Alex Cabe reviewed Deathless Divide by Justina Ireland
Western Fiction With Enough Twists to Make It Interesting to Non-Genre Fans
3 stars
This book's biggest strength was that it wasn't afraid to have major character deaths, and otherwise just really put the characters through it. Jane's went to some pretty dark places, which made for a good read.
I thought it was smart to keep this at two with a solid first half/second half structure rather than trying to stretch the series to a trilogy. I'm not ordinarily interested in Westerns, but the zombie and queer elements were enough of a hook.
I never quite figured out what the deal was with the vaccine, I'm unsure if that was intentional ambiguity or just loose writing. The author did a good job of making the characters understandable and likeable, but flawed enough that you could understand how they grated on each other. The ending was Western-tropey, but satisfying.
