Two days after Jane McKeene was born, the dead rose at the battle of Gettysburg and changed everything. Now that the North and South are more focused on fighting the dead rather than each other, the Native and Negro Re-education Act requires Native and African American children to enroll in combat schools in order to protect the general public from zombies as attendants. Jane takes classes in Miss Preston's School of Combat for Negro Girls, excelling in combat (except rifles) and falling short in etiquette. As she nears the end of her education, families around Baltimore County are disappearing at an alarming rate and no one seems to know why.
Dread Nation is an alternative history of the Civil War with zombies with fleshed out characters and relevant social and political commentary. Jane is a fiery teen who can fight zombies with relative ease through training and practice. Even though she knows she's good at what she does, she is still plagued with insecurities about her appearance and hopeless in the face of a society constructed to keep her down. The Re-education Act had armed officers take her away from her family to attend school while the school officials kept her from communicating with her family and actively sabotaged her efforts at the school. Jane makes some rash decisions that go against social niceties because she sensibly values survival and safety about those niceties. She deftly recognizes what people expect of her and changes her demeanor to get them to underestimate her or surprise them with her intelligence and skill, depending on the situation. Watching her navigate this world is frustrating because of how everything is stacked against her.
The Re-education Act is only one aspect of the legal enslavement of nonwhite Americans even after slavery was supposedly made illegal. The Survivalist Party has gained momentum with their message of keeping the natural order of things, specifically the racist notion that Native and African Americans should serve white people and protect them at all costs. One of the most disgusting displays of such racism is when a crackpot doctor has a black man bitten by a zombie to show his innate resistance to the disease. Of course it's all bunk, but everyone just allows him to do it (except Jane who is chastised for speaking out of turn) even when many know he is wrong. The vast majority of the crowd saw that man as inhuman and the others were kept silent by social norms. Slavery is also still legal in loopholes like enslaving criminals and considering zombie bitten people as inhuman (even if those wounds can't be proved to be zombie bites).
The zombies of this world are as unique as the alternative history. There are two strains of the disease: the Gettysburg strain that turns people after death and the Custer strain that changes the living after a bit. The first strain (named after its place of origin) evolved into the second (named after the man killed by his own infected men). Early symptoms of the disease include yellow eyes and seizures. They can turn between a few minutes and an hour after being bitten. Newly turned zombies are as fast as humans and slow with age. They don't feel pain and tend to congregate in hordes. Their hearing is better than normal but their sight is worse. They can be killed by destroying hte brain or removing the head as usual. As the book goes on, Jane suspects that zombies have some sort of intelligence in how they attack cities and their awareness of people/food.
Dread Nation had me reading for long hours. I couldn't put down this story and didn't predict what would happen. The social and political commentary definitely brings out some parallels to our own society such as institutionalized racism, legal slavery, the Alt-Right, the normalization of white supremacy on the politcal right, and their use of religion. Ireland does such a wonderful job of building her world, infusing it with relevant criticism and parallels, and creating engaging characters. I can't wait for the next book in the series to come out. Highly recommended on all fronts.
My rating: 5/5 fishmuffins
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