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 | The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne by Jonathan Stroud {Reviewed by STELLA} Wanted for audacious crimes across England: a sassy young woman adept at robbing banks, outwitting the law, dealing with the Faith and keeping the Tainted at arm's length, not to mention the beasts in the Wildness and the other hustlers in the Surviving Towns. This is the wild west of a dystopian and flooded England. London is covered by water — and at the centre of this lagoon are the Free Isles, while the rest of the country has reverted to wildness and walled towns with strict codes of conduct. The unusual and challenging are not wanted: others are cast into slavery and the Council of the Faith is all-powerful in rhetoric and financial dealings. We meet Scarlett McCain just after she has pulled off a bank robbery and is escaping by taking a route through the wild lands. The trick is to get through and out before darkness falls, evading her pursuers who won’t dare follow under the stars. The problem is she is sidetracked by a bus that has crashed into the woods and the sole survivor, a hapless teen boy, Albert Browne. Help the boy (get him back to the road) and still have time to make it through the trees. This plan doesn’t pan out. The boy is even more mysterious than the evasive Scarlett and some things about the crash and where Albert comes from don’t add up, and now they have pursuers on their tail that aren’t so scared of the beasts coming out to hunt. Scarlett now has a seemingly useless companion with her as she travels cross-country, trying to outrun an enemy she doesn’t know. Let's just say there will be gunshots, wounds, jumping off a cliff, and almost drowning in a river. And, most oddly, pursuers in jackets and bowler hats (sinister!) are after Albert. But why? As they travel together, despite Scarlett’s threats to ditch him (trouble follows Albert and maybe Albert makes trouble), a frightening spectre is rising, and a woman who won’t give up on her desire to recapture Albert enters the picture. While Scarlett puzzles Albert’s abilities, strange as they are, and questions her sanity in sticking with him, she’s also drawn to this unusual young man trying to find a place to belong in this strange, and often uninviting, new world. Putting their faith in a grizzled and grumpy old seafarer (travelling the waterways with his mute granddaughter), his ‘trusty’ boat and his knowledge of the rivers and byways they head in search of the Free Isles where Albert hopes to find a new home. It won’t be plain sailing, at all. There are plenty of twists and turns, daring adventuring and an exciting plot to entice you into this new intriguing world and keep you hooked, wanting more. The first in a new series from the author of 'Lockwood & Co.' (and if you haven’t read these you have been missing out), The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne is mesmerisingly good, their world is fascinating, and Stroud doesn’t miss a beat in laying down some great challenges: climate change, species mutation, psychological manipulation, and power struggles as well as more endearing qualities of humanity in bravery, loyalty and friendship — for his characters as well as the reader. |