Dread Nation (Dread Nation, Book 1)
1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
2.
PLOT SUMMARY
Jane is a young girl learning
to be a ladies’ attendant at Miss Preston’s School for Combat in Baltimore.
Here she is learning how to best kill shamblers and have the manners to fit in
to the circles she’d be attending. Jane is good at what she does, but her
temper and her curiosity tend to get her into a great deal of trouble. She ends
up at a lecture one day that turns one unfortunate young man into a shambler in
front of a crowd and Jane helps save everyone in the room. This catches the
attention the newspapers and the mayor. She’s invited to the mayor’s estate to
thank her valiant effort, and here she’s caught snooping around trying to find
more information on a family that went missing. She’s sent off west to a new
colony that is trying to set the “old and proper order” to the county by
mistreating anyone that isn’t white and declaring them all inferior. Jane
proves her worth and her capacity as a shambler slayer and she ends up saving
the town before having to flee.
3.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS
The characters in this
story are so real and unique. They each have their own struggles and their
humanity is frequently shared. Jane is quick on her feet. She’s intelligent,
funny, and restless. She can even be a bit cocky and doesn’t always think about
how her decisions will end up affecting another person. Catherine is beautiful
and refined. She is caring, intelligent, and dramatic. She is an overachiever
and can’t always keep her ideas to herself. They are both confident and the
story is helped by having both of them in it. The positions of different
characters shed a light on their unique perspectives and struggles. The women
struggling with passing as white, marriage and the idea of it, serving, and punishment.
The development of the shamblers is explained in a way that is logical in the
story. Changes are grappled with and are difficult for the characters to accept
initially. The fact that real events like the civil war are included add to the
plausibility of it. The villains in the story are the people that are promoting
racism and its many forms. Shamblers are also evil and painted that was
throughout. The setting is described in detail to show the differences between
settings in the story. Janes’ home, the school she was attending, and the
settlement out west were all very different and I know this because of the way
Ireland described the settings. Good vs. evil was a big theme present. Jane describes
her desire to always stand up for people that needed it and her willingness to
do it for the people that can’t do it for themselves. Hope also something that
was emphasized throughout Jane’s struggles. The author adds humor and makes
each characters’ voice unique. Catherine and Jane sound very different and you
can tell the difference in the ways that they talk. Suspenseful parts of the
story were well-paced and interesting. It kept you wondering but also moved on
in a way that made the story a delight to read.
4.
REVIEW EXCERPTS
Starred review in Booklist:
“It explores friendship, love, defying expectations, and carving out your own
path instead of submitting to the one thrust upon you. From page one, Jane is a
capable, strong heroine maneuvering through a world that is brilliant and
gut-wrenching. This will take readers on a breathless ride from beginning to
end.”
Starred review in Horn
Book Magazine: “This absorbing page-turner works on multiple levels: as
unflinching alternate history set in post-Reconstruction-era Maryland and
Kansas; as a refreshingly subversive action story starring a badass (and
biracial and bisexual) heroine; as zombie fiction suspenseful and gory enough
to please any fan of the genre; and as a compelling exhortation to scrutinize
the racist underpinnings of contemporary American sociopolitical systems.”
Starred review in Kirkus
Reviews: “All the classic elements of the zombie novel are present, but
Ireland (Promise of Shadows, 2014, etc.) takes the genre up a notch with her
deft exploration of racial oppression in this alternative Reconstruction-era
America. It’s no coincidence that the novel will prompt readers to make
connections with today’s racial climate. With a shrewd, scythe-wielding
protagonist of color, Dread Nation is an exciting must-read.”
Starred review in Publishers
Weekly: “Mounting peril creates a pulse-pounding pace, hurtling readers
toward a nail-biting conclusion that inspires and will leave them apprehensive
about what's to come.”
Starred review in School
Library Journal: “This is a fictional exploration of the chattel slavery
and American Indian boarding school systems. Ireland skillfully works in the
different forms of enslavement, mental and physical, into a complex and
engaging story.”
Starred review in Bulletin
of the Center for Children’s Books
Reviewed in Teacher
Librarian
5.
CONNECTIONS
*Other books written by Justina
Ireland:
Ireland, Justina. Deathless
divide (Dread Nation, Book 2). ISBN: 9780062570642
Ireland, Justina. Rust
in the Root. ISBN: 9780063038233
Ireland, Justina. Ophie's
ghosts. ISBN: 9780062915849
*Invite students to
research history about the civil war and the Native American boarding schools
that inspired the author. Have them compare reality with what was found in the
story.
*Invite students to write
letters to Jane asking her any questions they still have about the story or
sharing their favorite part.
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