Format: Hardcover, 560 pages
Release Date: February 4, 2020
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult / Dystopian
Jane McKeene and Katherine Devereaux return in the highly anticipated sequel to the universally acclaimed, New York Times bestselling breakout hit Dread Nation.
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 Nicodemus finds Jane questioning everything she thought she knew about surviving in 1880s America. What’s more, this safe haven is not what it appears, something Jane discovers when she meets familiar faces from Summerland at the top of this new society. Caught in the middle of 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.
The sequel to the New York Times bestselling epic Dread Nation is an unforgettable journey of revenge and salvation across a divided America both foreign and familiar—one in which Jane and Katherine both will find that, in our darkest moments, there is one thing that will allow us to survive.
Deathless Divide is the second and final installment in author Justina Ireland's Dread Nation duology. As a backdrop, in 1863, the dead began to walk
the battlefields of Gettysburg and Chancellorsville—derailing the War
Between the States and changing America forever. Laws like the Native and Negro Reeducation Act required certain children attend combat schools to learn to put down the dead. Attendant's Jane McKeene and Katherine Devereaux studied at Miss Preston's School of Combat for Negro Girls where they were taught the art of killing shamblers, while also understanding etiquette and deportment.
Picking up immediately after the events of Dread Nation, Jane and Kate have escaped Summerland, Kansas with a small band of survivors. They have a difficult decision to make; head to Nicodemus, or Fort Riley? After a difficult loss for Jane, Nicodemus is chosen. Nicodemus is a settlement founded by freed slaves and runaways from the (5) civilized Indian tribes. Jane and Kate find survivors from Baltimore, as well as trouble for Jane who is accused of murder and spends part of the time in a cell while Kate & others are work to free her.
Nicodemus is not the safe haven that it appears and Jane soon finds
herself on a dark path of blood and violence that threatens to consume
her. Heartbreak and emotional
exhaustion are endless as Jane and Katherine continue their struggle to
survive and maintain their humanity. Jane could never have thought that Kate, corset and all, would be one of her best friends. But, it happens to be true. Plans tend to go awry, however, and the small group of survivors will
face calamities resulting in devastating losses that test the bonds of
friendship—leaving one combatant questioning everything she thought she
knew about the world, and struggling to find her place within it.
This book is broken into (2) parts. The first part takes place from the flight away from Summerland, to the loss of Nicodemus by shamblers. Sorry, was that a spoiler? This is the point where Jane and Kate separate until reunited later in the book. The second part takes place a year and 5 months after the first part of the book. Both Kate and Jane have found different callings. Jane, once affectionately called Angel of the Crossroads, has literally gone through hell but managed to survive. Now a bounty hunter called "The Devil's Bitch," she's hot on the trail of the scientist who she once thought she could love, but he ended up destroying two settlements as well as Baltimore.
Meanwhile, Kate, who finally lost her corset, has had a journey that expanded parts of the US, Central America, before finally ending up in California which is supposed to be freed of any shamblers. Thus called the Deathless Divide because it is supposed to be impossible for the shamblers to find their way to California. She ends up on a wagon train leaving San Francisco to Sacramento. But, things aren't as they appear. When Kate finally meets up with Jane, Jane is cold and driven on only one thing; finding the man who seems to want to destroy everything in his sights in order to find a cure for the shamblers.
If
you love a character who is opinionated, who takes crap from nobody,
who is brave, and headstrong, and a badass, then you will love Jane. Kate is a
curious sort. She is light of skin which means that she can pass as a
white woman. Kate is also a fashion plate who keeps her nose clean which drives Jane crazy especially with her obsession with her corset. Kate isn't take as seriously as Jane, but she can more than hold her own. Trust me when I say this, Kate isn't a Mary Sue. She can
fight just as hard and kick as much ass as Jane can.
The ending of this book leaves room for a possible sequel, but I don't really think there needs to be another book. There is no doubt that Deathless Divide is as intense and action packed as Dread Nation.
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