Reviews tagging 'Miscarriage'

Outlawed by Anna North

141 reviews

rachaelreading's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed “Outlawed” well enough… but I really wanted to love this book. The synopsis totally grabbed me. The Wild West with a feminist and queer twist? Sign me up! 

That brings me to best part of this book: the plot and the world. This is sort of a John Wayne meets a Handmaid’s Tale type universe in which women are persecuted for infertility. Our main character Ada is one such woman, who at only eighteen years old has to flee her town and leave her family behind after failing to conceive a child. As you’d know from reading the back of the book, this is eventually how she falls in with a gang of outlaws. The world-building is a bit clunky, but once I got a handle on the alt-history timeline, I was really able to immerse myself and enjoy the ambience of the setting.

Although I loved the world, I didn’t love the characters. Actually, I didn’t feel much of anything at all for these characters. To be perfectly honest, Ada is not a particularly strong lead and undergoes virtually no meaningful development through the course of the narrative. Flatness actually plagues pretty much all of the characters in this story. The Hole in the Wall gang is composed of women and the Kid (AFAB) whose backstories aren’t elaborated on until the last 60 pages and whose characterization can be broken down into one or two words apiece. The most interesting thing about the Hole in the Wall gang (outside of the plot happening around them) is that as a society of women, they take a queer approach to gender. Most of the gang spend their time dressed as men, and it’s heavily implied that the Kid is non-binary or genderqueer. I’ve seen other people saying that these gender dynamics were confusing, but I personally feel that they were just poorly fleshed out.

“Poorly fleshed out” pretty well sums up my biggest gripe with this novel. Unfortunately, it felt like Anna North tried to tackle too many topics (race, sexuality, gender, mental illness, feminism) and ended up failing to really generate any meaningful commentary on any of them. At best, a lot of this feels rushed and at worst it borders on insensitive. Ada, our first person narrator, is white, cisgendered and heterosexual. This means that many of the themes that are touched on in this novel only impact two-dimensional side characters. News and Lark feel like they only exist in order to allow racism or homophobia to make an appearance, but as neither of them are well-developed characters it ends up feeling like tragic tokenism rather than representation.

TLDR; a fun enough read in an interesting world, but the characters and writing lack depth.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Infertility

Moderate: Homophobia, Miscarriage, and Racism

wulfhorstmom's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Misogyny, Gun violence, Infertility, Homophobia, and Lesbophobia

kncknc's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful inspiring fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Sexism, Racism, Pregnancy, Miscarriage, Medical content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Infertility

ejs2000's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Death, Infertility, Lesbophobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, and Miscarriage

Moderate: Grief, Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, Racism, Police brutality, Classism, Abortion, Blood, Transphobia, Sexism, Self harm, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Rape, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, and Colonisation

Minor: Alcohol, Animal death, Sexual content, Fire/Fire injury, and Cultural appropriation

tak_everlasting's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

0.25

While the group initially bullied her, I thought she'd eventually be included in the band and it was aiming for a found family direction. It was not. They felt like coworkers at best, annoyed strangers at worst. I honestly felt nothing when they separated, or when they died, because the characters themselves did not care.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Infertility, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, Violence, Death, Gun violence, Medical content, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual content and Abortion

tspice24's review against another edition

adventurous reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Infertility and Pregnancy

Minor: Abortion, Suicide, Racism, Miscarriage, Gaslighting, and Mental illness

dianaaguilar's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Miscarriage, Medical trauma, Gun violence, Death, and Classism

Minor: Suicide and Suicide attempt

kansass666's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Death, Gun violence, Miscarriage, and Homophobia

eegekay's review against another edition

adventurous tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, Gun violence, Infertility, Infidelity, Medical content, Misogyny, Death, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, and Racism

miarconnell's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This book definitely had highs and lows but I really enjoyed this look at early feminism and the plight of women under the oppression of religious society. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage and Murder

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Toxic relationship