A body-horror rendition of the decay of the Rust Belt and the frustration of being trapped by circumstance, loyalty, and social mores in a place that holds no future for you.

The book had an interesting plot, but i was annoyed with all the blame placed on the MC. Felt incredibly one sided. It was an interesting read but i wouldn’t read again

This book is really weird, but has enough common themes to tie the reader to reality. I found this listed under horror and listened to the audiobook, but I would definitely classify it as a mysterious magical realism story. 

The girls of a downtrodden Cleveland neighborhood have a lot to deal with. It's 1980 and the steel mill is about to go on strike (putting most of their father's on the picket line), their mothers have an intense neighborhood watch system, and the young women are dealing with all the societal pressures of their station. All this makes for a dreary time, until things start to get weird. 

A few of the girls start turning into rusted out, metallic versions of themselves. While the government gets involved to poke and prod, it's really the neighbors that turn their back on them, as it's easier to hide girls with a problem instead of helping them. 

While this story wasn't anything like I expected, I did really enjoy it.

You know I love a story about a concerned neighbor and a self righteous congregation. 

I thought this was a great 80's horror movie vibe story. It felt like those classic slasher/horror movies in the good and the bad ways. In terms of the bad, I felt like there was a lot of unnecessary scenes that just dragged out the story without really adding much substance to the characters or the overall mood of the novel. I did not really end up caring too much about any of the characters; the closest I would say is Dawn and she's more of a side character. I wish we also got more in-depth exploration of the Rust Maidens because the concept is so freaking cool and I kind of wish a different author came up with this concept and explored it more in depth. However, I do think that the 'horror' of the story is supposed to come from how terrible of people everyone is instead of the grotesque nature of the supernatural elements. I thought this did such a good job of exploring how people will fake a smile and take any excuse to finally act on all of the negative opinions they ever had of you. In reality, this is a story of a town full of judgemental church goers who finally had an excuse to publicly condemn and exile all of the 'abominations' that, in their opinion, have been keeping the town from  flourishing. I love how we explore different stereotypes in our 5 girls (The artist, the outcast, the teen-mom, preachers daughter, and lead's best friend) and how their public hatred intermingled with the theme of choice. I really really REALLY love how it focused a lot on personal choice and the fact that no one has the right to tell you what is right for you. Again, the Rust Maiden concept is so disgusting and weird and epic and unsettling and I want more from this concept and I would love to see it explored more and to get some insight on what caused this metamorphosis and more exploration of what exactly happened to them at the end. I WANT MORE. 

The writing style of this was a bit too soggy with unnecessary figurative language and unneeded scenes in my opinion. I also just literally gave 0 effs about the plot in the modern day: lowkey could have been a 4 star if that whole plot line just didn't exist. However, I did find the poetics of Kiste's language to be really beautiful and very engaging in the suspenseful and intense moments of the story. 

I feel like I said a lot of bad but this concept and the theme of choice and found-family and the eeriness of it all will definitely stick with me. I was completely hooked for the last 70 ish pages, reallly good suspense and stakes.