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abby271's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Moderate: Confinement, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Forced institutionalization, and War
Minor: Slavery
laurensherree's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Graphic: Racial slurs and Racism
Moderate: Violence
mxcaswell's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Racism and Xenophobia
Moderate: Violence
lovetlr's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, and Slavery
Moderate: Death and Gore
readlexread's review against another edition
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
But definitely know, it’s also angering because it’s post-Civil War, not quite Reconstruction so the racism, misogynoir, and just the violence of as well as irrational commitment to white supremacy is on fuull display. All I will say is that I wasn’t sad to see that some of the antagonists did not live to see the end of the book.
Like the undead are obviously scary and unpredictable but the scariest folks in this book are definitely the living — the white supremacists.
Graphic: Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, and Violence
Moderate: Gore
lahariel's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Violence, Religious bigotry, Colonisation, and Classism
boekenalsontbijt's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
Graphic: Death, Racial slurs, Racism, and Violence
carolinejane29's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Graphic: Racism and Violence
Moderate: Death and Murder
Minor: Sexism
mickij's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Racial slurs and Racism
Moderate: Child abuse, Slavery, Torture, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Child death and Murder
thebakersbooks's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Me, filing a zombie book under 'favorites'? Never would have expected it! But seriously, Dread Nation is award-winning for a reason—or maybe I should say reasons. It's historical speculative fiction set after what we know as the American Civil War, only the war got interrupted when dead soldiers started walking around and eating people at Gettysburg. With that premise plus a trio of badass heroes fighting shamblers and institutional racism at the same time, this book was sure to be a hit with fans of the zombie subgenre. However, I'm not usually a fan of zombies, so what pulled me in was the characters and the dry humor; my eventual enjoyment of the zombie-based aspects was a pleasant surprise.
One aspect of the way the narrative was set up that I especially enjoyed was how human evils (racism and intentional misuse of religion, particularly) ended up being scarier than the literal devouring dead. Marginalized people in the story are also put in positions where they're more likely to run afoul of shamblers, which was a nice bit of worldbuilding that parallels how a lot of real-world dangers (disease and injury, for instance) disproportionately affect marginalized people and are much harder to manage for marginalized folks than those with privilege.
Relationships between characters were another highlight. Main character Jane has a complex family background
The MC's voice and the book's tone lend themselves to a surprising amount of humor given the genre and subject matter. This ranges from incisively wry observations ("There's nothing white folks hate more than realizing they accidentally treated a Negro like a person") to endearing snark ("I was already on academic probation on account of not caring enough about the importance of gravy boats"). The chapter titles further contribute to the humor, including gems like "In which all hell breaks loose," and "In which I embrace my recklessness." Those touches provide a welcome respite from all the people getting gnawed on by shamblers.
This book will appeal to fans of zombie horror, but also to horror babies like me—there's some gore and a few zombie-based scares, but those were fairly mild as the genre goes, in my opinion. I'd encourage even readers who are wary of zombies to give this a shot if the other aspects sound appealing. I don't think I've ever been in such a hurry to see if a sequel was available at my library after finishing a book, so hopefully that tells you how highly I recommend this!
Content notes: anti-Black racism; anti-Indigenous racism; many references to slavery; anti-Black slurs (historical); anti-Indigenous slurs (historical); mild to medium blood and gore; medical experimentation on Black people; phrenology; internalized colorism; societal colorism; mention of anti-Asian racism
Graphic: Racism and Colonisation
Moderate: Racial slurs