This feminist western parable is impossible to put down. As the novel barrels toward a surprise ending, it’s further strengthened by Ada’s voice and reflections, which preserve a sense of immediacy: “distances that had once seemed vast were now so small that my enemies could cross them in an instant.” The characters’ struggles for gender nonconformity and LGBTQ rights are tenderly and beautifully conveyed. The tense plot takes many turns through Ada’s increasingly violent adventures with the gang, beginning with a botched holdup of a wagon laden with gold. The outlaws plan to create a town where nonconforming people can belong. The day of her wedding, 17-year-old Ada’s life looks good. In the year of our Lord 1894, I became an outlaw. 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. Ada becomes a “doctor” to the motley group led by the Kid (to whom no gender pronouns are attributed-“‘Not he, not she,’ Elzy said. Bloomsbury presents Outlawed by Anna North, read by Cynthia Farrell.

After Ada’s former friend has a miscarriage and accuses Ada of casting a spell on her, Ada’s mother helps her flee to a nunnery, where a Sister suggests she join a nearby gang known as Hole in the Wall. Thank you Anna North for writing this book and thank you Cynthia Farrell for reading to me much appreciated Ladies Overall 4 out of 5 stars. Eighteen-year-old newlywed Ada, unable to conceive a child, fears she will be accused of witchcraft, a fate common to the women in her Dakota territory community. Outlawed by Anna North as if life isnt hard enough being a woman. North’s knockout latest (after The Life and Death of Sophie Stark) chronicles the travails of a midwife’s daughter who joins a group of female and nonbinary outlaws near the end of the 19th century.

Outlawed anna