Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

Dread Nation by Justina Ireland

17 reviews

musen_henning's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark reflective

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs and Racism

Moderate: Violence, War, Religious bigotry, Murder, Colonisation, Torture, Physical abuse, and Slavery

Minor: Child death, Cannibalism, and Cursing

ms_sarah621's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This is a fast-paced, fun read. Jane is a strong-willed and independent character. Most of the women are, but Jane really displays these qualities. Jane faces so much throughout this story. There is action (fighting zombies), enemies to friends, sexism, racism, abuse of power, and overcoming the impossible. There is rarely a dull moment in the story. There is fighting, plotting, or finding out new information. This is a young adult book, and that is my main reason for 4 stars. I am out growing the genre. It comes off as childish and repetitive in the language at times. However, it’s still a fun read, and I would recommend it to most people. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Racial slurs, Colonisation, Slavery, Forced institutionalization, Racism, Sexism, Torture, and Violence

bookishkellyn's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

A strong-willed heroine (Jane), her ex-fling (Jackson), and her former nemesis turned friend (Katherine) battle the undead (“shamblers”) in an alternate version of the Reconstruction era. This had political intrigue and great plot twists. Such a good read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Colonisation, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Racism

Moderate: Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, War, and Slavery

onalark's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Slavery, Hate crime, Body horror, Racial slurs, Violence, Gore, and Racism

Moderate: Blood, Colonisation, Pandemic/Epidemic, Sexism, and Murder

Minor: War

chronicacademia's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative mysterious tense fast-paced

• 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, War, Body horror, Hate crime, Medical content, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Colonisation, Death, Gun violence, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, and Torture

Minor: Animal cruelty and Death of parent

breesbookmark's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Child death, Racial slurs, Gun violence, Gore, Colonisation, Racism, and Murder

Moderate: Slavery, Sexism, Injury/Injury detail, Forced institutionalization, War, Torture, Police brutality, Misogyny, and Grief

The book delves into very important issues, both from a modern and a historical perspective. The author handles them with respect, but does not sugarcoat them.

lahariel's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

• 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Racism, Religious bigotry, Violence, Colonisation, Classism, and Sexism

thebakersbooks's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

• 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

A nail-biting historical zombie-plague novel featuring a badass Black heroine!

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.

The scariest part of the book has nothing at all to do with shamblers: it's when one character's attempt to pass as white is found out by the violently racist pastor and sheriff.

Relationships between characters were another highlight. Main character Jane has a complex family background

because of her white-passing mother

and is more invested in putting down shamblers and protecting those she cares about than in fitting into a white-dominated society that treats Black and Indigenous people as disposable tools despite the fact that slavery is now illegal. Jane has a lovers-to-friends dynamic with Jackson, who is a vaguely Robin-Hood-esque figure in their community. (Jane met Jackson when she saved him from shamblers, which is a nice inversion of the common 'male hero rescues female love interest' dynamic.) She also starts out as enemies with Katherine, a fellow student from her combat school—side note: there's definitely a degree of sexual tension between Jane and Katherine, at least on Jane's side, which is semi-confirmed when it turns out Jane is either bi or pan. (Katherine is asexual and aromantic.) I loved how Jane and Katherine became allies and eventually almost friends.

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation and Racism

Moderate: Racial slurs

barefootbetsy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• 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

5.0

This was excellent! I’m so glad I bought the sequel before I finished this book. Looking forward to starting it!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Animal death, Blood, Classism, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gaslighting, Mass/school shootings, Racism, Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, Violence, Child death, Grief, Slavery, Torture, Colonisation, Murder, Trafficking, and War

breadwitchery's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

• 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Violence

Moderate: Misogyny, Racism, Religious bigotry, and Gun violence

Minor: Child death, Slavery, War, Colonisation, Racial slurs, and Torture