The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne

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Jonathan Stroud: The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne (AudiobookFormat)

Audiobook

ISBN:
978-0-593-46011-5
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5 stars (2 reviews)

2 editions

A bit of a mess (I enjoyed it)

No rating

Well. Wow. That was pretty much what I expected in a bad way, and so much better in a good way.

So. It's an adventure-y story about tons of stressful and horrific stuff, that has enough cartoon-y distance to still be more on the light-hearted side. It pulled me right in, I got invested in all the characters and what was going on with them right away, and didn't stop caring ever.

It's about weirdos in a very normative post-apocalyptic world, travelling to a lagoon that used to be a city, where they've heard supernatural neurodivergencies might be accepted, as well as any other kind of weirdness. So that's a cool vibe.

Just don't expect any subtlety. The writing of social inequality feels very heavy-handed to me. The way sexism is used to characterise a place almost made me sigh. It's mentioned that there are black characters, but the way …

A gunslinging girl and a maximally neurodiverse boy

5 stars

I'm a big fan of Stroud from the Bartimaeus days. This could be his best series since that ground-breaking epic of a djinn and his human. Stroud's humour and the accessibility of his writing put him in the confectionery aisle of the literary supermarket, but there's a lot of mental and cultural nutrition mixed in with his sweet booky treats.

First up, the characters. Scarlett is a robber and an assassin, a total bad-arse heroine with a dark past. Just one line should dispel any worries from those who felt a bit let down by the self-doubting lovesick Lucy from "Lockwood and Co".

Albert, the Browne of the title, is a kind of autistic superhero, the opposite of Scarlett, but charming and lovable in his youthful innocence and uncontrolled power. There is an impeccable balance in this dynamic duo. They seem to reflect the potential and the challenges faced by …