An Outlawed Disappointment

A week or so ago, I picked a book in a St. Patrick's Day draw at a local library.  The book I chose, along with several others, was wrapped and only had a tag identifying the genre, and a quote from the book.

The genre was given as "historical fiction" and the quote was "Knowledge can be very valuable...but only if people want it.  If they don't, it can be worse than useless."

The luck of the draw gave me a book to read called "Outlawed" by Anna North.  Because my next month is taken up with the Blogging from A to Z Challenge, I wanted to review the book.  True, I'm a bit less than halfway through the book, but I'm ready.

I don't know what to make of the book, so let me blog about it a little.

First, it isn't historical fiction.  It takes place in an alternate history.  In this history, the United States (and maybe the world) suffered a terrible flu in the 1830's, which killed off most of the population.  The United States crumbled, independent cities and towns arose,  and the dominant religion became a type of Christianity where the Baby Jesus was worshiped after one Mother Mary had a vision where Baby Jesus offered help to end the pandemic.  The Bible was supplemented by a work by "Burton", which was in everyone's home.

The role of women, by the 1890's (when the story takes place) has become one of reproduction and not much else.  (Given the need to repopulate, that might not be a surprise.) Women are married off in their teens.  If they don't become pregnant within a year or so, the unlucky women become outcasts.  If some one becomes ill, if a woman miscarries, if a baby is born with defects, the barren woman can be blamed, and can be executed.  Or, if more fortunate, driven out of town to die. 

At best, a barren woman can hope to join a convent, where she will be (relatively) safe.  Maybe.

I was eager to read more of the book.  Historically, barren women had not had an easy time of it.

The book centers around such a woman.  Ada, daughter of a midwife, wants to follow in her mother's footsteps.  Instead, she is married off at 17, doesn't become pregnant, and suddenly is fighting for her future as a barren woman.  She joins a convent, but ends up dissatisfied and goes off to join a gang the Mother Superior tells her about.

The opening sentence of the book grabs you:  "In the year of our Lord 1894 I became an outlaw".  There are flashes of great writing in this book, like the quote that chose me to pick this. (I don't own the book, by the way.  I have to return it in another two weeks.)

But then, after a few chapters, I started thinking that the novel has lost its way.  I wonder if part of the problem is that it tried to be too much - a dystopia, a pandemic book, an alternate history, an LGBTQ+ novel, a Western.

The best parts of the book describe Western landscapes and elements of skills a cowboy/cowgirl must master.  But the rest?  I haven't quite given up on it but I have a feeling things aren't going to improve.

It's too bad.  This could have been so fresh, so powerful.  

I don't think it's going to get better.  I hope I'm wrong.

But I don't mind.  That draw introduced me to a new genre: the alternate history Western.

Have you ever been disappointed by a book?