Something’s happening to the girls on Denton Street. It’s the summer of 1980 in Cleveland, Ohio, and Phoebe Shaw and her best friend Jacqueline have just graduated high school, only to confront an ugly, uncertain future. Across the city, abandoned factories populate the skyline; meanwhile at the shore, one strong spark, and the Cuyahoga River might catch fire. But none of that compares to what’s … compares to what’s happening in their own west side neighborhood. The girls Phoebe and Jacqueline have grown up with are changing. It starts with footprints of dark water on the sidewalk. Then, one by one, the girls’ bodies wither away, their fingernails turning to broken glass, and their bones exposed like corroded metal beneath their flesh.
As rumors spread about the grotesque transformations, soon everyone from nosy tourists to clinic doctors and government men start arriving on Denton Street, eager to catch sight of “the Rust Maidens” in metamorphosis. But even with all the onlookers, nobody can explain what’s happening or why–except perhaps the Rust Maidens themselves. Whispering in secret, they know more than they’re telling, and Phoebe realizes her former friends are quietly preparing for something that will tear their neighborhood apart.
Alternating between past and present, Phoebe struggles to unravel the mystery of the Rust Maidens–and her own unwitting role in the transformations–before she loses everything she’s held dear: her home, her best friend, and even perhaps her own body.
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This is the best debut of 2018! Kiste is a force to be reckoned with going forward in the dark fiction realm.
Gwendolyn Kiste displays her obvious love of language in her Rust Maidens, a tragic story of transformation. Told from the perspective of Phoebe, the story begins in Cleveland, Ohio, USA during the collapse of the steel industry in the early 1980’s. The residents of Denton Street face the unknown. The workers strike for better conditions from their failing steel mill. The housewives drink spiked tea, plan social functions, and gossip. And the youth prepare for their futures. Eighteen-year-old Phoebe longs to escape the oppression of impending ruin with her best friend Jacqueline just after graduation. She has her Impala gassed up and ready to flee, but fate has another plan.
Several young women begin to change, to somehow assume the decay around them, to become a part of the town in an unexpected way. The strange affliction rots their flesh in ways Guillermo del Toro would admire. The rust maidens become dangerous representations of the declining state of the community.
Rebellious and independent, Phoebe never fit the adults’ idea of acceptable. As a kid, she created a sanctuary for insects from her tree house instead of playing with dolls like other girls. Her one true link to the unaccepting town is her cousin Jacqueline. When Jacqueline becomes afflicted with the mysterious curse of the Rust Maidens, Phoebe attempts to save them.
As the strange transformation worsens, government agents fall upon the town to test the girls. The frightened citizens use them as scapegoats for their deteriorating situations. Phoebe never truly loses her love for her friend. Her compassion for the plight of the rust maidens drives her to reckless efforts. Instead of inspiring empathy, the town targets Phoebe, heaping blame on her young shoulders.
Thick with nostalgic detail, The Rust Maidens by Gwendolyn Kiste evokes an introspective horror, one where our own insecurities could manifest as assimilation into an unrepentant, blinded, and declining community.
I love spec fic novels that make me FEEL, and The Rust Maidens delivers!
This story is set in 1980 and that time is very nostalgic for me. Brought back a lot of memories from my childhood, playing with the Ouija board, taunted Bloody Mary in the bathroom mirror, and Mad Dog 20/20. The girls of Denton Street are about to graduate High School, whole lives ahead of them, when things go terribly wrong!
Underlying everything that happens in this story, I feel is loss. The towns main employer, the Mill, is closing, jobs are lost. The girls are losing their childhood, they are becoming adults, and there seems to be a breakdown of all that is supposed to be normal. Loss of hope, loss of control. All the Rust Maidens wanted and needed was a choice!
THE RUST MAIDENS is the first that I have read by author Gwendolyn Kiste. When I found out that this was her debut novel, I was honestly shocked. During the transition from short stories to a FIRST full-length book, I would expect at least a few things to be “less than perfect”.
In my opinion, this is a SOLID five-star novel, from beginning to end.
“Things change . . . Sometimes it’s for the better, and sometimes it’s not.”
Phoebe Shaw is returning to her hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, for the first time since she left 28 years ago. The novel then alternates between events that happened in 1980–namely, the Rust Maidens, which were the catalyst for all that Phoebe had done since–and the current time frame. These two sections combine beautifully to showcase the past, and Phoebe’s attempts at understanding those changes even now, in the present.
