Waterstones Young Adult Book Club discussion

Dread Nation

Hello, welcome back. Let me start it off by asking what did you think of this month's pick?

I really loved Dread Nation. I love historical fiction, and reading a horror one was really interesting. A few years ago I've read 'Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter' by Seth Grahame-Smith, and really loved it and this book reminded me of it a little, if only because they are both post-civil war.

I really liked Jane, she a very strong female character and a fully developed one. She was very funny, very smart and very cunning. She's not the typical heroine in YA books. She does things that are not necessarily Christian like and she doesn't care, and that's very interesting because the majority of the characters in the book are very Christian orientated - they follow the bible to the letter to save their poor souls. In this book is acceptable to kill/harvest shamblers because they are already dead, but to kill an actual person it's, as it is everywhere, wrong, but Jane doesn't bat an eye, she will do anything to survive - and I quite like that. Though how far will she take it?

Another thing that I liked about her was that she didn't only hide her true face/intelligence from the characters in the book, she hid it from us, the reader, too. In the final chapter we learn that what we know about her mother and father is wrong, and that her mother is a black woman pretending to be white, and that she was the one who actually killed her father, not because he turned shambler, but to save her mother from being found out, and she very cunningly out down his death as an shamble killing.

Though, now I'm not sure how I will approach the sequel coming out next year. I know now that she is an unreliable narrator, so how much of her P.O.V. will I be able to trust?

The racism in this book was very hard to read at times. specially knowing that this book is based on historical facts. Though I believe that, that's why books like this should still be written, published and read by people of all ages.

I really liked Jane and Katherine's friendship. They had a friendnemy relationship at the start, then they became partners in crime, and then at the end they learnt how to respect each other and become true friends. Though what I really like about their friendship was their talk about their sexuality and their acceptance of each other. Specially in the time that this book is set. Katherine seems to identify as asexual, and Jane seems to be bisexual. This information didn't have a huge impact in the book but, I believe that there's a possibility that it could in the sequel, or at least play a small part.

One thing I wish we had more of in this book was Red Jack, he was the one who set things going in the plot and that pretty much all her did. He was the one who asked for Jane's help and got her involved with finding Lily which let to her getting caught and sent to Summerland. Though when they got to Summerland he disappeared, presumed dead, and only showed up once before the end of the book where the sort of saved the day (after the day was already saved). Though I really liked how Jane was annoyed with him for that.

I really liked how the shamblers story seems to be developing. I'm really looking forwards to the sequel and finding out more about why the dead has risen? and are they conscious somehow?

Our November pick will be 'Full Disclosure' by Camryn Garret

see you then.