Dread and Black: A Review of Justina Ireland’s ‘Dread Nation’

I first began following Justina Ireland’s writings about a year ago, after reading the first issue Fiyah Lit Mag, for which she is an editor. As fierce and touching and slightly funny as the stories are in Fiyah, Justina is the same. She’s a stand-up advocate for Young Adult fiction and how to improve the inclusion of marginalized writers in “the mainstream.” So when she announced her latest book, Dread Nation, I hit pre-order right quick. I was not disappointed. This book is as stand-up, fierce, and wryly funny as anything I’ve read in a while. I was entertained every step of the way. The Plot Dread Nation is the two-part story of Jane McKeene, a student at Miss Preston’s School of Combat for Negro Girls. There are lots of combat schools for negroes, but Miss Preston’s is one of the best. Why combat schools? Well, you see…the undead. In Ireland’s alternative history, during the battle of Gettysburg, all those dead bodies didn’t stay dead. They rose up as deathless monsters, fighting both the Union and Confederate armies. This stopped the War of Northern Aggression in its tracks. Check the promo video:

In the aftermath of the War, the United States has remained united. The Southern states have been overrun and the Northern states have shrunk to isolated walled cities. Slavery has been officially abolished, but in its place, there is now mandatory schooling for Negroes and Indians, where they are taught how to kill the undead. These new soldiers are then sent out to defend …