Welcome to Litsy!

#2023Book75

This was really good, & a fitting conclusion (?)
A couple times the characters drove me a bit nuts but mostly made sense from where we left off at the last one. Lots of trauma & sadness, it is a zombie apocalypse after all.
I also feel like 2 books worth of stuff happened. But not the worst thing.

The plucky wise-cracking Jane I loved in Dread Nation is now this dark and brooding character with little warmth or humor. She spends the book dead set on hunting down the villain whose actions, if you look at the big picture, aren't wholly villainous, at least not to the extent that warrants Jane's obsessive desire to kill him at any cost.

Also, not a lot happens here.

In short, I enjoyed revisiting this world, but I was ready to leave.

#2023Book31
I was a little worried about this sequel at first, but it quickly became one of those sequels that adds so much to the original story. I loved getting to learn more about some of the side characters from Dread Nation, and the character development for everyone was expertly done.

2nd book of the Dread Nation series and another winner. Like the first book, it starts a little slow but picks up the pace.

Finally wrapping up Civil War Zombie Apocalypse awesomeness.

Well-written and engaging, but the plot fell flat for me. A lot of the issues I had with the first book also remain here, making it a mixed bag. Still, the characters and interesting, and Ireland‘s prose is definitely readable.

So sad that there isn‘t a third. Enjoyable read, if a bit long in the middle.

01. Deathless Divide, Valentine
02. White Fragility
03. Good Morning, Monster

#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain

At first I didn't think I would care for this book as much as I did Dread Nation. The alternating Jane/Katherine chapters really threw me for a loop. But I quickly got into the groove, and I'm so glad we got to see inside Katherine's head. There are some legit draw-dropper moments in this one, and Ireland is not messing around with the complex zombie-infested world building. The characters are also complex.

WHAT just happened?? This book is consistently shocking. 😱

I really have a problem. #Barnes&Noble 😝

#2021Book128
I was a little worried about this sequel at first, but it quickly became one of those sequels that adds so much to the original story. I loved getting to learn more about some of the side characters from Dread Nation, and the character development for everyone was expertly done.

@DebinHawaii these are all on my iRL TBR- but I‘m interested in pretty much all the books on your list. I‘m excited- and think I may let #bookspin choose the one I go with! #newyearwhodis

This is an excellent sequel. The story started in Dread Nation continues here, told by strong, resolute characters who preserves against great odds.

This #audiobook was so good. I may have liked the first one better, though. I do love this cover.

I am posting one book per day from my to-be-read collection. No description and providing no reason for wanting to read it, I just do. Some will be old, some will be new - don‘t judge me I have a lot of books.
Join the fun if you want. This is day 104.
#bookstoread
#tbrpile
#bookstagram

This book continues where the first one ended, so they are actually one book split in two. Therefore, the quality of the narration doesn't suffer and I just couldn't get enough of this volume as well. Ireland is a great storyteller, mixing everything together and making something beautiful and touching out of it. And I just heard, that there's a third book!

@TheAromaofBooks #BookSpinBingo
@TheSpineView #SeriesRead2021
@AkashaVampie #SeriesBingo

Thank you @Endowarrior21 for this excellent #blitsyswap package. I love the books you chose. The tshirt is perfect and the stickers and key chain will be fun to use.
Thank you @Chelleo for another great round of one of my favorite swaps 🧡

“Nothing good ever comes of withholding the truth. “

#quotes #truth

Well this was something of a journey. I chuckled and shed tears. I exclaimed in anguish and disbelief. And if that‘s not a good enough recommendation for this book, then here‘s more. This was fantastic from the beginning to the end and I am equal parts happy and sad to have finished this series.

I‘m very excited to continue the journey with Jane and Katherine as they take down the dead. #nationofzombies

#2021Book1
I was a little worried about this sequel at first, but it quickly became one of those sequels that adds so much to the original story. I loved getting to learn more about some of the side characters from Dread Nation, and the character development for everyone was expertly done.

Really enjoyed the dual POV in this. There were some turns, but life with zombies never is quite what you expect. The audio narration was stellar.

Turns out, a bucket of mini donuts is A LOT, even divided between three people. Oof.

Having walked and eaten donuts and done some conventionally productive stuff, I‘m hoping to spend the rest of my Friday with DEATHLESS DIVIDE. Wish me luck.

I started DEATHLESS DIVIDE via OverDrive a couple months back, but I couldn‘t quite sink into it. I decided to return that copy and try again when the print side of the library reopened, and it was a good move—I‘m hard into it now. Bring on the binge read!

Tonight‘s beverage is a Leprechaun: 1.5oz whiskey + 4oz tonic water. I‘m quite pleased with it.

4 ⭐️
Just as good and fun as the first book!

