Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Outlawed by Anna North

71 reviews

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. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage and Murder

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

nicoleherz's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful tense 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? No

4.25

Feminist adventure set in the wild wild west

A thrilling and inspiring story about a woman who knows she's worth more than the fate she is assigned. I loved the immediate focus on science and feminism, especially set in a time where these were not popular topics.
The characters were diverse with fascinating backstories and the author wasn't shy in taking them away from us.
Loved the happy ending, I was positive we weren't going to get one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Infertility, Mental illness, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Abortion, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Biphobia, Homophobia, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Excrement, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, and Alcohol

Minor: Miscarriage, Medical trauma, and Fire/Fire injury

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

sorry_imbooked's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful 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

3.5

I loved the idea of this book, its focus on women and trans people trying to make better lives for themselves and others like them, but I found the execution rather bland. Outlawed follows a young woman, Ada, who was forced from her home into a convent because she is unable to conceive a child in a world where women's worth is tied to their childbearing. Determined to find out the reason for barrenness and to help other women like her, Ada leaves the convent to join the notorious Kid and their Hole in the Wall Gang - a gang of other people turned out as women viewed as somehow defective. Ada's goal is to stay with the Gang until she can afford to travel to a fellow midwife who has written a book on women's medical and biological disorders that Ada respects but finds insufficient.

Despite her willingness to become an outlaw, Ada seems to lack (or refuse) agency until nearly the end of the book. The majority of her companions remain underdeveloped and fairly one-dimensional as much of the text is focused on Ada's internal worries and wonderings. As it was, my favorite character was Ada's horse, Amity.  The pacing of the story was irregular and I frequently drifted out of the book. That said, I always picked it back up.

I did really appreciate the timeliness of this book; these are issues that women still face and will for many years to come. The descriptions of the land and settings were rich and lovely - I could picture them vividly. I just ended up wanting more from the characters and the story than I felt I got.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Infertility, Miscarriage, Sexism, and Murder

Moderate: Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, and Racism

laurenaf's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

3.25

This was a good and quick read. I enjoyed the idea of the book, but I honestly was not expecting the author to take this route in the story, based on what I read in the blurb- which made it interesting. I enjoyed the characters and the plot, but I do think more depth could’ve been given to both to create a more immersive story. 
My biggest problem with this book is I had a lot of difficulty with that immersion aspect. Unlike other books I’ve read, I can easily imagine the setting or the characters. And while the author has great descriptions, I still wasn’t able to picture a lot of what was happening. 
While I loved the characters, they are also detached from the reader in a way, where you know a little about them but not enough to create a connection. 
For me, this book was only a 3 star until I got to the last quarter of the book where a majority of the action took place, which also could have been elongated. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder

Minor: Incest, Rape, and Suicide

seeker24's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny 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? It's complicated

3.25

 Approaches topics like same sex couples, infertility and sexism in the 1800s. 

Although it does have LGBTQ+ characters, the main character is a white cis woman. At some points it does give off white savior vibes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infertility, Blood, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Gun violence, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Murder, and Pregnancy

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

mollslol's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I was really excited to read this book - a feminist western? Hell yes. But while parts of this book were engaging and the author touched (very briefly) on some important topics - reproduction, gender identity, racism - overall, I was disappointed. The supporting characters were not fully fleshed out, I routinely had to go back and search for their backstory because I kept mixing them up. Despite the fact that they were more interesting and important to the plot than Ada, the main character. Ada makes a lot of stupid mistakes is this novel but never seems to learn from them. On top of that, this book largely focuses on women’s lives being valued and protected on their ability to have children. Ada’s entire mission throughout this book is set on learning more about the female body (not so that she can attempt to change this objectification of women) but so that she can “cure” her barrenness and become valuable once more.

And when she finally reaches Pagosa Springs only to discover that the woman she was looking for is gone, we’re just left with a 1 paragraph wrap up to vaguely explain that Ada took over and accomplished great things.

This story is 95% build up and 5% resolution, which the author just slapped together and tried to tie up with a neat little bow. I feel like this story really had a lot of potential and some exciting characters and plot points, but really failed to deliver. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Racism, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

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