This is the story of a broken girl and her growth through tragedy and I deeply enjoyed it.

It was gripping, exciting, and I can’t wait to see where this series goes from here!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me access to the free advanced digital copy of this book.

This book was quite intriguing to me. I found it took me a lot longer to get through than I expected as I became a but bored thorough some of the middle of the book. The last 20% of the book or so, however, was engaging and fantastically clever. So overall, I have to give this book a 4. I found it enjoyable overall, though I found it hard to relate to the characters. They were well written, just a bit less like the typical protagonist in the genre I read. This book definitely has a more steampunk Gothic vibe. I loved the literary integration as well. I'm excited to see what happens in the next book!

Shades of Rust and Ruin is such a beautifully written YA fantasy. The world-building is outstanding. The story is well written with an enchanting storyline and well-developed characters that engage from start to finish. The world is atmospheric and feels real with vivid descriptions and rich imagery. I cannot get enough. Highly recommended. Be sure to check out Shades of Rust and Ruin today.

Shades of Rust and Ruin is a retelling of The Goblin King. Nix was a very compelling character. She was a young woman burdened with grief. I found all the others to be very realistic. The world-building was very complex and intricate. The writing has gorgeous prose and is very lyrical. The book was also scary and atmospheric. Thus, this is one of A. G. Howard’s best work! I recommend this for fans of Melanie Karsak, S. Jae-Jones, and Lidiya Foxglove!

I really expected to love this one. I'd enjoyed the Splintered series by the same author, so I thought this one would have the same charm. After all, it looked like it would have similar vibes: a dark fairy tale and an atmospheric setting. It had both of those, but for some reason, it lost my attention. I really enjoyed the first 30% but after that, I struggled to read. I found myself making excuses to not read. I probably should've dnf'ed, but for whatever reason, I stuck with it.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review

Always a fan of A.G. Howard and this novel didn't disappoint but it was also not as good as her pervious novel. I enjoyed the characters and the word building, but the story fell just a little short for me. Thank you netgalley for this arc in exchange for the arc.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this novel. I encourage you to check this one out! Really solid read.

Content warnings: bullying, child endangerment, parental loss, sibling loss, being drugged

If you take the concept behind the film classic that is Labyrinth and mix it with equal parts Christina Rossetti's poem "Goblin Market" and steampunk, you'll get Howard's SHADES OF RUST AND RUIN.

While overall, I thought this was a good read, it did start off kind of rocky and it took a long time to get into the story. I didn't really like Nix as a character, but I did love Clarey. The world of Mystiquel was interesting, as was the quest that Nix and Clarey went on to save Nix's uncle.

I'm not sure how I feel about the ending though, I'm assuming the sequel will have it make more sense within the world but this book definitely ends on a curveball that left me unsure what to think about this story.

Advanced Reader’s Copy provided by NetGalley, Bloomsbury USA Children's Books, and Bloomsbury YA in exchange for an honest review.

To Nix, the worst day of every year is Halloween. That's the day her parents died when she was young. And it is also the day her twin sister died just a few short years ago. Now it is just her and her uncle left, and she does everything possible each Halloween night to make sure they are safe from the forces that took the rest of her family.

But this year is different. This year, her uncle isn't where he's supposed to be, and it's up to her and her best friend Clarey to find him before something happens to her uncle, either in this world, or the one she thought only existed in her imagination. Is there really something to the family Halloween curse? Or has Nix been imagining it all? What Nix discovers on her trip to save her uncle may just be the undoing of both her worlds.

This is full of twists, turns, and downright turning inside-out. There's a lot to unwrap in this one, and at times it's a little hard to follow the story through its twisty-turny ways, but ultimately, this is a great one for fans of stories that are just a little strange and take the reader on a path of the unexpected.

This is a perfect read for the upcoming spooky season with the steampunk element, faery, dark fantasy vibes.

This is my first AG Howard book and I like his writing. The way he builds the story makes you keep reading. I'm excited to read the next book!

(the cover of this books is also *chef's kiss*)

Thank you Netgalley and Bloomsbury for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

A super fun, steampunk twist on the classic Goblin Market theme. A perfect pick for a fall and/or Halloween read.

Howard's writing is highly imaginative and wickedly descriptive. Shades of Rust and Ruin is an interesting steampunk take on goblin and faerie lore.

So.

