Reese's Book Club: Outlawed
Image Source: Amazon
Outlawed by Anna North is the January 2021 Reese Book Club selection!
this is not a book review.
If you’re looking for a synopsis or “critical description, evaluation, or analysis” of this book - this is not the place. Rather, I started this blog series on the Reese Book Club selections to share my thoughts after finishing the book. It is my one-sided virtual brain-dump on my random thoughts about the book, with hopes that you’ll share whether you felt/thought the same!
but it is worth reading?
Want to know whether I think it’s worth the read before you invest your time and money?
YES! I really enjoyed it and found it thought-provoking, terrifying in a “what-if” sense, and it kept me on the edge of my seat at times. On a scale of Ehhh to OMG So Damn Good, I’m giving it a Pretty Damn Good.
Buy on Amazon: amzn.to/3rDqdWw Listen on Audible: audible.com/pd/Outlawed
* AS AN AMAZON ASSOCIATE, I EARN FROM QUALIFYING PURCHASES.
If you haven’t read the book - stop reading here.
there is nothing but spoilers from this point down!
my thoughts
Is it just me, or does anyone else feel that Reese and her Book Club team intentionally select books that make us realize it sucks to be a woman but sucked even more in past generations? These novel selections constantly make me reflect on how I would certainly have been shunned and killed by “normal” society due to my inability to conform to whatever gendered expectations of the time and/or place.
Outlawed absolutely made the feel this throughout the entire damn book. Ada’s inability to conceive made her a target, so would my lack of desire to have children make me just as guilty? The very first chapter sucked me with all the details surrounding life and expectations in Ada’s world. I spent A LOT of time searching the interwebs to find out whether the aspects of life depicted was based on some reality or if it was completely imaginary.
What I found so interesting about Ada was how her life changes DRASTICALLY on several occasions and she just rolled with the punches. She didn’t really try to fight back, she didn’t try to change anyone’s mind - she just accepted her shitty hand and was lucky that she had her Mother and then Mother Superior to guide her to the next path. She doesn’t kick her mother-in-law in the face, doesn’t punch her “friends” for lying about her being a witch, doesn’t object to Mother Superior being a general asshole to her, doesn’t try to go back and see her family. I would impulsively do all these things. I guess that is what happens when you know that there is NOTHING else you can do to change your situation. She didn’t become an outlaw intentionally - she just had nowhere else to go that wasn’t a prison cell or the end of a noose. In the end, you realize that she was almost destined for her path and ending because she had something that set her apart - her Mother’s training and her incredible grit and tenacity.
You know what I also loved about this book? The ending! I feel like Anna North NAILED it. It was perfect and tied it back to the beginning perfectly. Obviously, I wanted to know about this new transition in her life, but I love that she just gave little hints about her future and left it at that.
Did y’all enjoy this book too? Did you find the feminist take on a Western inspiring, terrifying, or both? Let me know in the comments below!