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Rust in the Root
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★Buddy/Group Read Retirement★ > Rust in the Root (July 2023) Buddy Read Discussion - Laurel & Jen

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message 1: by mina, Group/Buddy Reads Procrastinator (new)

mina | 2943 comments Mod
Welcome to the Rust in the Root Buddy Read Discussion thread! This thread officially opens on July 15th and anyone can join at any time. Please keep in mind that spoilers are allowed in this thread but only up to the group's current reading place. Do not spoil the book if you've read further than the group. Any extra days can be used to catch up!

Each day we will be reading by chapters or page numbers. Page numbers are an approximation based on the hardcover or paperback that is the default on Goodreads. The suggested Buddy Read discussion schedule is as follows:

Week of 07/01
July 15: pages 1-90
July 16: pages 91-180

Week of 07/03
July 17: pages 181-270
July 18: pages 271-360
July 19: pages 361-end


PARTICIPANTS
~ Laurel
~ Jen


Jen K | 1547 comments @Laurel, are you still good with this schedule? I'm open to keeping or changing.


laurel [the suspected bibliophile] (laurelthereader) Yes I'm still good! I'm going to try to finish Lone Women today (a little ahead of schedule) and then I'm off to start this one


Jen K | 1547 comments I'm totally distracted by Lone Women and also very slowly making it through the group read. Maybe I will take your suggestion and finish Lone Women a bit early to to focus on this one. I loved her duology and looking forward to this one.


Jen K | 1547 comments Read the first 7 chapters and really enjoying it so far. It is a hard one to put down.

The first chapter or so was a bit overwhelming with the world building and terminology but I think I have it now. I recently read a history of the Dust Bowl and am making connections in the over mechanization of the land rather than the indigenous practice which kept the land whole for centuries.

Laura and Skylark are great so far. I look forward to Laura understanding her power. She is pretty impressive so far to be able to intuit so much from people.


Jen K | 1547 comments Really enjoying this one too much. I read ahead and am about half way now. They just entered the ODB.

I really love how Ireland does alternate history with all the correct research but spun in such a fantastic new way.


laurel [the suspected bibliophile] (laurelthereader) I'm up to Chapter 6, and I'm really, really enjoying it too!

I read Dread Nation, and just like in that book Ireland has really done a fantastic job of creating an alternate history world that feels so damn real! The magic system in Rust is really fascinating.

The magic system feels a little like Hard Magic (I hate comparing Ireland to Correia, it hurts a little) with a similarity to the worlds (although this is going to change when they leave the city) but the magic-system is really, really fascinating.

I am also loving Laura's voice. And the snarky unicorns!


laurel [the suspected bibliophile] (laurelthereader) Jen K wrote: "Really enjoying this one too much. I read ahead and am about half way now. They just entered the ODB.

I really love how Ireland does alternate history with all the correct research but spun in su..."


It is so hard to do alternate history well. She's a master at the craft.


Jen K | 1547 comments Thanks for the recommendation! I will check it out sometime if it is similar to Ireland.

Laura's voice is fantastic and I truly knew this book was for me when a beautiful unicorn with snark showed up so quickly in the book!

I may have read a bit ahead, totally got sucked in. I forgot to say that I love the incorporation of the photos even though the captions are slightly awkward and the pieces of report from Skylark that she is clearly doing a cover up.


laurel [the suspected bibliophile] (laurelthereader) Lol vague similarities in magic and setting/time period, except Larry Correia is hard-core conservative (I didn’t realize *how* much until a couple years after I read it—he was one of the ringleaders of the Sad/Rabid Puppies Hugo debacle, among other things)


Jen K | 1547 comments Oh, that is disappointing. :( It is sad how much misogyny is in the older fantasy books and much that I didn't even think twice about when I was younger.


laurel [the suspected bibliophile] (laurelthereader) I'm up to chapter 21, and I am really enjoyed the switches in POV between Laura and Skylark, along with the little snippets of Skylark's after action report (it feels like a delightful mix of cover-up and cover-your-ass).

The world-building remains incredible.


Jen K | 1547 comments I finished. I really liked it. The world building was amazing. I loved all the small details of the alt history. It was so incredibly considered from the adaption of prohibition, the New Deal, the TVA hydroelectric projects and even the massacre in Tulsa, not to mention the using up of slave bodies to make capitalism work. Then of course the reliance on death (dead slaves, dead diesel) to make the machines run and the perpetuation of those systems rather than the more natural root work done since it was mostly with Black people.

Skylark is cool and I also enjoyed her POV especially her thoughts on Peregrine or her private thoughts on the system.


laurel [the suspected bibliophile] (laurelthereader) The dragon having to ask his mom if he can go with them 🥹


Jen K | 1547 comments I KNOW! He is blood thirsty little thing too!! I love dragons. This is my third dragon book this month. So fun.


laurel [the suspected bibliophile] (laurelthereader) Jen K wrote: "I KNOW! He is blood thirsty little thing too!! I love dragons. This is my third dragon book this month. So fun."

Yay dragon books!


message 18: by laurel [the suspected bibliophile] (last edited Jul 18, 2023 12:27PM) (new) - rated it 5 stars

laurel [the suspected bibliophile] (laurelthereader) I just finished it and 5 stars!

This was so good. I loved the ending (even though I had a pretty strong idea that was where it was going), and the final showdown was really cool too.

It felt a little like Ring Shout and The Thirteenth Child had a baby and that baby came of age during the Great Depression.


Jen K | 1547 comments Yes, I really struggled to put it down for long. It was so fun. I thought the end was a bit rushed but it was done so well. I love how the tree was transformed.

I totally see Ring Shout and Lovecraft Country. The Thirteenth Child looks terrifying.

Love Irelands treatment of alt history for the era. I will now read anything she writes in this genre.


laurel [the suspected bibliophile] (laurelthereader) Me too! I'm eager for her next book (and am going to up The Deathless Divide on my tbr)


Jen K | 1547 comments It is good fun! Enjoy!!


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