Zombies vs. Ex-Slaves: Justina Ireland: Dread Nation

While this year’s Hugo shortlist in general is fantastic, the still pretty new YA category – the Lodestar Award, and Not-A-Hugo – is more of a mixed bag. Which is not a bad thing, to be honest. It makes ranking these six novels much easier.

DREAD NATION
by Justina Ireland

Published by: Balzer + Bray, 2018
eBook: 455 pages
Series: Dread Nation #1
My rating: 7/10

First sentence: The day I came squealing and squalling into the world was the first time someone tried to kill me.

Jane McKeene was born two days before the dead began to walk the battlefields of Gettysburg and Chancellorsville—derailing the War Between the States and changing America forever. In this new nation, safety for all depends on the work of a few, and laws like the Native and Negro Reeducation 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.

I absolutely loved the voice of this book – which is the voice of its protagonist Jane McKeene – from the very first moment. She is sharp, she is no-nonsense, she lies a lot but at least she lets us readers in on her lies, she cares deeply about her family and friends, and she wants to do what is right. With that as a basis, very little could go wrong for me. And Dread Nation did in fact keep me entertained until the end, even though I felt the plot started meandering a bit at a certain point and the book left  too much open for the sequel(s).

The premise of this story  may sound cool, but if you’re tired of zombies (like me), you may have stayed away from Dread Nation so far (like me). In this alternate version of America, the War Between the States was interrupted by the dead rising. So people put down their arms against each other and instead decided to take up arms against the common threat. As for the slaves, they are technically freed, but not really because while they’re not considered anyone’s property anymore, they don’t have a lot choice in life. Jane is training to become an Attendant: a fighter of the dead to protect the living – but with manners. That’s the only “promotion” a black girl can hope for, to become a bodyguard for white people, rather than being sent to fight a whole army of zombies. So let’s just say, while slavery as it used to be no longer exists,  black people’s lives haven’t really much improved.

Jane simply wants to finish her studies and return home to her mother and aunt, but Things get in the way. Local families go missing, Jane’s friend and former lover Red Jack turns up again, and Jane gets stuck in stupidly dangerous situations with her most detested fellow student, Katherine. Jane resents  Katherine because she  is gorgeous and can pass for white. But these two girls are stuck together for quite an adventure. I loved their dynamic, I loved how they turned from frenemies into friends, especially how Jane started rethinking her prejudice against Katherine. Another big plus was the backstory we learn slowly through letters sent from Jane to her mother. For the most part of the book, this is a one-sided correspondence, but these brief interludes between chapters show more of Jane’s character than some of the chapters themselves. There is also more to Jane’s past than we get to see at first but I wasn’t a big fan of that plot twist and I won’t reveal it here because spoilers. Let’s just say that I loved Jane regardless of her past, because she is a badass with a good heart.

The world building really has potention. I didn’t find the premise hugely original (pairing zombies with whatever has been done too many times), but Justina Ireland really made something of it. We don’t just get to see how people defend themselves against the dead already risen, but scholars do experiments in order to figure out how to cure the plague, or how to vaccinate the living against it – I definitely got the sense that more is happening in this world than we got to see through Jane’s eyes. And that fleshed-out feeling, that sense that the world is bigger and just organic, is a sign of good writing to me.

The weakest part of this was definitely the plot. While it started really well and I could have read an entire novel set in the Miss Preson’s school, Jane sets out on an adventure. At one point, I thought it would take her many places, but then the friends kind of stay put in this one place. The villain was obivous, the conspiracy was also pretty easy to guess, and most situations that put the protagonists in danger felt like in a kid’s movie, where you just know everyone will be fine in the end. I’m not saying I was right about this but while reading, I definitely wasn’t worried about Jane, Katherine, or Red Jack.

I probably won’t jump on the sequel the moment it comes out, but I can definitely see myself reading more of Justina Ireland’s books. Especially if they’re told by Jane McKeene.

MY RATING: 7/10 – Quite good