other up well throughout the story. Another wonderful aspect of the book is the archival bits between chapters. Ireland used real images from the time with commentary from the characters and file notes from the Skylark to really pull the ending together from the start of the book. I really liked the use of the images while reading the physical edition. (Although I also listed on Audible for a while and it was hard to remember to go back and view the PDF to see them, so I do recommend reading along with the physical book or just bypassing the audio option so that you get the full effect).
Where the book fell a little flat for me was in the world building, while some of it was very well done, I felt that there were some things that were amiss. For example, while they talked about the magic system in the beginning, they didn't go a good job fully explaining them. Luckily on page 65 we finally get an encyclopedia entry that fully defines for us. The rest of the world building is also like this, there is a brief explanation or none until the readers needed to be told, which made me slightly confused at times. I think that it worked in some places because we were learning as Laura was learning, but it made things a bit hard to follow as well. I also found the ending to be a little rushed. I would have loved for this book to be a bit longer to really flesh out the world and the ending a bit more.
Overall, though, this book was a great read. The racial commentary, the interesting magic system, and the characters were wonderfully done, and the political air made for a more powerful read. It was a strong showing, but I felt like it needed more length and detail.
