Just Finished Reading: Outlawed by Anna North (FP: 2021) [261pp] 

North America, 1894. Ada Magnusson knew her duty more than most in her small town. Afterall, her mother was the town’s best midwife and had begun training her teenage daughter the challenges and dangers of childbirth. Due to be married herself Ada was looking forward to her role in repopulating a devastated America. The Great Flu had ravaged the country (and the world?) long before she was born killing 90% of those it infected. Now it was every woman's God given role to replenish humanity. But not everyone could. That was the fear of every woman and young girl – especially those on the cusp of marriage. What if....? What if they were barren? Her husband would have every right to send her back to her family and marry again. The woman might, like Ada, have useful skills that the community could profit from but there was always the stain, the taint of ungodliness. If they refused to serve God and man by failing to produce new life were they useless or dangerous? If they did not serve God, were they in league with His enemies? So, after a year of trying and still not pregnant Ada was back with her family and when measles took four young lives it wasn’t long before suspicion fell on Ada. Was she a witch? The sheriff didn’t want to see her, as a family friend, hanging from a rope so gave her a chance – leave or die. But where to go in such an unforgiving world and how to live? Ada was about to find out that her choices were few and none of them were good... 

This was quite the genre mash-up, a Feminist, Alternate-history, Post-apocalyptic Western! So, when I picked it up in my near-by Indie bookshop it was hard not to bring home. I’m glad I did. Despite being a little slow at times (which, to be honest, was the only slight problem I had with it) this was an interesting read. It was certainly a fun twist on the Western genre with cross-dressing women pretending to be cowboys being the least of some intriguing world building. Although no specific date was mentioned for the apocalyptic Flu epidemic in the book, I do “remember” a ‘throw-away’ line hinting at a time a century previously. This sounds like the mid-18th century series of epidemics and pandemics that killed well over a million people at the time. Ramping this up to 11 would give the author the event she needed and it would also chime with the lack of medical knowledge (and of any discussion of Evolutionary or more general biological answers to explain the problems with childbirth and childlessness plus the lack of a Germ Theory to explain things). 

Characterisation was good to very good throughout (Ada was a great character) and I was never in any danger at being thrown out of the narrative because of any kind of inconsistency with how people acted or reacted to their world especially as they had only limited knowledge of the time before the Great Flu (books were very few and far between, very expensive and, all too often, not worth the effort of reading). The overall narrative was well handled and made complete sense with reasonable motivations all round – again especially for Ada who was driven by her need to understand her own inability to have children. The few action scenes were handled well and were suitable dramatic. I particularly liked the fact that, apart from her natural medical abilities and logical thinking, Ada wasn’t all that good at what she was forced to adapt to being a particularly bad shot, only passable on horseback and far too trusting/open with others – in other words REAL.  

This was definitely a somewhat strange read, but a rewarding one. It’s a bit of a slow burn at times but it is a story that stays with you after you turn the last page. I’ll definitely be looking for the author’s other works next time I’m at my Indie bookshop (next planned trip in February). Recommended.  

HAPPY NEW YEAR....! Let's HOPE that its nowhere as bad as we think it MIGHT be!