Rust in the Root
Book description
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.…
Why read it?
1 author picked Rust in the Root as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Rust in the Root, set in 1937, builds an alternate United States with widespread, highly imaginative magic, using a nuanced blend of mythic traditions from Norse to African.
This fantastical, “far-off” America brings into stark focus the racial injustices that are the poisonous legacy of slavery and its aftermath by showing the separate and unequal treatment of “colored” mages and their magical traditions.
The two main characters, a young queer mage, Laura Ann Langston, and her mentor, the Skylark, must stop the killing of their fellow Black mages inside what is called the Great Ohio Blight.
The magic practiced…
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