“. . . they’d somehow forgotten that girls were people too.”
I really went into this one blindly–without any pre-conceived notions–as I hadn’t read any specifics on what the story was about. This could be partially why I was so overwhelmed by the sheer beauty and honesty presented here. The other part is simply because, Gwendolyn Kiste really IS that good.
“. . . It’s trapped in-between. Trapped like me.”
When changes start manifesting in some of the girls on Denton street, this is only one of the many things that the author is conveying. These changes are symbolic, as well as physical. They showcase in a sense, the dynamics of being a girl in 1980, and what their expected “place” was. In a local sense, it shows their role in their own hometown, and in a broader sense, the reader can see the similarities and parallels drawn between the Rust Maidens and the changes overcoming Cleveland.
“This was the great lie we invented, that we could actually escape ourselves . . . ”
This novel has the reader going through a large array of emotions. You have the great love that Phoebe has for her cousin–and “partner in crime”–Jacqueline. There’s frustration in living in a town where their way of life is inevitably coming to an end. The biggest event by far though, is the emergence of what would then be called “The Rust Maidens”.
“. . . As our lives assumed a new and unwanted rhythm, this became a summer of unlikely lessons.”
The characterization here is just as solid as the environment–perhaps even more so. Not only is Phoebe presented so completely, but also her family, government officials, the townspeople, and the five girls . . . changing . . .
“Sometimes change was a mercy.”
Kiste gives her readers every thought and reasoning they could possibly need in order to understand that for some, there was no choice–no hope–in what their futures might hold.
“. . . maybe hope doesn’t look the way you expect it to.”
In this society, especially for the women, there was a slim chance of ever becoming more than what your own mother was. Only those with enough conviction and courage to stand out, had the odds of a different sort of life in their favor.
“. . . you could still see each of them hidden there behind the decay . . . They were just different. Simple as that.”
Overall, I was overwhelmed by the depth, style, and complexity of ideas presented in this novel. Of course, I bought this book because I had been hearing many good things about its author, Gwendolyn Kiste, and wanted to see for myself if they were well-founded.
The answer to that was clear as I consumed THE RUST MAIDENS in two or three sittings at most–wanting to know more, yet simultaneously never wanting the words to come to an end.
“. . . so rarely is one lifetime long enough.”
In my opinion, Kiste is one of the best new authors I’ve come across lately. Her writing is simply beautiful–at times almost poetic, even when the subject matter is less than. She has the ability to take the reader out of their own reality and–for a time–transport them into one she’s created. For myself, this feeling comes back still whenever I think about this book.
“. . . Sometimes the only satisfying answer, the only one that would make you stop wondering, was the only one you never wanted to come.”
Highest recommendation!
Rust Maidens, the original Girls On Fire—suffering for our sins, pawns for our agendas, broken mirrors reflecting our collective guilt. But unlike Katniss, these girls make the rules and seek their strange freedoms (society be damned), freedoms we can only comprehend once we turn off our heads and click on our hearts.
At least… this was my impression. Not ashamed to say I cried for about the last ten minutes… I love odd, twisted things that are full of melancholy, hope, and beauty, and this book fits the bill. A wonderful surprise.
Wow, what a hauntingly amazing story! I loved the suspense the heartache and drama that Phoebe goes through to save her friendship. I was so hooked into the story I had to remind myself that it’s not real but felt so real. This book had all of the fantasy, science fiction and thriller in one while taking you on an emotional ride. Phoebe struggles to maintain normalcy while watching her best friend become something else and through this process, she discovers her strength and courage before it’s too late for another.
I can honestly say it’s been a long time since I’ve read a fictional work that evoked such strong feelings within me. The Rust Maidens doesn’t just earn major points for originality, but it also challenges the reader and humanity as a whole.
How can fear of something, or someone, different than us change our morals and actions? What makes us reject what we can’t understand and choose to condemn it instead of sympathizing with it?
The Rust Maidens centers on Phoebe and her life-changing event the summer of her graduation. Kiste brings us back to the eighties, depicting a fantastic and accurate setting of that time period. With spot descriptions, readers really feel immersed in the story. The tragic news is that the girls on Denton Street are changing; deteriorating; maybe even dying. No one seems to understand this strange phenomenon, nor how to help them.
Pheobe attempts to not only save the girls but keep a sense of decency for them, trying to protect them from the only people who are supposed to love them and take care of them.
This heartbreaking but thought-provoking story is bound to stay with you for a long time.
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.