A review by mollslol
Outlawed by Anna North

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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