#rust in the root

[qbdatabase]

Rust in the Root by Justina Ireland It's 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. View the full summary and rep info on wordpress!

[just0nemorepage]

Rust in the Root || Justina Ireland || 448 pages Top 3 Genres: Fantasy / Young Adult / Historical Fiction

Synopsis: 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.

Publication Date: September 2022. / Average Rating: 4.12. / Number of Ratings: ~1250.

[yanawroteit]

BMHM DAY 1: Favorite Black fantasy story?

There are so many but gotta shout out RUST IN THE ROOT by Justina Ireland. It’s historical fantasy set in the 1930s about a girl who ends up working for the Bureau of the Arcane to investigate evil magical workings that plunged the US into The Great Rust (or The Great Depression but make it ✨magic✨).

I loved the characters, the unique worldbuilding, the creepiness (which was the right level for a baby like me), and the bb dragon 🥺

[tigger8900]

Rust in the Root, by Justina Ireland

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Laura is a young Black mage in 1937 America, a land reeling from the effects of the Great Rust and the Blights that cover huge swaths of the country. While the country has put its trust in Mechomancy, an industrial discipline, Laura sees a way forward using traditional magical arts to manipulate the forces of Dynamism. But her path to a mage license will take her into the oldest, bleakest Blight of them all, confronting both their origin and the enduring threat they pose.

Justina Ireland has done it again. As in her previous series, the world building is top-notch, with constant references to real-world events encountered through the lens of her own alternate history. For example, the Great Rust stood in for the events immediately preceding and concurrent with our own Great Depression. While obviously nothing quite so magical had happened in our own world, the impact on the economy and mental state of the country was similar. Some of the references were jarring. For example, when I neared the end and a character described having seen a tree with "strange fruit" hanging, I stopped reading for a second and said, oh no. It was most definitely a Billie Holiday reference, and the author did not pull punches with the eventual depiction of said tree.

The magic system was interesting as well, though I feel like the theme has been done before in YA. Maybe that particular use of the "chosen one is better at everything" trope wasn't what the author was going for, but it was unclear, because most of the characters spent the majority of the book barely able to use their magic. We hardly got to see anyone other than our main character ravel! I would've liked to explore deeper, especially at the intersections between types of magic.

I enjoyed the way the story was told, alternating traditional chapters with fragments of mission reports, diary entries, and so on. The scrapbook pages, however, did not work for me. They were very interesting photos, and I can see why they were inspiring for the author, but they felt shoehorned in. I've seen this gimmick used before to better effect(Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children(the first one) immediately comes to mind), so it overall fell flat for me. I think I might have appreciated it more presented as an appendix of sorts, rather than integrated with the story.

I was appreciative of the casual queerness in this book. The main character is sapphic, but doesn't have a romantic side plot, she just is that way even though it "doesn't matter" to the story. This is something you'll sometimes see with straight characters but it's more rare for queer characters, especially in YA. There's also two secondary characters who are gay men in a relationship together.

[very-grownup]

Book 4, 2023

Justina Ireland's "Rust in the Root" ended up being a good time. I also had to check the author bio a couple chapters in to check if it was the author's first novel (it wasn't). When I started it gave me the same feeling I got when I started "The Last Sun" by K.D. Edwards; an urge to grab the author and say WHOA NOW slowdown. You don't need to drop all of this on me at once.

Both are urbanish fantasy alternate history-esque with queer protagonists set in America-more-or-less and I really enjoyed both once I had a feel for the characters that complimented what was happening, if that makes sense? Some authors get you invested in the plot through the characters, some authors get you invested in the characters through the plot, some authors just get you invested in the plot for the plot, and some authors have writing so strong that what they're actually writing about is incidental. I think a lot of contemporary queer fantasy authors are very character driven but have been taught through their videogames and tabletops and other catch-all culprits that I'm trying to vaguely encapsulate but can't point to specifically because I'm old and don't actually know what I'm talking about that if they're going to have magic in their fantasy they need a MAGIC SYSTEM and being able to feel that in the opening of a book is for me the reading equivalent of trying to get through a revolving door. Once I get through it's fine, but I'm so aware of its presence at first that it makes everything feel more difficult and cumbersome than it needs to be.

