I requested this several years ago and I don't think it's a book for me anymore. So I will not be reviewing at this time, but if I do read it, I will update this review. Thank you for the opportunity.

Straight up, it took me a long time to warm up to Dust Girl by Sarah Zettel. I felt as though I had been dropped into it with no idea of what was going on. I didn’t immediately feel grounded in the story. Frankly, though, once I had a better sense of place and world, Dust Girl went from being a chore to read to a story that I absolutely wolfed down.

I won't be able to leave a review for this book; I requested it in a past lifetime of my NetGalley use (over ten years ago) and it no longer fits with my reading interests. If I ever do end up reading it I'll come back and update this!

I was highly skeptical when I heard about this faery-inspired alternate history that takes place in the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression. I had trouble imagining how heartless foreboding faeries (which I always picture as woodland dwellers) would fit into the dry and dusty climate of 1935 Kansas. It turns out Zettel did an amazing job - the malevolent otherworldly creatures are masters of illusions, and are fond of extracting promises which they honor to the letter if not the spirit.

Callie LeRoux is growing desperate as her mother has disappeared and money and supplies at their bed and breakfast are running perilously low. Naturally, no new business is forthcoming, as the remote village of Slow Run is quickly becoming a ghost town. People are abandoning their lives, picking up and moving away in the night, in hopes of finding any kind of relief from the crushing poverty they face in Kansas.

Callie's certain the sudden arrival of the haughty and demanding Hopper family, clearly well-to-do, is just the stroke of luck that will help her pull things together. Unfortunately, she couldn't be more wrong. She and hobo runaway Jack end up fleeing for their lives, as Callie struggles to hide her biracial heritage from both humans and fae. I loved the imagery of the evil fae as locusts over the land. Much of the book feels lonely as Callie flees across the empty Midwest towards California. You know that dream you have where you're being chased and you're running and running, but just can't seem to get away? It feels like that. This book was a lot scarier and less romantic than I had thought. I'd recommend this for mature middle-grade and teen readers who enjoy a bit of a scare along with their history.

Loving in Kansas I was intrigued by the concept of this book. In reality it just didn’t pull me I. The way I would like. It was slow at the beginning and just took awhile to get going. I know it’s “the thing” for YA to be series or trilogies, but that doesn’t have to be the case. I may eventually get around to finding out what happens to Callie and Jack. I did find a few books to look up from the authors note though.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for allowing me to read and review this book.

This book was not for me. Though I persisted until about the middle of the book, I couldn't go on and DNFed it. The story was slow for the parts that I read. Some said that it gets stronger and faster in the latter half but if I can't be engaged in the first pages then...

I just couldn't get into this book. It was a very slow start for me and for some reason I just couldn't get myself to keep reading. I had to DNF it. I really wanted to love this one because it sounded so good.