What if the zombie apocalypse happened in the 1800's? Well, that's exactly what Dread Nation was about. Set in America, at the time of the battle of Gettysburg, the dead started to rise.
I actually really enjoyed Dread Nation. It was an interesting read and an interesting take on the Zombie apocalypse. Although it was a hard read, being set in the civil war era in America where oppression was very high. Slavery was illegal, but that didn't mean racism had disappeared - people were still awful, valuing everyone on the colour of their skin.
After the dead started to rise, the government funded the Negro and Native Re-education Act where schools like Miss Preston’s School of Combat for Negro Girls were started. The girls would be ‘collected’ and sent to these kinds of schools to start training, it wasn't an option. And at the end of it, they would be expected to work for rich white folk and protect them from the shamblers (zombies).
This story was about Jane and how she was getting through life, she had spent the last few years at Miss Preston’s School of Combat, but was constantly dreaming of home where she had had to leave her mother. Her plan was to graduate from the combat school and make it on her own, although that was frowned upon, it was definitely do-able.
I really liked how nice Jane was, she always had her friends' backs, even if she found them super annoying. She was incredibly bad-ass, was always so confident in fighting the shamblers, and confident that she could get her and her friends out of any bad situation they found themselves in. I enjoyed the friendships in this story and how Jane would fight for any of them.
The story was quite fast-paced which I really enjoyed, things were happening one after the other, so it was a really engrossing read. I really enjoyed Dread Nation and I'll definitely be reading the next book.