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A review by mermaidreef
Dread Nation by Justina Ireland
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
This was a slay. I think this protagonist was one of my faves of all time?? Like a lot of times in YA fiction/fantasy that are in first person, the main character is mega boring and doesn't really even seem like a person at all. That was soooooo not the case here. Jane is such a wonderful and well-developed character. She doesn't always tell us everything and there are times when she holds the reader at arms' length. She isn't modest, and shows us she has good reason not to be.
To me, however, the real power of this book lies in the fact that it is a direct and searing deconstruction of the appeal of Donald Trump to the racism inherent in American white people. In the wake of the zombie apocalypse, a political party operating on a platform of Black people's racial inferiority and "God-ordained subservience" to white people attempts to set up settlements honoring the "old ways" (aka pre-Civil War slavery). Their slogan is "make America safe again" and they believe the way to do so is to force Black and Native American people to fight off zombies. They hold that the "zombie plague" is a punishment from God for "white infighting" (aka the Civil War) and they take it as a sign that God himself believes that Black people need to be enslaved.
What I got out of this mostly is that in the face of a global crisis, white people turn to the structure of the racial caste system in blind faith as a way to weather the storm. In this book, white people literally choose death in order to reinforce this racial caste system which places them at the top.
Very good very slay
To me, however, the real power of this book lies in the fact that it is a direct and searing deconstruction of the appeal of Donald Trump to the racism inherent in American white people. In the wake of the zombie apocalypse, a political party operating on a platform of Black people's racial inferiority and "God-ordained subservience" to white people attempts to set up settlements honoring the "old ways" (aka pre-Civil War slavery). Their slogan is "make America safe again" and they believe the way to do so is to force Black and Native American people to fight off zombies. They hold that the "zombie plague" is a punishment from God for "white infighting" (aka the Civil War) and they take it as a sign that God himself believes that Black people need to be enslaved.
What I got out of this mostly is that in the face of a global crisis, white people turn to the structure of the racial caste system in blind faith as a way to weather the storm. In this book, white people literally choose death in order to reinforce this racial caste system which places them at the top.
Very good very slay
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture and Racism