Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Outlawed by Anna North

17 reviews

moonvest's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.5

GOTTA check those content warnings, folks!!

This is objectively a good book, but it was just more yucky than what I can handle right now. I was promised “lesbian cowboys” but it’s largely about child death and grief. Which is, you know, a trigger for me.

You’d probably like it though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Pandemic/Epidemic, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, Violence, Pregnancy, Miscarriage, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Abortion, Death, Grief, Incest, and Infertility

Minor: Animal death

raquel_rqlh's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional informative reflective 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Abortion, Medical content, Transphobia, Biphobia, Chronic illness, Homophobia, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, and Gun violence

aubreystrawberry's review against another edition

adventurous 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Homophobia, and Infertility

Moderate: Medical content, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Abortion, Blood, Mental illness, and Miscarriage

Minor: Animal death, Religious bigotry, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Grief

rachealcroucher's review against another edition

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

lovejasmine's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

2.0

The biggest problem with this book is that it could have been so much better than it was. It could have been so inclusive and intersectional and diverse, and could have been a beautiful, in depth story of marginalised people coming together in a world that hates them.

Instead, we got the barest hint of that, with a very self centred, very white narrator that was, honestly, kind of boring.

The worst thing about this book was it wasn't bad. It just could have been incredible.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Classism, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gun violence, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Incest, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Murder, Outing, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racism, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual assault, Abortion, Blood, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Violence, Sexual violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Animal death, and Chronic illness

horizonous's review against another edition

Reading about misogyny through the window of "you're only a woman if you (can) give birth (to as many children as possible)" and everything regarding pregnancies, miscarriages, abortions in detail makes me deeply uncomfortable. Also, I think I had it with religious bigotry of this type for a while since I read "Under the Banner of Heaven" by Jon Krakauer.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny and Infertility

Moderate: Infidelity, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Abortion, Child death, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Miscarriage, Child abuse, Rape, and Death

ellaensorcelee's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Child death, Sexism, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Animal death, Sexual content, and Sexual assault

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

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

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

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

emily_madcharo's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring 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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Infertility

Moderate: Abortion, Child death, Death, Homophobia, Infidelity, Murder, Racism, Rape, and Suicide attempt

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