11 must-read new YA releases that will capture your heart this February
By Lacy Baugher
Deathless Divide – Justina Ireland
Deathless Divide is the highly anticipated sequel to Dread Nation, a story set in an alternate universe in which the Civil War was unexpectedly ended when zombies began to walk at the battles of Gettysburg and Chancellorsville. Um, yikes?
The story picks up after Jane McKeane and her unlikely best friend, Katherine Deveraux escape the hellish Summerland, a town run by a maniacal minister which forced black people to fight the undead in order to protect whites. The two slowly make their way toward what they assume will be a better life in California, but their journey is far from an easy one, as each must confront the horrors of the new world they inhabit, and learn to rely on the fragile new friendship that has formed between them.
This duology asks a lot of difficult questions, about survival, sacrifice, resilience and kinship. It’s a much bigger story than the zombie-infused premise would suggest, and its two heroines are remarkable in ways that go far beyond their skin color. (Though this sort of representation is, in fact, incredible.)
The official synopsis has a lot more detail.
"After the fall of Summerland, Jane McKeene hoped her life would get simpler: Get out of town, stay alive, and head west to California to find her mother. But nothing is easy when you’re a girl trained in putting down the restless dead, and a devastating loss on the road to a protected village called Nicodermus has Jane questioning everything she thought she knew about surviving in 1880’s America. What’s more, this safe haven is not what it appears – as Jane discovers when she sees familiar faces from Summerland amid this new society. Caught between mysteries and lies, the undead, and her own inner demons, Jane soon finds herself on a dark path of blood and violence that threatens to consume her. But she won’t be in it alone. Katherine Deveraux never expected to be allied with Jane McKeene. But after the hell she has endured, she knows friends are hard to come by – and that Jane needs her, too, whether Jane wants to admit it or not. Watching Jane’s back, however, is more than she bargained for, and when they both reach a breaking point, it’s up to Katherine to keep hope alive – even as she begins to fear that there is no happily-ever-after for girls like her."
Deathless Divide is now available everywhere.