Outlawed - SCWC Book reviewer in residence
REVIEWED BY ANDY MUIR
A queer feminist reimagining of the Wild West of America, 1894. Bordering on alternative history, Outlawed features a female Utopia in an American desert landscape familiar to anyone who has seen a Western movie, and a band of outlaws with a plan to make their utopia permanent with one do-or-die heist.
The story kicks off with Ada, a 17-year-old girl being married to her husband, and a year later still yet to produce an heir. In this world, barren women are hanged; if they can’t have a baby, they must be a witch. To make matters worse, Ada’s mother is the local midwife, and when several babies die, the suspicions that either Ada or her mother are witches become too great. Forced to flee, Ada hears about a mysterious preacher-turned-robber called The Kid who has created a safe haven for women, protected by a band of outlaws called the Hole in the Wall Gang. Ada is determined to join them.
The story whips along. The opening sequences of Ada and her mother looking after the pregnant women of the town as suspicions grow echoes the tensions of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. Even the “good” men are not so much good as not as bad as the others. When Ada escapes, there is a growing sense of dread that in this world, escape is never really possible.
When Ada manages to find the Hole in the Wall Gang, not everyone is happy to have her join the band, even if she does bring her medical skills to the team. The longer she stays with the gang, the more Ada learns about The Kid and the darkness in the outlaw’s heart that will ultimately threaten the gang, their plans, and all of their safety.
Tackling a Western is tricky. Once the staple of the pulps until the detective and crime fiction took over, the Western novel fell from favour quickly. But the form has many tropes and conventions that need to be fulfilled. Those who are familiar with such television series as Netflix’s Godless will be familiar with the world of Outlawed. Similar to that TV series, this novel reimagines this landscape from a feminist and queer perspective effortlessly. The author is well-versed and enjoys playing with genre and expectations.
Overall, this is an engaging and enjoyable tale. Cinematic, borrowing enough to be familiar but adding and changing enough to make it fresh. Ultimately, it will be the characters who stay with you as you wonder, what if there was a character, like the androgynous Kid, lost in the pages of history.
Published January 2021 with Hachette
“The Crucible meets True Grit in this riveting adventure story of a fugitive girl, a mysterious gang of robbers, and their dangerous mission to transform the Wild West.”
SCWC Book Reviewer 2021: Andy Muir
Andy is an award nominated screenwriter and story researcher for the hugely successful Underbelly franchise, and was nominated for a Ned Kelly for his debut crime fiction Something for Nothing (Affirm Press, 2017). The follow up Hiding to Nothing (Affirm Press, 2019) continues anti hero Lachie Munro’s misadventures. Awarded a 2019 Australian Society of Authors Fellowship, he is currently writing two new crime novels.