**3.5 stars**
This book is the sequel to the gore-geous Dread Nation by Justina Ireland. Dread Nation is a Young Adult novel about the dead rising at Gettysburg and combat schools teaching former slaves how to fight the dead (shamblers). Protagonist Jane McKeene is shipped off to the most prestigious of combat schools, Miss Preston’s. There she trains with other girls of color eager to be selected as a personal zombie killing machine (called an Attendant) to a wealthy white family. I know, that same ol’ storyline – haha. Seriously though, Dread Nation is such an original and wonderfully written book.
The sequel Deathless Divide also manages to be original and beautifully written. It immediately picks up with Jane, Katherine (a fellow Miss Preston girl), and Jackson (Jane’s on again, off again beau) in the aftermath of a shambler attack on a town called Summerland (so much happens in the first book, I don’t really want to get into it – so just read it for heck’s sake!). Jane and crew are on the road headed for Nicodemus, yet another supposedly protected town. A few reunions and losses follow a series of deceptions, that leads to a shambler attack on Nicodemus that separates Jane from Katherine. Then there's a time jump and some explanation of what Jane and Katherine have been doing in the interim, followed by Jane and Katherine crossing paths and teaming up once again. The love and loyalty between friends is so well done, and probably my most favorite part of the book is the kinship between Jane and Katherine. My only disappointment with this book is the pacing. There is so much happening all at once and then suddenly there’s a time jump. Readers are given a summary of the lost time and placed into an entirely new location and different atmosphere where Jane and Katherine just conveniently cross paths again. Which paths just seem to cross too often and too conveniently in this book…. Also, Jane's obsession over past events begins to feel a bit repetitive, but I absolutely love Katherine and all the chapters from her POV. Which is weird because I don’t normally like or identify with the pretty/proper type, but I did like her character a bit more in this book than Jane’s.
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