I wanted to like this book, I really did. The Goblin Market is one of favorite poems, and I was a huge fan of the steampunk genre when it first started to gain popularity. So I was really expecting to be instantly engaged. Unfortunately I really wasn’t less than 100 pages in. I found myself constantly checking my progress on my kindle, and with this title being 400 pages (!) long, it started to feel more like a chore to finish than anything else.

I have a few core issues with this, number one being the fact that it felt as if it took the characters over 100 pages to realize what was seemingly obvious to the reader. I found myself really resenting the seeming lack of common sense pretty quickly, and then stayed annoyed for another 50 pages at least.

The descriptions for the most part were really detailed, to the point that it began to feel like nearly everything was overdone, and left little to the reader’s imagination, in some cases I almost felt like it was even harder to visualize because it was overly detailed. We get it, they’re mechanical - I don’t need to have every cog described in detail.

I truly couldn’t connect with the main character at all. Her logic seemed so utterly flawed, and her emotional responses to things truly annoyed me roughly a quarter of the time. Don’t get me wrong, there were other characters I really enjoyed, but having to slog through the thoughts and feelings of Nix just ended up being exhausting, and redundant.

The ending. Big ol’ nope from me. Even with this being the first in the series, the ending simply didn’t feel as logical to the characters overall. The emotional reactions of some were so illogical to me that I actually became angry when my progress hit 98% and I felt as if nothing made sense anymore.

Don’t get me wrong, this title will probably be very well received for teens looking to start a new series, but for me.,, it just wasn’t it.

Shades of Rust and Ruin was everything I wanted and expected and more. A. G. Howard does it like no other when it comes to atmosphere, stunning imagery and immersive storytelling. The representation in this book was excellent featuring a deaf character and Waardenburg syndrome, a disease I previously knew very little about. The characters, in particular Nix and Clarey are unique and have realistic character development and I found them to be very relatable. The Goblin Market was so intriguing and the lore throughout this book had me completely sucked in. As much as this is a fantasy book about a girl and the world she created, it's also a book about family, grief, loss and much more. The twists were unexpected and had me dying for more at the end. This was an excellent beginning of what I'm sure is going to be an explosive series!

Shades of Rust and Ruin is a tale about twin sisters whose mother wanted to keep her children and did so knowing that she was breaking a bargain with the Goblin King. Unfortunately, lark and Phoenix's family have made a bargain with the Goblin King. As a result of disregarding this pact, Lark loses her sister to death and believes her family to be cursed, and every year on Halloween, she holds a vigil to keep what remains of her family safe.
Take the familiar themes you have probably read in many dark fantasy stories about the Goblin king, such as bargains, fey needing humans to fuel their world, and fairy fruits with enhancements. And blending it with technology and Halloween makes this a unique tale. A.G. Howard's descriptions of the world Mystiquel draw you into this world that, for Phoenix, is just ink and paper tells she learns it is not. I thoroughly enjoyed the steampunk elements blended with the technology and the dark aspects of the fey world.
If you like stories about Halloween, dark bargains with fey, and the Goblin King, pick this one up today.

For all that steampunk seems to have been a pop culture phenomenon that lurked in subculture before becoming mainstream for a couple of years a while back before fading back into the subculture once more, you could believe it was part and parcel of the YA literary landscape with the passion and zeal A. G. Howard builds an entire novel around it in “Shades of Rust and Ruin”. The alchemy of this novel is amazing: A substantial fantasy world built around the fey mixed with steampunk and a dash of cyberpunk, a chunk of plot built around one interpretation of Christina Rossetti’s poem “The Goblin Market”, a smidge of wink nudge references to the movie “Labyrinth”, and both an ode and a dirge to sisterhood. In my opinion, the only flaw this book has is its tendency to be so in love with its own world it can’t help but tip into overly descriptive at times. Even then, you can’t help but forgive the author just a little, since the world is fascinating enough you kind of want to linger a little yourself. But we’re not reading this book for a grand tour of a fantasy world: we’re here for the story. And what a story it is.

Phoenix has a fear of Halloween, and for good reason: Her parents died on Halloween and her sister died on Halloween. Usually, Nix and her Uncle sit vigil at home from midnight on the 31st until midnight on November 1st, staying together and never leaving the house, completing simple rituals together to remember the family they’ve lost and to keep each other afloat for the 24 hours they are determined to stay awake and ensure they stay safe and alive together. But then Nix’s uncle breaks their routine to run a few errands and doesn’t come back, forcing Nix to leave the house as well, despite her desperate fears. Turns out, she had good reason to fear.

