A review by lilacs_book_bower
Deathless Divide by Justina Ireland

adventurous emotional reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I really enjoyed the first book.  Jane had such an engaging, funny voice, and she was really a character to root for.  It is an intriguing alternate history, where zombies (called shamblers) rise from the dead on the battlefields of Gettysburg, and kill and bite/turn people.  Black people are used as cannon fodder in the war against the dead, and young Black women can be trained to fight the dead and protect white women.  In the sequel, after the town of Summerland falls to shamblers, Jane and her friends escape, but there is an immediate death that sends Jane into depression and on a quest for revenge (over a character that I did not think was remotely worth it, but love is weird).  While the change in her character makes sense due to the plot, I really missed the old Jane's voice, and consequently didn't enjoy this book nearly as much.  It didn't feel like there was a lot to this book, if that makes sense.  On the plus side, we now have Katherine as a narrator, in addition to Jane, and I liked seeing her POV (and her ace rep).  Katherine, and her loyalty to her best friend Jane, is the saving grace of this story.  Ireland shows multiple races in the 1800s Western US and handles well the explanations of racism against Black people, and the stress that puts on them, just to survive.   On the negative side, story lines feel half-fleshed out, characters that should interact don't, the pacing was uneven, and I'm not entirely comfortable with the way Ireland handled the discussion of the Chinese immigrants or the Native Americans.  The book felt way too long for the amount of plot that actually happens.  I was looking forward to this one, and unfortunately, I was disappointed. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings