I shall start by saying that I liked the writing in this book a lot. I grew to care for the main character, Jane, a whole lot too. And I loved her voice. And getting to know her was the very best thing, as she was awesome, fierce and brave. She is black, her mom is white, and the world is a whole lot of trouble to her. Oh, my heart.
This story was all kinds of interesting to read about, so important too. I'm not going to be able to describe it well enough at all, but I am going to try a my very best at least. This book takes place in the past, 1800 something. It tells the story of Jane, a girl who has spent the past couple of years studying at a school. Studying to commit murder. As the dead started walking the earth around the time she was born. Everyone are trying their hardest to kill them. Except they are using only black people to do it. The whole story for it is complicated, and heartbreaking. Gosh. They claim slavery is over, because of a war. But I shall have you know that there is a whole lot of slavery in this book, and it was so sad. And honest. And written so well too. My heart hurts from all of it.
I'm not going to write too much about the plot. Only a little bit. There is a bit difference between white and black people in this world. The white think they owns everything, and for the most part they do. And it was all kinds of heartbreaking to read about. Made me so angry too, because so much of this book happens today too, and it is not right. Not right at all. Anyway. There is a lot going on in this story. Some politics, a whole bunch of awful people around too. I won't describe it all. But worth reading for sure. It's interesting.
This book tells the story of Jane. And she was a girl that I loved a whole lot. She is strong. Even when things are going so badly for her. She always wants to fight, and I loved that about her. The beginning of this book shares about how the dead came to be alive and killing people, and how Jane has been at this school learning to kill them. I enjoyed reading about the school a lot, and about how they learned things. Some of the girls she were with were so awesome. I wish there had been more about all of them, though.
We learn so much about Jane. And I loved that so, because she was awesome. We learn about her past boyfriend, Jackson. Whom is mostly not a good boy at all. Yet I could not help but fall in love with him the moment I saw him. Oh, I ship them so much. We meet Katherine too, whom is so rude to Jane at first in the book. But she gets better, and they slowly start to become friends, and I loved that so much. Because Katherine was so fierce and brave and I adored getting to know her so much. They were amazing friends.
There is a lot that I could say about this book. But I don't have the words for it. In the first part of the book, Jane and Katherine are both training to become Attendants, the hired help of rich white ladies. And in the second part of the book, they are mostly kidnapped, and forced almost to be slaves for some awful white men. That sheriff just about killed me, I hated him so much. There is a lot of racism shown in this one. All of it heartbreaking and so real. I wanted the best for Jane and Katherine. So much. They were amazing.
I have to admit that one of the main reasons for why this is a three star for me is the romance. There was not a lot of romance in this book at all. And considering how long it was, that made me so disappointed. Especially when there ended up being two love interests. Ugh. It's not a love triangle. Because no one is together with anyone. But it's annoying. Because I wanted Jane with Jackson, as I adored him beyond words, and I did not like Gideon at all. Shrugs. I feel that might become an issue in book two. I hope not.
Another reason for why this book was not so perfect for me, was because of how incredibly boring it was most of the time. Yes, the writing is gorgeous, and I adored Jane and Katherine, but I did not care for how boring things were so often. Almost nothing happened. I wanted more action. More romance, more dead people, aka shamblers. I wanted to be more terrified. But despite that, this was an important book, and I did like it a whole lot. I just wish it had been better with the fantasy parts and such. It was not fully for me.
Dread Nation was a book that I'm glad to have read. It was not perfect, but it was also incredibly amazing and good to read. I cannot wait for book two. Huge thank you to HarperCollins International for sending me a free ARC copy of this book to read and review. Feeling so thankful. And I'm glad I had the chance to read this book. I'm so excited for the next one. Hopefully it will be amazing, as I'm nervous too. I think that everyone should read this book. As it is important and amazing too. I just did not fully love it. Almost did.
Sorry to hear this was a little boring, but glad to hear it shed some light on important issues! Lovely review, Carina! :)
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