The protagonist caught in this shift is Jane McKeene, a 17-year-old “student” and one of the more prestigious of new “combat schools” that have popped up to train young Black children in the art of killing zombies, or, as trend dictates this novel renames them: “shamblers.” The political parties have also completely adapted, with the Survivalists–advocates of the current system of training former slaves as slayers–on one side of the spectrum and the pacifist Egalitarians on the other. Also Read: Books: VHS NASTY: THE VIDEO NASTIES Budget B&W Limited Edition Now Available Unlike Romero’s DAY OF THE DEAD above, the society in DREAD NATION chugs on. There has not been an Emancipation Proclamation as we know it, but rather a shifting of slavery from the plantation to the new battlefield. In Ireland’s story, the Civil War is a generation-old memory and the existence of the undead has become a mere challenge that the system of the time (including systemic oppression, racism, slavery, and the burgeoning “science” of eugenics) has adapted to meet. Generally, a zombie story involves rough-and-tumble survivalists eking out a meager existence while constantly on the lookout for zombies, which have essentially inherited the Earth.
Following a brief detailing of the appearance of the dead in the prologue, the narrative blasts ahead nearly two decades. The cleverness of Ireland’s novel comes in how it not only reimagines history but also how it twists the well-worn tropes of the zombie apocalypse story. In the case of that graphic novel, America wins the war in Vietnam, Richard Nixon enjoys several terms as, basically, a US dictator, and the march toward global mutually assured destruction becomes all but unavoidable. This has invited comparisons to obvious titles like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies or Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, which is fair enough, but while I throw no shade to any of those fun and quirky books, Dread Nation is far richer, more clever, and, dare I say–meatier–than any of the other novels I have read in this trend. Alan Moore’s Watchmen, which reimagines historical events as if superheroes had actually existed, has a stronger thematic connection to it. When the story begins, we learn that the sudden rising of the dead soldiers littering Gettysburg has brought The Civil War to a grinding halt. While I don’t usually gravitate toward that section of the bookstore, I found the premise of this one irresistible. Penned by Justina Ireland, Dread Nation is a young adult, or YA, novel. And, yes, it has “Dread” right in the title! Also Read: Dread Central is now on Google News ! Because this column is a new undertaking, I’m starting with a book from a couple of years back, which I just finished voraciously reading. It is exciting to see that partnership extended to authors of genre literature (and/or artists, in the case of graphic novels).
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