Zombies. AroAce Rep. Differently Abled Bounty Hunters. Bisexual Rep. Native Americans not being stereotyped. BIPOC protagonists. Post-civil war to the Wild West. Dealing with anxiety through pressure stimulation via corsets! #deathlessdivide #dreadnation #justinaireland

So far I've finished 64 books this year. I'm at 73% female, 20% male, and 7% NB authors. I'm at about 40% by AOCs (I don't have it broken down by ethnicity but my guess would be Black and Asian authors are the majority of that with a few Latinx and Indigenous authors in the mix). I've got with 24% LGBTQ+ authors (or at least where I was able to tell how they identify) and 40% with LGBTQ+ protagonists. Overall I have 40% tagged as #ownvoices.

I loved #DreadNation and I‘m loving #DeathlessDivide - a zombie #YAFiction set in post-civil war America where the dead rose at Gettysburg and Black & Native American children are sent to “Attendant Schools” to learn how to fight the undead.

I‘ve been apathetic about the book I was listening to and just needed the right book to come along and remind me that life is too short for mediocre white men — I mean, mediocre books. I mean. Life is DEFINITELY too short for mediocre books BY mediocre white men.
This sequel to Dread Nation is a fun romp so far, and honestly Bahni Turpin can narrate everything forever as far as I‘m concerned.

I had a goal of reading 30 books in 30 days in June and Deathless Divide was my first book finished. I felt fairly meh about the first book in this series, but I enjoyed this one exceptionally more. I‘ll leave out the details because spoilers but this is a great follow up.

Just as much fun as the prequel! I love that in this one we get Katherine‘s POV as well as Jane‘s. Highly recommend this one.

Book + lunch. It took me a little while to sink into DEATHLESS DIVIDE, but I think I‘m there now. I‘ve gotta take a walk this afternoon, but after that I‘ll settle in and see how far I can get with this.

On to DEATHLESS DIVIDE, then. I‘ll confess, I‘m already a little grumpy with it on account of Ireland‘s “had” addiction, but hopefully that‘ll be a nonissue once Jane quits summarizing the first book.

I thought the plot was great! I love the idea of zombies messing up the Civil War and how the adventures are told from a Black perspective. This book has great atmosphere. There are times in the dialogue and stream of consciousness when I thought the book could have used an editor with a more consistent eye. Overall, I was happy with it and the story held my attention.

There are places in this book where I just want to scream "Get a proper editor!" It is a good book, but things like this are hard to overlook when they are frequent.

From the haunted, fierce, deadly firecracker Jane to the gentile, well mannered perfectly spoken while still being the best shot of Miss Preston‘s girls Katherine, this book is a perfect follow up to Dread Nation. I just love them both, and this historical rewrite that includes the restless dead absolutely does not disappoint.

Got this ARC at #yallfest in November. Really enjoyed the sequel to Dread Nation, where Jane and Kate and some of the other girls are on the run in the West. People keep thinking they have found a safe place but haven‘t, and even California is not the haven it was rumored to be. Part zombie book, part Western, all entertaining.

This was between a 3.5 and a 4. On one hand, I really liked Jane and her no-nonsense attitude as well as her bluntness but then on the other hand the book was really long and I don‘t feel it needed to be over 500 pages. But, that‘s probably just me. I did enjoy both books in the series and I‘m happy with the ending.

So glad I listened to this one on audio. Both narrators gave amazing performances. They definitely had me tearing up at times. I also LOVE Ireland‘s writing style- especially for Katherine. Thinking about using phrases like “vexed” and “hale and hearty” in everyday conversation. I typically don‘t go for Westerns, but this might have opened up the genre for me. Yes, this could have been 2 books, but I appreciated not being left at a cliffhanger.

Sequel to Ireland's alt-history post-Civil War zombie novel Dread Nation. I've seen others say it's disappointing, and I get it. There's a hard discontinuity in setting and mood that hits about halfway through, so much that the two halves really feel like different books. It grew on me, though, and I found Jane's search for trust unexpectedly moving. Cause who expects that in a zombie book? Author Ireland if you're reading I'm up for a third.

The first thing you should know about me, the truest most important thing, is that I ain‘t never really had friends.

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

Taking advantage of the sunshine this afternoon after over a week of almost nonstop rain

Follow up to the fabulous Dread Nation, which I loved. Maybe part of DN‘s appeal was the utter surprising originality. With the world built, this one didn‘t quite wow me as much. #ARC #Edelweiss

I loved Dread Nation. In Deathless Divide it seemed like Ireland wanted to cram as much as possible into it so it didn‘t feel as cohesive, fresh, or original as Dread Nation. If there‘s a third book, I‘d probably read it to see what‘s next, but the anticipation factor is missing. If there are only the two books, that‘s fine too. Not bad, and it had its moments, but it lacked something and felt kind of forced in places.

Meet my new reading buddy! Her name is Kara. Shelter's best guess in 3-moth old German Shepherd, though I feel sure she's got some other things mixed in. Sweet as can be and already a handful #dogsoflitsy

I think understandably not much reading has happened yet today. Its mostly been couch snuggles, short walks, and one traumatic tick removal (traumatic for who? I'll let you decide... both. It was both of us.)

Started this audio a while ago. Just love this series.

#representationmatters #book2 #dangerouswomen #alternatehistory #dreadnation