The Outlaws Scarlett & Browne - Jonathan Stroud (Walker Books, $21.99)
Reviewed by Louise Ward, Wardini Books
This young adult novel starts with an almighty roar. Scarlett McCain, bank robber and outlaw and somewhere in the region of her mid to late teens (she doesn't really know) has wiped outfour grown men: "She hadn't realised it had been so many. No wonder she felt stiff." How's that for a kapow of an opening?
This is an intense, exciting and yes, quite violent way to introduce Scarlett. She's grumpy, has to live off her wits and not much else, and owes money to the wrong people. She just needs to do a bank job, get the money to where it needs to be, and settle in for some drinking and gambling.
The spanner in the works comes when she sees a crashed bus. Warily, as there are such things as the 'tainted', creatures that we learn to be as terrified of as Scarlett, she investigates and that is how she comes to rescue the sole survivor, Albert Browne, a sweet, unworldly boy with much more about him than his floppy jumper and innocent brown eyes.
There has been a cataclysmic event, some kind of nuclear war from the sounds of it, and humans have retreated. Some towns remain and there are rumours of safe islands out at sea. Albert is heading there. Scarlett might help him, and she might not.
There is pure terror between these pages. Apart from the tainted there are mutated, massive creatures – otters aren't so much cute as the size of the Loch Ness monster … and they're ravenous. Mud rats will eat you soon as look at you and certain birds are kept as guardians of bank vaults such is their ferocity. People are not to be trusted and any difference about a person makes them vulnerable. Slavery is a thing.
Scarlett is smart, sharp shooting and ass kicking. Her sarcasm knows no bounds, as does her guilt which she attempts to ease with a daily meditation and reckoning.
Albert is clumsy, naïve, backward in emotional and worldly maturity. He knows nothing of the world he finds himself in and Scarlett doesn't want to know why … until she needs to.
Pursuit, danger, much fighting and killing of the bad guys and questionable morality of the good guys (well, Scarlett). It's terrifying, delightfully adventurous and dangerous. A thrilling, beautifully constructed read from start to finish. Most suitable for readers over 14 years.
