Outlawed by Anna North [Review]

This story was so interesting at first and the important themes—feminism, patriarchal society, motherhood, infertility, and religion.

The setting & premise was promising—the Wild West and our midwife-trained MC becoming an outlaw. 

I became so interested in the story at the beginning that I started feeling disappointed at the slower pacing around a third of the way in. 

There was so much potential but it fell flat. 

I wanted more from the writing—especially visually. I wanted more from the characters descriptions, actions, and development. I kept getting each character confused—or actually, I just couldn’t really remember who they were or why they were important. 

I wanted more in terms of Ada, the MC, exploring and questioning society’s rules and expectations versus trying to solve the infertility issue. 

There were other issues in the book that felt not fully explored and only introduced for the diversity points.

I feel like a lot of what was missing was due to the writing style—again lack of description and lack of having well-developed and fleshed-out characters.

Especially with the themes and settings, there was the opportunity to have the reader feel more immersed in this western 1700’s world. I wasn’t immersed.

Have you read outlawed? Thoughts? Is it on your TBR?