Reviews tagging 'Forced institutionalization'

Outlawed by Anna North

9 reviews

hellokatya's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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

5.0

i absolutely adored this book. a beautifully written and developed story of love, loss, friendship, and family. please please read this book. definitely one i’ll be recommending to anyone who will listen.
bring some tissue though

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Death, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Misogyny, Grief, and Blood

Moderate: Drug use, Chronic illness, Abandonment, Pregnancy, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, Homophobia, and Miscarriage

Minor: Murder, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Police brutality, Fire/Fire injury, Lesbophobia, and War

rachealcroucher's review

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infertility, Sexism, Biphobia, and Homophobia

Moderate: Abortion, Gun violence, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Animal death, Classism, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Pregnancy, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Transphobia, Infertility, Lesbophobia, Murder, Alcohol, Child death, Chronic illness, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Hate crime, Medical content, Miscarriage, Racism, Body shaming, Death, and Emotional abuse

ripxw's review against another edition

challenging 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? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abortion, Gun violence, Infertility, Medical content, Pregnancy, Medical trauma, Racism, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Misogyny, Rape, Terminal illness, Death, Miscarriage, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Forced institutionalization, Sexual violence, and Homophobia

capybooks's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.25

I really enjoyed this book. It was a slow burn but one I thoroughly enjoyed. It was gripping, and you wanted the protagonist to succeed and get to Pagosa Springs to educate people about fertility. A brilliant read, and I can’t wait to read it again in the future. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Miscarriage, Violence, and Cursing

Moderate: Infidelity, Forced institutionalization, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, Abortion, and Self harm

Minor: Domestic abuse and Rape

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

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

Minor: Animal death and Drug abuse

CWs non-exhaustive

nothingforpomegranted's review against another edition

2.25

Ostensibly set in a mostly-dystopian 1894 Texas town that places a premium on women's ability to bear children and suspects infertile women of witchcraft, this book is narrated by Ada, a seventeen-year-old wife and midwife's apprentice who has been exiled from her community after a year of marriage with no child. Passionate about science and serving women, Ada finds herself in the company of the Hole in the Wall gang, a group of outlawed outsiders with a flexible and fluid approach to gender, love, sex, and justice. 

This feminist take on a Western novel, filled with crime, adventure, and challenging authority, was certainly creative, but I was quite the right audience for it. Indeed, I was so distracted by the references to race, doctors, baby Jesus, the Flu and Fever, and the seeming dissolution of the United States that I was almost more focused on trying to figure out whether this was a dystopian alternative history (a Confederate win in the Civil War?) or a dystopian future (post COVID-19?), and I'm honestly still confused. 

I also was pretty confused by the role of religion and by all of the characters. There were many, each with a painful background, but none was particularly well-developed, and the sub-plots detracted rather than added to the story. The one exception to this, in my opinion, was Lark's story, which surprised and intrigued me, but he, too, was an underdeveloped character who stuck around too briefly. 

I appreciate the reviewer who acknowledged that this book offers a different take on the Hole in the Wall gang. I had no idea that this gang was a real concept and really disappointed that there was no Author's Note explaining that research and that choice (which guess means this is an alt-history novel?). 

I picked this up because I needed a quick read to help propel me out of a slump (too many classics in a row/at a time can do that to you), and it was definitely successful in that respect. The story was engaging enough and kept me turning the pages for the few hours that this took to finish, but ultimately, I think Anna North bit off more than she could chew--infertility, religion, feminism, justice, gender fluidity, insomnia, mental health, medicine, mothering, Western adventure--and it really didn't work for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infertility, Sexual content, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Medical content, Infidelity, Gun violence, Forced institutionalization, and Abortion

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Incest, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Rape, Racism, Racial slurs, Pregnancy, Police brutality, Suicide attempt, and Suicidal thoughts

serendipitysbooks's review

adventurous challenging reflective tense medium-paced

3.75

 Outlawed is a Western/alternative history cross genre novel . Ada is a young woman, unable to conceive. When faced with accusations of witchcraft she is forced to flee. Initially she seeks refuge in a convent but religious life is not for her so she hooks up with a band of other outcasts. They steal to stay alive but eventually hope to build a community where others like them can live without fear. This story highlighted the trauma of infertility but Ada’s focus was on finding a meaningful life for herself outside of motherhood and seeking knowledge to overcome ignorant prejudice. Race and gender identity are also incorporated. A fresh, fun, feminist take. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, and Racism

acarter's review

adventurous inspiring medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book RULED. A snappy, smart look at sex, gender, fertility, race, legality, and so much more. I’ll be thinking about this one for many years to come!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, and Gun violence

Moderate: Child death, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Infertility, Infidelity, Medical content, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Religious bigotry, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Incest

asha_'s review

adventurous emotional inspiring tense fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I read this entire book in one day because I absolutely could not put it down. It made me care and it made me hurt.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infertility, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Violence, Medical content, Mental illness, Racism, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Chronic illness, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Alcoholism, Blood, Cancer, Child death, Cursing, Death, Excrement, and Animal death