Deathless Divide by Justina Ireland (review)

Jane and Katherine were able to save a small crew of people when Summerland was overrun by the undead at the end of Ireland's genre-smashing Western horror Dread Nation (BCCB 5/18), but their refuge in the nearby town of Nicodemus is hardly sustainable. The white inhabitants want to see Jane lynched for her killing of Summerland's sheriff, and pseudo-scientist and pseudo-friend Gideon Carr and his myopic focus on a vaccine against the dead are putting everyone in danger, especially when the shamblers, as the zombies are known, breach the town wall. Yet again, Jane and Katherine make it out alive, but this time separately and not without suffering some serious losses. A year and a half later, the two find each other in California, but with very different reasons: Katherine is looking for a safe place for Black folks to work and live, while Jane is hell bent on smoking out and killing Gideon. This sequel adds Katherine's voice to the narration, and she's an effectively compelling foil to Jane in every way, from her proper nineteenth-century manners and concern for etiquette to her optimistic view of a future beyond being merely an Attendant and protecting white people from the undead. Shambler attacks, narrow escapes, and heartbreaking decisions keep the pace riding high in the first part, but the transition to the girls' separate journeys west pulls in the reins, giving thoughtful consideration to the layers of racism and oppression that continue to plague a society already literally plagued by the past, and the way two young women, both broken by the system in their own way, find their footing again. Although they ultimately do find security in California, Jane is as restless as the dead she kills, and when she heads out to slay shamblers and the people who might use them for their own power, readers, much like Katherine, will be all too happy to get the chance to follow.