Dread Nation

The central premise here was great, but the plot meandered at times and it felt like the author had come up with a great concept, then had trouble with what to do with it.

Skillfully written and likeable characters, although I feel like I'd be more of a Katherine than a Jane. I enjoyed that the author trusted the reader enough to reveal the backstory of Jane and the world generally slowly, rather than infodumping it all at once.

The plot twists and secrets weren't very surprising and didn't all make sense.

The letter excerpts at the end of each chapter were clever and moved the plot.

I have a long reading list at the moment, but will probably read the sequel. This was clearly written with a sequel in mind, so I'd like to see how things conclude. Would be interesting if parts of the sequel are told from other perspectives.

You might expect the dead are rising from the battlefields of the American Civil War to change everything, but Justina Ireland uses Dread Nation to explore how minorities continue to be exploited. Jane is a pupil at Miss Preston’s School of Combat in Baltimore, receiving tuition in both scrambler killing and etiquette. If she graduates with flying colours, she will be able to take employment as an Attendant, protecting rich white women from unwanted attention, both from the undead and suitors.

Yes, despite the war between the living ending, black people are still don't have their freedom. The Native and Negro Reeducation Act is based on a very real programme where America forcibly sent Native American children to special schools in order to be "civilised".

I loved Dread Nation, so much. I have no idea why a UK publisher hasn't picked it up. It transplants the horrors of the slave trade into a post-apocalyptic scenario. Jane may seem to have it good but her position is precarious, she must rely on the whims of the white people in power. The action goes from Baltimore to the frontier out west, where there is no place for the pleasantries of polite society and the rules are quite different.

Jane is the illegitimate daughter of a plantation owner's wife and was lucky to survive. Each chapter starts with correspondence between Jane and her mother, along with flashbacks as Jane remembers her past, painting a picture of who her mother was. I liked their complicated relationship and there is a revelation that puts it all into context.

I'd shy away from calling them friends, but her schoolmate Katherine is her rival for the top positions. She is paled skinned and could easily pass as white. Later on, her ability to pass helps to highlight the discrimination based on nothing more but skin colour.

The Survivalists take the place of Confederates, the very definition of white supremecists, they believe they survived because they are white and the black population's purpose is to serve them. They want to rebuild America in their own image, using people of colour to get there. Jane and Katherine are expected to politely listen to so-called scientific lectures on how they are less than human. You will fume right by their side.

I want to avoid going into too much detail on the plot because I was not expecting it to go where it does, but I loved every page. It is gripping, entertaining, thought-provoking and heart-breaking.

When  the bodies of the dead come back and attack people, the fighting in the Civil War stops. What doesn't stop is the racism that was inherent in the United States. Now, 20 years after the shamblers first appeared, black children are taken and trained for combat duty.The system replicates the hierarchy of slavery.  "Better" girls are trained in elite schools to be bodyguards to wealthy white women. They guard them from shamblers and serve as chaperones as the white ladies socialize.  Other girls end up working in the fields clearing shamblers as they approach towns.  Those people don't have a long life span.For me the story got most interesting when Jane and some companions are sent west to a planned community run by a pastor and his son, the sheriff.  Everything is set up for the safety and protection of white families but it is all run on the forced labor of black people.  The white overseers are so terrified of their black charges that they deliberately undermine their ability to fight shamblers by not giving them adequate weapons thus weakening the defenses of the whole town.  They won't listen to the advice and expertise of black women until it is literally life or death.This book didn't interest me as a zombie/horror story.  It was at its best when showing off the absurdities of racism.  From phrenology to tell who is white and who is black to medical experimentation on unwilling black people to unequal distribution of assets this book highlights many aspects of systemic racism by placing them in a fantasy setting where people should be more interested in working together for survival than upholding an arbitrary hierarchy.This review was originally posted on Based On A True Story