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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
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This is my second Kiste book. The first being And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe, a collection of short stories. Once again, she writes with a simplistic elegance that is both horrific and beautiful at the same time. This story starts with a haunted tone that continues until the reader can actually feel the despair of the times. I wasn’t emotionally invested in the story until about half way in but when it hit, it did so with no hesitation.
The story is told through Phoebe, cousin and best friend to one of the rust maidens. There were times when hailed her a hero and other times when, had she chosen a different path, things might have unfurled much smoother. Either way, her actions were consistent and made from a position of love. In the end, can we really do any better?
This dystopian world of Rust Maidens is highly original. The author creates a world of such imagery that the reader cannot help but see the maidens as both tragic and glorious. Despite the despair of the story, we are left with a glimpse of hope which is tender and uplifting.
This is my second Kiste book. The first being And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe, a collection of short stories. Once again, she writes with a simplistic elegance that is both horrific and beautiful at the same time. This story starts with a haunted tone that continues until the reader can actually feel the despair of the times. I wasn’t emotionally invested in the story until about half way in but when it hit, it did so with no hesitation.
The story is told through Phoebe, cousin and best friend to one of the rust maidens. There were times when hailed her a hero and other times when, had she chosen a different path, things might have unfurled much smoother. Either way, her actions were consistent and made from a position of love. In the end, can we really do any better?
This dystopian world of Rust Maidens is highly original. The author creates a world of such imagery that the reader cannot help but see the maidens as both tragic and glorious. Despite the despair of the story, we are left with a glimpse of hope which is tender and uplifting.
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
The author really nailed the feel of working class Cleveland: the food, the drinking, the way everybody in the neighborhood was in everybody else’s business. It was moderately creepy (I’ve seen this categorized both as horror and as dark fantasy), but I wanted it to be creepier. Perhaps the subtext was too much.... text. This was largely about the way that girls were controlled and policed and how some of them rebelled, but it felt a bit heavy handed sometimes.
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It has now been over two weeks since I finished "The Rust Maidens" by Gwendolyn Kiste and I can still not get over the beautiful writing and the story of the five young girls from Cleveland, OH from the summer of 1980. I don't generally suffer from "book hangovers", but this one hit me hard and I've been having a hard time all month truly getting into other books.
"The Rust Maidens" is a dual timeline novel, which I love when done right. The present timeline follows Phoebe Shaw returning one last time to her childhood home in Cleveland, Ohio before her neighborhood gets torn down. While there, Phoebe reminisces about the summer she graduated high school, the summer of 1980, when five girls from Phoebe's grade began suffering an inexplicable transformation, losing their skin and getting metal and glass in return.
This is a beautifully written novel, in which every single word felt like being absolutely necessary. I have been meaning to write a review of this book as soon as I finished it, but I truly felt at a loss for words for how much I enjoyed this coming of age story. If you haven't read it yet, I highly recommend you pick it up. I doubt I would have gotten to it this soon if I hadn't received it in the TwitteStone subscription box in December, for which I am very thankful. Otherwise, I would have been missing out on my first 5-star read of the year, and one of my newly found favorite books.
"The Rust Maidens" is a dual timeline novel, which I love when done right. The present timeline follows Phoebe Shaw returning one last time to her childhood home in Cleveland, Ohio before her neighborhood gets torn down. While there, Phoebe reminisces about the summer she graduated high school, the summer of 1980, when five girls from Phoebe's grade began suffering an inexplicable transformation, losing their skin and getting metal and glass in return.
This is a beautifully written novel, in which every single word felt like being absolutely necessary. I have been meaning to write a review of this book as soon as I finished it, but I truly felt at a loss for words for how much I enjoyed this coming of age story. If you haven't read it yet, I highly recommend you pick it up. I doubt I would have gotten to it this soon if I hadn't received it in the TwitteStone subscription box in December, for which I am very thankful. Otherwise, I would have been missing out on my first 5-star read of the year, and one of my newly found favorite books.
“Don't blame the men. They didn't do this.”
