Justina Ireland’s Getting Rec’d

Feb 24, 2023 | Authors Getting Rec'd

Author Sabrina Blaum recommends Rust in the Root by Justina Ireland

Welcome to Authors Getting Rec’d! Each week, we’ll bring you a new sapphic book recommendation from a favorite sapphic author. Find out what authors are reading and why, plus read about the personal connections between authors and books.

This week, Sabrina Blaum, whose favorite author is Justina Ireland (and she often rereads her books), explains why Rust in the Root is a must read.

Sabrina fell in love with this book from the cover and was utterly hooked by the time she read the blurb. She loves the mixture of real history with a fantasy element/alternative history. Then the MC in the book is a Black lesbian, which is still not that common, especially outside of romance. Not just that, but all relevant and important characters are Black (most of them are Black women).

Let’s hear more from Sabrina about why Rust in the Root is a must read:

The combination of magic and science in this book is something I’ve never seen. It plays in the late 1930s, and you get the same history we have, but in a different way. The heart and animus behind the events are the same, but they play out differently, and you know while reading this new take on history that if this all were real, that’s how it would have played out. So while the history presented didn’t happen, it’s eerily familiar in a lot of ways. The MC is awesome, and overall the supporting characters are interesting and have depth. You can’t help but care for them.

It’s a creative, gripping tale that made me want to just keep reading. I also love that it isn’t just a book where it’s said, oh, the MC is a lesbian, and then this never comes up again and she is just this character that has not a single attraction throughout the book. Again, I was blown away by the creativity of this tale, and the fascinating characters that take you on this journey.

Tempted? You can get Justine’s book here:

Sabrina Blaum is the author of The Well of Shadows, which has similar magical components to Justina Ireland’s book.

Here’s Sabrina to tell us more:

Both books contain magic and a lore that deals with the mistreatment of a group of people that the protagonists try to help. The Well of Shadows, while playing in a world that is familiar to the real world we live in, is by no means an alternative history that takes place in our world.

Additionally, both books have MC with an attitude, who turn out to be stronger than they ever thought they could be. The magic used is much more traditional in the Well of Shadows than in Rust in the Root.

Thank you, Sabrina, for sharing what book is on your nightstand right now and paying it forward by showing some book love to a fellow SapphFic author!

Sabrina Blaum hails originally from Germany and moved to the United States in 2006. She studied Sociology, Geographic Information Systems, and English at a local university in Alabama, at which she used to teach English Composition.

She has always written and wrote her first “novel” in elementary school, when she decided that Enid Blyton’s Malory Towers needed a sequel. She also had the habit of telling her late grandmother bedtime stories.