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Outlawed by Anna North

A review

The excitement I felt when I heard about a modern-day queer Western novel was neck and neck with the excitement I felt on the very first day I rode a horse myself. I grew up in the deserts of Arizona, dreaming every night of running wild on horseback with a gang of my dustiest, rowdiest friends. As a young girl, I actually enjoyed watching old western movies. My grandfather even supplied many of the horses and wagons used in the 1985 film, Lonesome Dove.

Professional cowgirls were my heroes, horses were my best friends, and the “western lifestyle” of campfires and coyotes howling at night was my lifestyle.

So you can imagine, as a now twenty-five-year-old woman who has recently come out as gay, this was perhaps the most incredible, dream come true sort of representation I never thought I would find as a child or young adult.

For the simple fact that this novel exists, I am grateful.

Outlawed by Anna North is the story of women escaping unfair prosecution for being barren; they are deemed to be witches and are hanged. Ada, the protagonist, is a lovable character. She is an apprentice to her mother, a respected midwife, and a caring older sister, even…