So. The Rust Maidens. I'm not sure where to begin here. Reading And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe earlier this year confirmed Gwendolyn Kiste as an author to watch, but The Rust Maidens… this cements her as a new favorite. Her prose alone is worth the cost of the book. She sings the heartache and regret and love right off the page and into your veins. Hers is a voice I will follow into any story she decides to tell.
The story she tells here concerns Phoebe Shaw, returning to her childhood home in Cleveland, Ohio. I've always believed we're all of us haunted by our hometowns, and I can't help but feel Gwendolyn confirms this with The Rust Maidens. Phoebe finds ghosts in every window, every house, even a dismantled phone booth. Her childhood is all around her, taken apart, boarded up, rusted out, and left in ruins. Everything she ran away from is waiting for her, different, but still there.
And the titular Rust Maidens? Honestly, I feel saying anything at all of the role they play is saying too much. Just understand: love is a powerful emotion, not guaranteed to be reciprocal, and a kind of haunting all its own.
So. The Rust Maidens. I'm not sure where to begin here. Reading And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe earlier this year confirmed Gwendolyn Kiste as an author to watch, but The Rust Maidens… this cements her as a new favorite. Her prose alone is worth the cost of the book. She sings the heartache and regret and love right off the page and into your veins. Hers is a voice I will follow into any story she decides to tell.
The story she tells here concerns Phoebe Shaw, returning to her childhood home in Cleveland, Ohio. I've always believed we're all of us haunted by our hometowns, and I can't help but feel Gwendolyn confirms this with The Rust Maidens. Phoebe finds ghosts in every window, every house, even a dismantled phone booth. Her childhood is all around her, taken apart, boarded up, rusted out, and left in ruins. Everything she ran away from is waiting for her, different, but still there.
And the titular Rust Maidens? Honestly, I feel saying anything at all of the role they play is saying too much. Just understand: love is a powerful emotion, not guaranteed to be reciprocal, and a kind of haunting all its own.
First of all, I would never have picked this one up if not for the hype of bookstagram. Now normally hyped books make me wary, the last one I tried didn't quite live up to its praises for me.
But for my first read of women in horror month, I chose this one. And I'm so glad that I did.
Set in 1980s Ohio, a time where all the men worked in a nearby factory, all the women stayed at home and gossiped, and all of the hopes and dreams of the next generation were clipped and forged from what their parents had become.
But Phoebe Shaw is different. She wants out, and she wants to take her best friend, Jacqueline, with her. But before they can escape something starts to happen to the girls of Denton Street, something terrible and unbelievable.
This is very much a story of loyalty and community. What happens when fear starts to overrule compassion. How far you would go for the ones you loved.
Filled with memorable quotes and fully formed characters, this is a book you might find yourself believing. And that's the mark of fine writing.
But for my first read of women in horror month, I chose this one. And I'm so glad that I did.
Set in 1980s Ohio, a time where all the men worked in a nearby factory, all the women stayed at home and gossiped, and all of the hopes and dreams of the next generation were clipped and forged from what their parents had become.
But Phoebe Shaw is different. She wants out, and she wants to take her best friend, Jacqueline, with her. But before they can escape something starts to happen to the girls of Denton Street, something terrible and unbelievable.
This is very much a story of loyalty and community. What happens when fear starts to overrule compassion. How far you would go for the ones you loved.
Filled with memorable quotes and fully formed characters, this is a book you might find yourself believing. And that's the mark of fine writing.
The Rust Maidens is easily one of my favorite books I have read this year. Kiste's prose is as beautiful as the overall story she weaves. The whole concept behind the book offers an original idea that I found myself quickly falling into, desperate to know more. Yet, there is familiarity here within Phoebe's story (I adored this character by the way), and within the town where rust has come to consume the residents. Beneath the surface of the decay lingers even more powerful stories -- stories about girls seeking their identity in a town that doesn't want them to understand how much power they may truly hold, a town that represses young women so deeply that they literally rust inside. Kiste has not only crafted a dark and gorgeous story, she has offered up some incredible writing that holds strong literary merits. One of the reasons I love horror so much is because it can be quiet, creeping horror like the rust growing over the girls, and because horror offers such deep commentary on societal and cultural values. Kiste has captured this side of horror in a phenomenal way. I really cannot recommend this book enough. I will be thinking about it for a long time!