I absolutely loved Jane and was astonished at how self-aware she was for a seventeen year old. But can walls really keep the monsters of the world out? When a friend of Jane’s asks for help finding his missing sister, Jane stumbles into trouble even her combat training hasn’t prepared her for. These men build communities behind walls. Though the war between the North and South was set aside to deal with the undead as they rose, racial tensions haven’t eased, and some people believe the shamblers are God’s punishment for trying to make all men equal. But what she really wants is to return home to Rose Hill and her plantation owning Momma. At 17 she’s trained to become an Attendant, to protect a white young lady from shamblers - the undead - and protect her modesty from amorous young men. Pros: interesting characters, excellent worldbuilding, fast paced Cons: Jane McKeene is in her final year at Miss Preston’s School of Combat for Negro Girls. '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') Read more

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

New York Times bestseller 6 starred reviews!Īt 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.

Dread Nation by Justina Ireland