Rust in the Root - Justina Ireland

I will never get over reading books that center Black kids. I wish I had books like this one when I was younger because it really is something to see yourself in an adventure.

In Justina Ireland's latest, readers are transported to 1937, a time that was not especially kind to Black people. Wait, let me not sugarcoat it: it was a terrible time. But in this version of events, Black people are magical and also oppressed. We've always known that Black people are magical, but in Rust in the Root, we genuinely have magical abilities known as the mystical arts. Laura Ann, which is also my favorite aunt's name, is a young mage looking to get her license. She leaves her little town in Pennsylvania and heads to New York, the place where your dreams come to live or die. Four months in and Laura Ann is ready to quit but instead gets a job with the Bureau of the Arcane Conservation Corps. She becomes the apprentice of the Skylark, a powerful mage who has her own secret. When they are assigned to assist with a disruption called a Blight, Laura Ann learns how powerful she truly is.

First off I want to say that I adore historical fiction that centers Black people. The author has created a story that takes the racism of that time and turns it on its head. Using historical events, the book focuses on a disruption to the Dynamism, an arcane force that is the source of the mystical arts, called the Great Rust. The event threw the country into chaos, creating Blights in different parts of the country, which gave those who believe in technology (Mechomancers) a reason to take over and erase the mystical arts.

It's amazing how the author created an alternative world in which racism still exists but in a different way. Because one thing we all know is that racism has a vast imagination and finds numerous ways to reinvent itself. And it has in this book. But like Black people in the real world, the ones in this book find a way to live, saving themselves which also saves the world around them. Laura Ann is such a dynamic seventeen-year-old, looking to have the life she's always wanted in the city that never sleeps. Although she lives in a world that wants to erase her and her talents, Laura Ann perseveres because she has people who understand her world. They come together to defeat an evil that is both familiar and terrifying.

I do not want to talk too much about this book because I'm afraid I'll spoil something. But I will tell readers to buy this book or borrow it from the their local library. I plan to buy a copy for myself so I can read it again.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Where to buy: The Lit. Bar Loyalty Bookstores Amazon

Justina Ireland, author of Rust in the Root.

For more information about Ms. Ireland, please see her website.