Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Outlawed by Anna North

85 reviews

ynadavis's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Gun violence, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Transphobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Outing, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

shoohoob's review

adventurous emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Such an interesting book! It wasn’t what I expected, but not necessarily in a bad way. It was rewarding to read about Ada finding her meaning in the world. That being said, it felt like the last third of the book was a little rushed and the ending wasn’t super satisfying. I think it could have been a little longer. 

All in all, I liked it!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Homophobia, Infertility, Misogyny, Transphobia, Blood, Medical content, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

Moderate: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

wormgirl's review against another edition

adventurous emotional fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infertility, Sexism, and Medical content

Moderate: Homophobia, Racism, Abortion, and Pregnancy

Minor: Animal death, Miscarriage, Self harm, Sexual content, Violence, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Outing

cassielaj's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.5

I’ve never read anything quite like this book. It’s fascinating, full of adventure and heart, sorrow and hope. If you like stories about outcasts, strong women, and found family, this one’s for you. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Infertility, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Sexual violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Animal death, Rape, Self harm, and Abortion

Minor: Incest

hmatt's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

I love the concept of this story so much, and it had so much potential. The world-building is super well done, and I love alternate histories. Unfortunately, I came away with the feeling that the author tried to fit so much world and plot in that these got in the way of both the actual storytelling and the character-building.

Storytelling
I feel like the author was trying to fit too many events into too short of a narrative. This might have been okay, but there were so many minor events that I think we should have spent less time on, and a number of climactic events that we spent barely any time on whatsoever. A lot of these major events "fade to black" as soon as the action starts, and then we are caught up on what happened in retrospect later on - I was REALLY not a fan of this technique, and I don't think it made sense for the "western" genre.

Character-building
We do get a lot of information on most of the characters but, again, it's almost too much for how short of a book it is. What we lose out on, in my opinion, is a more profound emotional connection with the main character. We don't really dwell on her losses or feel them with her, which is extra strange given the whole novel is told in first-person.

TL;DR
The idea behind the novel is fantastic, but it tries to fit too much in. The concepts it seeks to explore are really only half-fleshed-out and the characters are hard to relate to, simply because the plot moves on too fast to hold space for these introspections.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Transphobia, Forced institutionalization, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Animal death and Drug abuse

CWs non-exhaustive

cheye13's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring 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? Yes

4.0

This was very engaging and a fresh take on the genre. It's gave me exactly what I'd been missing from Sarah Gailey's Upright Women Wanted. The world was tangible, and I especially appreciated how well nuances were conveyed – depression, bisexuality, gender identity – without the vocabulary we use.

That being said, I don't think western stories are really for me? There's always such a deep pain and/or hopelessness within them that never seems to hit my catharsis button. This one came very close with each of the outlaw's backstories, but the ultimate plot just left me with, "Well. Okay."

This was definitely my favorite western I've ever read, though. Leagues above.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Infertility, Misogyny, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Blood, Grief, Abortion, and Pregnancy

Minor: Ableism, Child death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Incest, Infidelity, Racism, Rape, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Alcohol

ableism wrt: implied bipolar disorder (or perhaps other psychosis), implied post partum depression medical/injury content wrt: gunshot wounds, childbirth & miscarriage, castration, hypothermia, various illnesses

abominablesnowaro's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Sexism, Violence, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Lesbophobia, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Misogyny, Racism, Excrement, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Rape

kimveach's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

I've never been a fan of Westerns, but this dystopian version was interesting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Lesbophobia, Outing, and Injury/Injury detail

azalia's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infertility, Infidelity, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Self harm, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Abortion, Abandonment, and Alcohol

seawarrior's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful sad 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? Yes

5.0

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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racism, Self harm, Violence, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, and Alcohol

Moderate: Incest, Sexual content, and Transphobia