Of Dreams and Rust is a sequel to Sarah Fine’s Of Metal and Wishes ( A | BN | K | G | AB ). The two books basically function as one single book, and this review contains spoilers for Of Metal and Wishes. Alert – this is a YA story with first person, present-tense narration and a love triangle. Fortunately, the setting, characters, and overall plot made it feel fresh.

Of Metal and Wishes is inspired by The Phantom of the Opera, one of my favorite books. This story takes place in a steampunk world very loosely based on China – and what a delight it is to see steampunk motifs in a non-Western setting. Wen is a young woman whose mother dies. She is sent to live with her father, who is the doctor for a huge factory. This particular factory is a slaughterhouse and meat production facility (there’s only one scene which directly involves violence against animals, and it’s mostly implied).  Working conditions are hazardous so Wen, who apprentices with her father, has plenty of chances to build practical skills fast.

Wen is a member of the dominant ethnic group, the Itanyai. One day, a group of Noor, an ethnic group whose lands were taken by the Itanyai, is brought to the factory to work. Wen becomes their advocate and falls in love with their leader, Melik.

Wen’s situation is complicated by the fact that she attracts the attention of the factory’s ghost – a disfigured young man named Bo who hides in the factory and grants wishes, sometimes in a grisly manner. Bo wears a metal mask and uses a metal arm. As the story progresses he builds a metal suit for himself in which he spends as much time as he can.

In both books, it’s quite clear that this is not a true love triangle in the sense that Wen is never in love with Bo, but she does care about him very deeply. Wen’s biggest challenge is convincing Bo that he has to allow her to make her own choices. Bo is protective to the point of being abusively controlling, and this is not presented as a romantic trait.

Melik comes from a more feminist society and is more instinctively inclined to let Wen make her own choices, but he is also protective (although more appropriately so), and Wen sometimes has to interrupt yelling matches between Bo and Melik by pointing out that she is STANDING RIGHT THERE and has her own voice, thank you very much.

The first book, Of Metal and Wishes, is set up as a Phantom of the Opera story within the slaughterhouse. It ends on a slight cliffhanger. This next book picks up a year later and involves Wen’s role in the Noor rebellion against the Itanyai. It is a richer book in characterization and theme. In this story, Wen has more agency and she brings her intellect and her medical skills into frequent use. She’s not an action girl in the hand-to-hand combat sense, but she does emergency medical triage and treatment on the front lines in battle, which I think is pretty fucking badass.

For all the romantic drama in Of Metal and Wishes, Wen doesn’t have a real relationship with either Melik or Bo. Bo has an obsession with Wen and Wen has to work hard to maintain her own autonomy in the face of his attempts to control her or to protect her by wreaking violence on innocents. Wen and Melik don’t know each other very well – they have an intense crush, but no time to develop a real relationship.

Of Dreams and Rust sees Wen’s relationships with both men deepen. With Bo, she has to make it clear that she is not in love with him while trying to also affirm his humanity: “You have a right to live, and to feel, and to love. You are not really a ghost, Bo.”

Meanwhile, Wen’s relationship with Melik matures. They have to come to terms with the realities of war and things Melik has done for survival and the survival of his people. They have to navigate cultural differences in a way that is barely touched on in Of Metal and Wishes. They have to learn to communicate clearly despite barriers of culture, language, emotional baggage, and a year of separation.  Above all, they have to learn to trust each other, which is incredibly difficult given that they come from opposite sides of a civil war, not to mention the fact that Bo keeps popping up and being all, “Hey, I think she really likes MEEEEE!”

Readers should be aware that there is no explicit sex in the books but there is a lot of very graphic and horrific violence, both on page and implied. Also, in the first book Wen is sexually harassed by both a coworker and by her boss. The creep factor is through the roof with those guys. There is no sexual violence in the second book, thank goodness. Readers should also know that in Of Metal and Wishes there are giant killer steampunk spiders that eat people, which…no.

Overall, these two books are uneven, but when they are good, they are very, very good. The first book is gripping and inventive, but suffers from the reliance on sexual harassment as a plot thread (one which is unnecessary — there is already plenty of tension in the plot given the Itanyai/Noor conflict). It also suffers from the fact that Wen is the object of so many people’s lust or affection, and from the fact that she doesn’t have many chances to take action – and when she does, it often goes badly.

By the second book, Wen has retained her basic character and sense of ethics, but she’s also gotten smarter and more capable. Her relationships with other women are limited to one with Melik’s mother, but that relationship is warm and supportive. The conflicts are more realistic, and they are resolved in ways both touching and tear-jerking. Some of the dialogue is mature and lovely to a degree that made me catch my breath.

If I were grading this as two separate books, I would give Of Metal and Wishes a B-,  Of Dreams and Rust a B+, and the series overall a nice solid B. Overall, I enjoyed this unusual duology and I wish there were just one more book. Or maybe three or four. Once Wen and Malik improved their communications skills, they made a very solid couple and it was wonderful to see them grow up together and become true partners, not just love-stricken kids. I feel like I could read about Wen and Melik for a long time, especially Wen, who clearly has many badass field medic days ahead of her.