But maybe this has nothing to do with the current State of Fantasy or the quality of the writing and everything to do with my own age and a decreasing flexibility in my brain. Maybe this would all go down quick and easy if I was fourteen.

Maybe it's an increasing pop cultural awareness of tabletop roleplaying and all those dice and systems and other things, maybe it's the current state of media literacy and criticism and a need to know how a thing works before you write it and an editorial difficulty in getting things pared back to where what's on the page is only the relevant stuff.

"Rust in the Root" has extranarrative material between chapters: extracts from the protagonist's journal, official reports from the protagonist's mentor, photos that are intended to be photos taken by the protagonist during the course of the novel (they're actually archival photos all properly cited in the backmatter of the novel and the original inspiration), and extracts from textbooks and glossaries. This isn't uncommon and in some works has been used to great effect. In this case it feels like a lot. It's where the "first novel?" questions comes from because some of it, like the photos, is interesting but superfluous. The journal entries and reports make it seem like Ireland doesn't feel confident in what she's conveying in the chapters proper. The several pages that are just a list with descriptions of the different magical disciplines are weird, like someone told her to show her world-building work.

I suppose I feel part of the advantage of doing an alternate history what if our world but magic is that you don't need to world-build that much?

It's particularly strange because it seems like "Rust in the Root" is a standalone novel, not the first in a series. Perhaps Ireland wanted to set up a world she could return to again, even if not as a series in the standard fantasy 1-2-3 trilogy sense.

Props on the setting - 1937 America - on making it standalone in a genre that wants everything to be series and sagas and sequels - even if some of how it was written feels like it would make more sense in a planned series - on the entirely Black cast - I'm not sure any white characters got named? - on the queer kids and on having a teenage female protagonist who isn't in a love triangle and doesn't even have a love interest, even though she clearly has sexual desire.

Definitely could have benefited from a tighter focus or another editorial comb through, but it did find its stride in time.

[bookcoversonly]

Title: Rust in the Root | Author: Justina Ireland | Publisher: Balzer + Bray (2022)

[darunyama]

Hanging out with grandpa🐸

[scopostims]

karl heisenberg (resident evil 8) stimboard for Me :•]

[ID: A 3x3 stimboard of 9 GIFs that are all dark and desatured red-orange.

GIF 1: A closeup of a shovel digging a hole.

GIF 2: A video game rendering of an industrial fan spinning behind a bloodied grate.

GIF 3: First person POV of walking into an abandoned factory and looking up at abandoned machinery.

GIF 4: A system of wheels and belts connecting them turning in tandem.

GIF 5 (center): Karl Heisenberg leaning down and talking into the player's face, gritting his teeth.

GIF 6: A closeup of a magnet being slowly lowered to a tray of ferrofluid that spikes up to reach it.

GIF 7: A panning shot taken behind a pile of tires of a car wheel spinning.

GIF 8: A gloved hand tightening a wing nut on a piece of metal.

GIF 9: A rusted metal tank being crushed in an industrial shredder.

End ID]

[spiteslucanis]

— the amazing devil, "fair"

[flamboyant-king]

Guagua at da train station looking at da map. Every night at midnight, there is a train specifically for guagua to ride on. If they miss da train, they have to wait 24 hours for da next one. But guagua does not mind, because there are lots to do at da train station.

Guagua is what we call Goo Wiwi now.

[somethingusefulfromflorida]

I love that rusty root song from Matilda, you know "Simian Away"

[superm4ks]

Kit do you not rep Charles anymore 😭

Of course I do he’s prime I just need a break from his team and that fucking dog

[kyraxyrespace]

The Bees resolidifying their status as crew members of the S.S. White Knight.

[nh-art]

Orange The connecting element

[spacecasette]

tweaking thinking abt rust taking her fishing.. like him begrudgingly accepting her request for him to “teach” her (as if she didn’t grow up catching crawdads in ponds or bluegill in creeks before she could read lmao) and him resting his hands over hers to teach her how to point her cast into the spot she wants it..drinking beers in the afternoon sun.. making little guys out of the cans.. radio playing..

as @madsmilfelsen said. OLD MAN HAAAAAAANDS

[the-90s-music-colosseum]

If you haven't heard one or both of the songs before, it's recommended that you do so before voting!

Define "better" in any way you wish :)