Reviews with content warning for Injury/Injury detail - Die Gesetzlose

Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Die Gesetzlose by Anna North

56 reviews

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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hmatt's review against another edition

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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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mollslol's review against another edition

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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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denizens98's review against another edition

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adventurous dark reflective 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

3.0

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cheye13's review against another edition

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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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