Rust in the Root, Justina Ireland

Description

Rust in the Root
by Justina Ireland
Hardcover | September 20, 2022

What does it mean to claim power in a world determined to strip it from you—and who gets to decide which kinds of power are allowed to survive?

Set in an alternate 1937 America shaped by magic, industry, and racial violence, Rust in the Root follows Laura Ann Langston, a talented young queer Black mage who refuses to accept a future that has no place for her. After the Great Rust crippled the mystical force known as the Dynamism, the nation turned toward technology and Mechomancy, sidelining traditional magical practices and the people who rely on them. Laura believes the old magic still matters—and that she does too.

Leaving Pennsylvania behind, Laura portals to New York City on her seventeenth birthday, determined to earn her mage’s license. Instead, she finds herself broke, disillusioned, and running out of options. Her last chance comes in the form of a job with the Bureau of the Arcane’s Conservation Corps, a government agency tasked with repairing the Dynamism so that industry can flourish. There, she is assigned to work under the Skylark, a powerful and enigmatic mage whose own history is tightly bound to America’s violent past.

As Laura and the Skylark embark on a dangerous mission into one of the country’s oldest Blights, they uncover forbidden magic tied to an era when Black mages were hunted and killed for their abilities. What they find threatens not only their lives, but the fragile balance between power, progress, and survival in America itself.

Blending historical fantasy, social critique, and coming-of-age storytelling, Rust in the Root is a sharp, compelling YA novel about race, queerness, resistance, and the right to define your own future.

This title is a remainder, offered at half the original cover price. Remainder copies are new and unread, but may show minor shelf wear.