Audio: Deathless Divide by Justina Ireland @justinaireland @TheRealBahniT @HarperAudio @inkphemeral

Posted March 11, 2020 by Melanie in Book Review / 20 Comments

Review copy was received from Publisher. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.


Audio: Deathless Divide by Justina Ireland @justinaireland @TheRealBahniT @HarperAudio @inkphemeralDeathless Divide by Justina Ireland
Narrator: Bahni Turpin, Jordon Cobb
Series: Dread Nation #2
Published by HarperAudio on February 4, 2020
Genres: Historical Fiction, Young Adult
Length: 14 hours and 34 minutes
Format: Audiobook
Source: Publisher
Goodreads
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One StarOne StarOne StarOne StarHalf a Star

The sequel to Dread Nation is a journey of revenge and salvation across a divided America.

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 Nicodermus has Jane questioning everything she thought she knew about surviving in 1880's America.

What's more, this safe haven is not what it appears - as Jane discovers when she sees familiar faces from Summerland amid this new society. Caught between 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.

This is the second book in Justina Ireland’s Dread Nation series. This series is an alternative history of the Civil War. The war ends because the dead rise and both sides decide to work somewhat towards survival instead of against each other. The first book follows Jane McKeene as she is taken from her home to train to be an attendant where she will see to all the needs of an affluent white woman, but also protect her charge from the dead. Jane is a kick ass character who is all about taking the lead on making the dead stay dead.

In Deathless Divide, we get the POV of Katherine Deveraux for the first time. Katherine was a frenemy of Jane’s. Katherine is a very light skinned black girl who can pass for white if she tries. This comes in handy for the two of them as they try to survive in this world of stupid white people who don’t understand the dangers they are facing with the dead.

I don’t want to go into too much detail, but this is a story with wonderful characters. I loved Jane from the moment I met her in book one. And while I wasn’t a huge fan of Katherine, she really grew on me in this story. There are also other characters who I really liked as well, but as with any zombie story, don’t get too attached, because no one lives forever. Lastly, the villain of this story is perfect. I don’t want to give away who it is, because it isn’t always apparent. Talk about a villain everyone loves to hate.

If you haven’t tried this series, I can’t recommend it enough. I will tell you that this series would do AWESOME as a TV series. I’m sometimes very leery of making that suggestion, because books rarely turn out the way you want, but these two books and these characters would be perfect for the small screen. I do think that TV would be better than movie in this case, because it needs more than two to three hours to be told. I really do hope that someone picks it up.

Lastly, that cover ya’ll. I’m all about the covers in this series. It was the cover of Dread Nation that really caught my eye first, then hearing Turpin was narrating the story. Then I read it and it more than met my expectations.

Narration:

I’ve been a huge fan of Bahni Turpin for a while. I remember when I saw that she was the narrator for book one and how excited I was. She does the perfect voice for Jane and all the characters. With the introduction of Katherine’s POV, the publisher has added Jordon Cobb to read those parts. She is a new-to-me narrator, and I’ll admit to being a bit concerned, because I loved Turpin’s narration so much, I wasn’t sure if I would like her sharing the story. I do have to say though, Jordon Cobb did a fantastic job. She was the perfect voice for Katherine. I will be looking up more stories with her, for sure.

Listen to a clip:

 

About Bahni Turpin

Bahni Turpin is a Los Angeles-based actress with many television and film credits in addition to being an award winning narrator. She is honored to have been awarded an Audie for Best Female Narrator, 2015, Audible Narrator of the Year, 2016, and American Library Association’s Voice of Choice for 2017. In 2018, Bahni won best female narration again, and was also inducted into the Audible Hall of Fame. She is a two-time Odyssey Award winner, and was also named as one of Audiophile’s Golden Voices for 2019.

Bahni Turpin is also a famous TV and film actress. She started her career in 1987 with the film called “Tiszta Amerika”.

2010 Best Voice in Fiction: PRECIOUS

The talented narrator is now a devoted listener, too, but she came to audiobooks with a bit of skepticism. Another actress referred her to Books on Tape, where she later auditioned. “It was very strange to me at the time because I didn’t listen to audiobooks then.”

In time, Books on Tape engaged her to read A PIECE OF CAKE, by Cupcake Brown, and Bahni was hooked. She had always liked reading aloud and found the assignment to be a comfortable and enjoyable gig. Of course, she’s continued. But sometimes she’s surprised at a director’s requirements. “I auditioned for a new company, and the director was so picky,” she says. “Every time you cleared your throat, you had to restart the paragraph.”

Bahni, who now loves listening to women’s stories as she tools around Los Angeles, was mesmerized by her own voicing of the character Minny in THE HELP, by Kathryn Stockett. “While listening, I forgot it was me I was listening to,” says Bahni, who enjoyed the book’s rich emotions and vivid characterizations of several female characters.

The experience of absorbing audiobooks can be challenging for some modern listeners, Bahni feels. The heavy reliance on television for entertainment has led some to forget how to listen without a visual component. But she doesn’t draw a line between acting and narration. Bahni reads each book before recording and makes notes about how each character should sound. “I like to give each one a characterization and really try to read the way I feel the text should be heard. I especially enjoy doing dialects.”

About Jordon Cobb

Narrator: Jordon Cobb

Jordan is a New York City based actress and writer. She trained at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she studied at the Experimental Theatre Wing, Classical Studio and Stonestreet Studio. While at NYU she also took classes in play and screen writing, and received a minor in creative writing.

After graduating, she founded two production companies — Black Lace and Laser Beams, and No Such Thing Productions — which focus on the development of new and innovative audio drama podcasts. Jordan works as head writer and producer for both companies, and she voices the characters of Harper Bennett and Dr. Natalya Atlas in Black Lace and Laser Beam’s action/adventure audio drama, Here Be Dragons, Chel in No Such Thing Production’s sci-fi/horror limited series, Janus Descending, and Dr. Marella Morgan in the upcoming adventure thriller, Primordial Deep. All productions are available on Apple Podcast, RadioPublic, Stitcher, GooglePlay and wherever else podcasts are streaming.

About Justina Ireland

Author: Justina Ireland

Justina Ireland enjoys dark chocolate, dark humor, and is not too proud to admit that she’s still afraid of the dark. She lives with her husband, kid, and dog in Pennsylvania. She is the author of Vengeance Bound and Promise of Shadows.

Rating Breakdown
Plot
One StarOne StarOne StarOne StarHalf a Star
Writing
One StarOne StarOne StarOne StarHalf a Star
Characters
One StarOne StarOne StarOne StarOne Star
Dialogue
One StarOne StarOne StarOne StarHalf a Star
Narration (Audio)
One StarOne StarOne StarOne StarOne Star
Overall: One StarOne StarOne StarOne StarHalf a Star
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Posted March 11, 2020 by Melanie in Book Review / 20 Comments


20 responses to “Audio: Deathless Divide by Justina Ireland

  1. Jen

    Oh, I forgot about this series. I remember when you reviewed the first book and raved about it. It sounds so interesting. I need to put this on my audible wish list. Thanks!