Dread Nation - Justina Ireland

Dread Nation

By Justina Ireland

  • Release Date: 2018-04-03
  • Genre: Action & Adventure Fiction for Young Adults
Score: 4.5
4.5
From 102 Ratings

Description

New York Times bestseller; 6 starred reviews!

At once provocative, terrifying, and darkly subversive, Dread Nation is Justina Ireland's stunning vision of an America both foreign and familiar—a country on the brink, at the explosive crossroads where race, humanity, and survival meet.

Jane McKeene was born two days before the dead began to walk the battlefields of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania—derailing the War Between the States and changing the nation forever.

In this new America, safety for all depends on the work of a few, and laws like the Native and Negro Education Act require certain children attend combat schools to learn to put down the dead.

But there are also opportunities—and Jane is studying to become an Attendant, trained in both weaponry and etiquette to protect the well-to-do. It's a chance for a better life for Negro girls like Jane. After all, not even being the daughter of a wealthy white Southern woman could save her from society’s expectations.

But that’s not a life Jane wants. Almost finished with her education at Miss Preston's School of Combat in Baltimore, Jane is set on returning to her Kentucky home and doesn’t pay much mind to the politics of the eastern cities, with their talk of returning America to the glory of its days before the dead rose.

But when families around Baltimore County begin to go missing, Jane is caught in the middle of a conspiracy, one that finds her in a desperate fight for her life against some powerful enemies. 

And the restless dead, it would seem, are the least of her problems.

"Abundant action, thoughtful worldbuilding, and a brave, smart, and skillfully drawn cast entertain as Ireland illustrates the ignorance and immorality of racial discrimination and examines the relationship between equality and freedom." (Publishers Weekly, "An Anti-Racist Children's and YA Reading List")

Reviews

  • Love Love Love

    5
    By Dbcrescent
    It was so easy to get sucked into this book, I especially adored the letters from janes mom before each chapter, it really played into finding out about Janes truth. So excited to read the next book!
  • Must read :)

    5
    By Missmurrymac
    I absolutely loved it!! So creative and entirely enticing. Couldn’t put it down!
  • Great book

    5
    By Saynotogreedypandora
    This book was really good! The setting and the issues in the setting meshed really well. Who doesn’t love zombies and a strong female lead overcoming racism and the dead? I wish I could be like Jane, and even Katherine. They faced evil on all fronts, human and dead. Can’t wait for the next one!!!
  • Could’ve been good if it wasn’t a cash grab

    2
    By ShootForTheEdit
    A zombie apocalypse set during the civil war? I’m in! And then it doesn’t take long to realize that the only reason it’s set during the civil war is just so the author can write about racism and a protagonist overcoming discrimination. That’s great! No problem with that last part. But the issue is very much forced in there, and seems less impactful as a result. Maybe if it wasn’t so heavily focused on from the beginning, and the issue came about more naturally as the story progressed. Perhaps the same protagonist has chosen to live outside society, away from all the racism and senseless hate, surviving the zombie apocalypse on her own. Then as events unfold, and the zombies grow in numbers and become more aggressive, she must return to the world she hates in order to save what humans remain. Only for them to be surprised at her ethnicity, a situation she wanted to avoid but was ultimately unavoidable. Hate and discrimination come at her like never before, in spite of her heroism. Then comes the moral dilemma of her saving the very people who would enslave her, and her new found goal to free her fellow minority. Save the world even though they’ll hate you, or live alone in the zombie apocalypse? I don’t know, I’m just spitballing possibilities here, but I do feel that the racial aspects of this story should have been brought about more organically. Because right now, this just feels like another YA book cashing in on social relevance.
  • Great Read!

    5
    By KNM2013
    A very enjoyable book! Highly recommend!

Comments