rickjones's Reviews (1.66k)

Outlawed is a journey through the Wild West I've never experienced before, one which is emotionally gripping, genuinely frightening, and told through the perspective of those ignored or kicked down in traditional Western narratives. Through this journey we follow Ada, the teenage daughter of a midwife whose future is destroyed after she fails to conceive a baby, and is then accused of witchcraft by those she had once healed and trusted.

Ada is an interesting protagonist in many ways. She straddles the line between adolescence and adulthood, expertise and inexperience, wisdom and ignorance. Her mother's teachings have left her with adequate skills to practice medicine, but not much else. Once joining the Hole In the Wall Gang she shows poor judgement as a thief and as a peer, by making ignorant and insensitive remarks that strike a nerve with those whose life experience she's has yet to understand. Ada's shortcomings are not excused by the narrative or unrealistically healed by it, instead we're allowed to see both her perspective and those of the Gang members who are upset with her to form our own judgement that may differ from Ada's.

Throughout the book we are introduced to a number of characters who like Ada, have been discarded by society. Most of these characters are also infertile women, who found themselves in similar predicaments to Ada and had little other choice but to become outlaws afterward. I appreciated how even despicable acts such as killing were routinely told with empathy towards both the victim and the perpetrator. Within the world of Outlawed, violence is neither random nor justified, but understood as initiatives inflicted by the desperate or the powerful when one either has too much influence or not enough. The Hole in the Wall Gang reasons away their crimes because they have to in order to live with themselves, and because they feel that their victims are one face among many who would laugh as their lives were taken. Yet their violence is often more horrifying than it is grandiose, and always understood as a last resort effort for survival. 

Though I read this book slowly I felt that North's writing style was effortlessly engaging and almost magical. Through Ada's eyes we see the beauty of human life and the environments that sustain it, both natural and man-made. Yet we are also made to feel the weight of the many tragedies she has witnessed, survived and inflicted. When Ada first ventures to find the Hole in the Wall Gang the tales she hears of their exploits are larger than life, and when she leaves them they are even more so. Within that time she learns that each of their members are only human and therefore flawed, with this possibly applying to the Kid most of all. The most powerful theme in this novel is how life goes on even after immense tragedy, and how we may find purpose in its midst. 

Ada's purpose as a healer and her resolve that her knowledge is needed by the world at large is a striking motivation that propels her story forward and opens a well of emotion whenever her life is threatened. In these times North packs a punch by describing her grief towards her past and her possible future, with both realities linked by the medical and social wisdom her mother passed onto her. We come to accept as Ada does that on her survival hinges the lives of countless other infertile women who need an answer to their plight that will make the proponent theories of witchcraft and "race mixing" a thing of the past. Yet before she can achieve this dream Ada must learn through her failures while never giving up on herself, knowing she will one day find vengeance through the healing of others.

While I started this book excited about its potential, I soon ran out of motivation to continue it. The writing style is more of a long form poem than a novel, with most passages vague and disjointed. The author seems impressively well read, but many of her philosophical references went over my head and diminished my interest in attempting to finish the book. I may try to read it again some other time if I ever feel I've developed the focus required to get through it. 

I approached this book with a lot of enthusiasm, but a vast misunderstanding of what it actually included. I was under the impression that all of these stories would be about Shelley's Creation, yet a majority of them are only inspired by her story or the 1931 film adaption, and involve unrelated creators and victims of scientific exploitation. Even though I found myself not enjoying most of the stories, especially the pulp ones, I remained determined to read to the end. However, its a library loan, I'm out of renewals, and I lack the motivation to read much further. I hate leaving things unfinished so I'm telling myself I'll try again at some other point, but honestly that's not likely. 

Sager's newest installment contains twists and turns that fizzle into a more predictable plot, but remained entertaining nonetheless. Charlie is my favorite of his protagonists so far. The women guiding his stories are cut from the same cloth, and tend to have both a unique hobby and a trauma based mental illness that causes an internal conflict complicating the external one they need to survive. However, Charlie really appealed to me. I felt that she was a very humanized portrait of a person with psychosis. Her hallucinations are never used to make her seem monstrous and instead, any horror surrounding their existence comes from her vulnerability to be gaslit. This type of empathy towards a psychotic character is rarely a given in horror, and was refreshing to read. I also felt that Charlie's motivations and self-image were clearly defined, so that even when she was making decisions that seemed colossally poorly considered, I understood why she chose them. 

Other than my interest in Charlie, there wasn't much in this story that stuck out to me. I read it primarily to see how it resolved, but without the same gripping fascination I've had for some of Sager's other books. Those who are interested in Hitchcockian suspense may be more drawn to the story than I was, and I'd recommend it to people who fall into that category. Otherwise, this may be one to skip if you don't think Charlie will appeal to you as a protagonist.