The North still 'won' and blacks were given freedom, but not really. The world building was amazing and the writing was incredible!We follow Jane McKeene a half black/white girl who is a student at Miss Preston's School for Negro Girls (I think that's what it was called.) Basically when the dead decided to get up and walk during the battle of Gettysburg The Civil War 'ended' and the war vs the Dead began.

The characters were fun and likeable, even when they were unliekable. Also, it was in first person perspective, which I normally loathe this was not bad.With that being said, this was an amazing story, and what drew it to me was zombies, combined with historical fiction, and black people in the forefront. But make no mistake, the racism really grated on me. Sometimes you can't avoid it, and sometime and book/movie is so effing fantastic that I can give it a pass. I actively avoide books and movies that are racially charged or heavy with the sexism. I shall quantify this by saying, as someone who has lived her intire life dealing with the reality of slaver, racism, and mysoginy, I despise dealing with it in my fantasy world. To start, I have no idea what I was thinking when I decided I HAD to read this. This is definitely a YA series that I will be continuing on with. If people are not seen as fully equal with other humans, and don’t have the same rights as others – are they truly free? Even more importantly, does this idea not carry beyond this book to today’s society. It is hard not to question the ‘freedom” that was granted to the black people at the conclusion of the Civil War. It also takes a hard look at the socio-cultural elements that required having such a tight control over the black population. Not ones to give in easily, Jane and Katherine plot to find themselves a way out of this death-trap where shamblers are not the only danger that they face.Dread Nation is a fun blend of period drama, alternative history, and zombie fantasy. Unfortunately that is the role of blacks in America, they are required to guard the whites against the walking dead, called shamblers.Jane is nearing the end of her training and her thoughts are on returning to her home in Kentucky, but when people in the Baltimore area start to go missing, Jane and a fellow student, Katherine, get caught up in the middle of a conspiracy and they are shipped to Kansas and find themselves in a terrifying position. Jane McKeene, born just a few days after the dead first got up and walked during the Battle of Gettysburg, is of mixed racial heritage but like all Negros, she is required by law to attend a combat school in Baltimore and learn how to put down the dead.

I love historical fiction, adventure sagas and zombie stories so Dread Nation by Justina Ireland was a good fit for me.

Book dread nation