I bought this shortly after it came out, and for some reason, it took me until now to read it … and I have no excuses? And the restless dead, it would seem, are the least of her problems. But when families around Baltimore County begin to go missing, Jane is caught in the middle of a conspiracy, one that finds her in a desperate fight for her life against some powerful enemies. Almost finished with her education at Miss Preston’s School of Combat in Baltimore, Jane is set on returning to her Kentucky home and doesn’t pay much mind to the politics of the eastern cities, with their talk of returning America to the glory of its days before the dead rose. After all, not even being the daughter of a wealthy white Southern woman could save her from society’s expectations.īut that’s not a life Jane wants. It’s a chance for a better life for Negro girls like Jane. But there are also opportunities-and Jane is studying to become an Attendant, trained in both weaponry and etiquette to protect the well-to-do. In this new nation, safety for all depends on the work of a few, and laws like the Native and Negro Reeducation Act require certain children attend combat schools to learn to put down the dead. And the restless dead, it would seem, are the least of her problems.Īt once provocative, terrifying, and darkly subversive, Dread Nation is Justina Ireland’s stunning vision of an America both foreign and familiar-a country on the brink, at the explosive crossroads where race, humanity, and survival meet.Jane McKeene was born two days before the dead began to walk the battlefields of Gettysburg and Chancellorsville-derailing the War Between the States and changing America forever.

Jane McKeene was born two days before the dead began to walk the battlefields of Gettysburg and Chancellorsville-derailing the War Between the States and changing America forever.

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