Dread Nation

New York Times bestseller; 6 starred reviews!

At 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, Pennsylvania—derailing the War Between the States and changing the nation forever.

In this new America, safety for all depends on the work of a few, and laws like the Native and Negro Education Act require certain children attend combat schools to learn to put down the dead.

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. It’s a chance for a better life for Negro girls like Jane. After all, not even being the daughter of a wealthy white Southern woman could save her from society’s expectations.

But that’s not a life Jane wants. 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.

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.

And the restless dead, it would seem, are the least of her problems.

“Abundant action, thoughtful worldbuilding, and a brave, smart, and skillfully drawn cast entertain as Ireland illustrates the ignorance and immorality of racial discrimination and examines the relationship between equality and freedom.” (Publishers Weekly, “An Anti-Racist Children’s and YA Reading List”)

• YA Historical Fantasy: What if the Civil War was derailed by the undead? This gripping story plunges readers into a post-Reconstruction America where the battle for survival has only just begun.
• A Reluctant Heroine: Jane McKeene is trained in combat and etiquette to protect the rich, but her true desire is a quiet life back home—a dream threatened by powerful enemies both living and dead.
• Biting Social Commentary: Beneath the action and horror lies a searing examination of race, class, and systemic oppression in a nation clinging to its prejudices even at the brink of apocalypse.
• Survival Horror with a Twist: Jane is a top student at her combat school, but when families start to go missing, she discovers the shambling dead are far from the only monsters she has to fight.