The less said about the plot of this book, the better. I hope no one posts a whole bunch of spoilers or reviews that are simply summaries of the plot, because going in blind is so much better. Trust me on this. Before I go any further in my review I will say this: The ending of this book made the whole book worthwhile. I pumped my fist and literally said, “Yes!”

Much of this book hinges on the story arc present in Christina Rossetti’s much-beloved poem “The Goblin Market”, but there’s more than one interpretation of this beautiful work. The more popular interpretation (and the only one I had heard of up until this book) was of the two main characters, Laura and Lizzie, being lovers who try their best to keep one another safe from the greedy eyes and hands of men. In “Shades of Rust and Ruin”, the interpretation of the poem is adjusted so that Laura and Lizzie are sisters and the goblins were actually goblins. So bear this interpretation in mind when you go to read this book, because it did take some mental rearranging for me to not get a little creeped out when I discovered how much this book leans on the poem.

The world-building in this book, as I’ve mentioned before, is mind-boggling. It’s colorful, it’s allegorical, it’s metaphorical, it’s figurative, and it’s incredibly imaginative. There’s a world living on a world that’s parted from “our” world by a veil. There’s a funhouse scene early on that is both incredibly intense and incredibly well-crafted. It has the feel of a demented Wonderland crossed with a dark Legend of Zelda. If it weren’t an adrenaline-fueled moment in the book I would’ve wanted to sit there and meditate on the whole scene for a minute.

Writing about the magic system would be fruitless because it would only result in the dreaded spoilers, so I won’t give it a go, but the characters are unique and varied, with the primary cast being large enough to cause the author to struggle just slightly with giving them all page time enough to fully develop identities, save for Nix. Once again, I believe this choice wasn't inherently a bad one, it was a choice made in sacrifice of the plot and the world. It made sense to me when I was reading the book, and maybe it will be clear to you when you read the book too.

I’m going to note that while this is a YA fantasy horror novel, it does tip heavily toward the darker and meaner side of the genre and while I’m firmly against censorship in reading I believe if you’re a parent and you have a younger reader who has picked up this book you might find them having questions or deep feelings regarding the book and its themes. They may especially have questions about the ending. I will stick by my assessment that the ending is absolutely the way the book should’ve ended and was a fantastic dismount (stuck the landing!), but some less mature readers may not feel the same. Heck, this ending may prove to be controversial to all readers.

I highly recommend this novel, goblin warts and all.

Thanks to Bloomsbury YA and NetGalley for granting me early access to this title.

Bloomsbury has yet to let me down with a fantasy so I was preemptively excited for this one before even starting it. To find out it was a retelling of Rossetti’s poem “The Goblin Market” was truly just the cherry on top. This was sufficiently creepy, well-written, atmospheric, with a unique and creative plot. I really love a dark YA fantasy thats main focus is the story and not a romance, but the friends-to-lovers romance here was really well done. My favorite part was the worldbuilding and Howard did well to clearly take inspiration from Rossetti and other fantastical books while still managing to create something original. Words can’t describe how excited I am to continue on with this series! If you enjoy dark urban YA fantasy, don’t sleep on this one.

Shades of Rust and Ruin was a unique and original story filled with steampunk creatures and a mystical world of rusty horrors. I really enjoyed Nix and Clarey's relationship and how they worked together throughout the book to overcome not only the peril they were in in Mystiquel but also to help each other emotionally. Flannie the collie was a favorite of course! I also really liked how vivid the descriptions were for everything in the human world but also Mystiquel and even the descriptions without color felt alive. There were times where I felt the book was a little slow and I didn't enjoy the Lark part of it as much as I thought. It was an important part of the story but there were times where it felt overpowering to the action parts of the plot. Fantasy lovers are sure to love this steampunk story filled with magic and mayhem!

AG Howard knows how to write a fairy tale. This one is chock full of curses and magical worlds. Nix Loring’s family is under a Halloween curse. Her parents died when she was 3 on Halloween, and her twin, Lark, suffered the same fate on the same day, 11 years later. Now her uncle has gone missing and it is up to Nix and her sister’s boyfriend, Clarey.
You will be getting stong Labyrinth vibes from this novel!

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury for an e-arc of this novel.*