Book 22 Dread Nation

 

Dread Nation and Deathless Divide by Justina Ireland fulfill the category “A Duology” for the PopSugar 2022 Reading Challenge. A duology is two books in the same storyline. Just two, no more. They use the same main characters. Young adult fiction is rife with these novels.

The challenge gave two slots for the duology category, assuming we would read the two books. Here’s my problem. (Don’t I always have a problem?) It’s the same characters and almost the same plot line or an extension of it. The purpose of a duology, in my opinion, is to give more room. The story is too much for one book and not enough for three. Two posts about what is essentially an extended novel seems silly.

You guessed it. I read two duologies. By accident, really. I’ll post the second series next week, but today, we have more zombies with a historical twist.

Dread Nation takes us back to the late 1800s. The Civil War has been interrupted as zombiism (is that a word?) has broken out during the battle of Gettysburg. The nation finds a compromise for peace to deal with the outbreak. Basically, the North wins, and now people of color and Native Americans are forced to fight the zombie horde. Phew.

The book follows Jane McKeene, a young black woman, as she learns to fight zombies at her training school. She’s been forced from her family to live in Baltimore, where trouble abounds. Something is very fishy about the zombie game.

Jane and her classmates attend a demonstration of a vaccine for the virus. Needless to say, it doesn’t work, and things go bad. Jane is thrown into a wild adventure with her ex-boyfriend, Jackson, and her best frenemy, Katherine Devereaux.

Deathless Divide continues the story of Jane and Katherine’s journey to find respect, freedom, and a zombie-less life. The two women learn about the real world, especially when the color of their skin dictates many of their choices.

I enjoyed these two novels. Jane was a compelling heroine. I didn’t always agree with her choices, and at one point in Book Two, I didn’t like her much. But the story has a great deal to offer—historically, socially, psychologically. Imagine being a meat shield for zombies because you have a lot of melanin in your skin. The book is a great allegory of the treatment of people of color in our country. I would love to see this book used in an American History class. It offers topics for both the historical context and how Native Americans and people of color are still treated in our country.

The author brought even more to the tale with the contrast between Jane and Katherine. In Book Two, Ms. Ireland uses points of view from both women. Each chapter is headed by a different type of quote—literary for Jane and religious for Katherine. As the books progress, their heading change. The two women, both black, suffer through very different stories.

Duologies are so fun to read. We get to see our favorite characters in a continuation of their story but don’t need to read seventeen books. (I’m looking at you, Janet Evanovich and Charlaine Harris). I have another great one for you next week.

I give both Dread Nation and Deathless Divide by Justina Ireland Five Deadly Sickles.