'The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne' by Jonathan Stroud: A Blog Tour Review (+ US Giveaway) // Dystopian England, Being Different & Bank-Heisting Outlaws

I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne by Jonathan Stroud Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours! Check out the other stops by clicking on the banner below!

The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne tour banner

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to Rockstar Book Tours, Netgalley, and Alfred A. Knopf Books for this free copy.

The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne book cover

Title: The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne
Author: Jonathan Stroud
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers
Pub. date: 5 October 2021
Series: The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne #1
Page count: 432
Source: Rockstar Book Tours
Genres: young adult, fantasy
Formats: Hardcover, Paperback, eBook, Audiobook

This post uses affiliate links and I may receive a small commission for purchases made through my links at no additional cost to you.

Action! Humor! Fantasy! This new series opener is a tour de force from international bestseller Jonathan Stroud.

Scarlett McCain is an outlaw, a bank robber and a sharp shooter–a girl of formidable skills. Fueled by a tragic injustice in her past, she travels the broken kingdoms of England alone, carrying out daring heists in the surviving towns and fending off monstrous beasts in the wilds outside their fortified walls. Her life is dangerous, free, and simple–until she finds a wrecked bus on a lonely road. Albert Browne, the sole survivor of the accident, is a seemingly innocent and harmless youth. Against her better judgement, Scarlett agrees to escort him to safety.

This is a mistake. They are soon pursued by men with dogs and guns and explosives. Scarlett is used to running from the law, but these trackers are the most skilled she’s ever encountered–and they don’t seem to be after her. Just who is this Albert Browne Scarlett must uncover his shocking secrets if either of them are going to survive.

Content warnings: abuse (verbal abuse, physical abuse, child abuse), blood & gore, cannibalism, death of an animal, human trafficking & slavery, kidnapping, road accident, violence

I picked up The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne purely based on the author. I have heard that Jonathan Stroud is a pretty great writer and I have a few books of this Bartimaeus series (wallowing in my towering TBR pile!). Also, that cover is pretty stunning to look at, so I was drawn in immediately! I also had no idea that this book was published a few months back in April and this is a republish. How did we miss that?

The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne is set in a dystopian England where what little humanity survived the Cataclysm are living in the safe havens known as Surviving Towns. These Surviving Towns are more-or-less governed by the Faith Houses and their operatives, who have a strict policy against people who are different, which means anything from missing limbs or birthmarks to possessing unexplained abilities.

Scarlett McCain is an outlaw who prefers to stick to the wilds outside these Towns, where she has grown quite competent at fending off the fierce mutant creatures as well as avoiding the cannibalistic Tainted. She carries out a successful bank heist in Cheltenham and flees to the wilds, planning on throwing her pursuers off her trail in the dangerous wilderness.

However, she comes across an overturned bus, which had been travelling between Towns, and Scarlett decides to stop by and scavenge what she could. Though the bus looks empty at first, she comes across Albert Browne, clumsy, loud and naïve, hiding in the bus lavatory.

Against her better judgement, Scarlett lets Albert tag along with her to the nearest Town but trouble starts brewing when mysterious pursuers start tracking them down along the way. Things get even more mysterious when Scarlett realises that these Faith House operatives are after Albert and not her.

Scarlett and Albert are such amazing protagonists! They are total opposites and it is almost like the grumpy-sunshine trope without the romance. Scarlett is the irritable, survivalist badass and Albert is the naïve, optimistic cinnamon roll. I loved that the female protagonist was the grumpy MC and that Albert slowly grows on her throughout their chase across England.

There wasn’t a huge cast in this story but the few side characters that did star were hilariously memorable! Scarlett and Albert get acquainted with a boatman named Joe and his infant granddaughter Ettie during their travels. These two just made the story so much more fun and hilarious to me. I loved Joe’s dry sarcastic humour and his love for Ettie. The whole crew together grew on me too, which is so funny because they are honestly such a bad-tempered bunch!

The bad guys absolutely terrified me. I don’t want to give away too much of the story, so I can’t really discuss them much. But rest assured that the villains in this story are just dark and downright horrible!

Since this is my first Jonathan Stroud book, I had no idea what to expect, so I was pleasantly surprised by the Lemony Snicket vibes his writing gave me. The dialogue, the characters, everything had this sarcastic humour to it that I really enjoyed.

My favourite bits of writing were the conversations between Scarlett and Albert! They were hilarious! The author really knew how to weave an entertaining conversation between these two that achieved a balance between compliments and insults at every turn. Absolutely brilliant! Overall, the writing was top notch!

I loved the plot of this book. Since this is the first book in the series, I felt like it focused more on Scarlett and Albert’s origin story, as in how they meet and become a team. It also opened up the author’s harsh dystopian version of England, which I was equal parts fascinated and horrified by. It is a very solid series starter and I am very much invested in this series now.

But my only issue was with the slow pacing in the middle third of the book. The beginning was very fascinating because the reader got introduced to the characters and the world of the book. The middle slowed down significantly and I struggled a bit to make it through. But the last third of the book picked up quickly and the story ended phenomenally!

As I said, the author’s vision of dystopian England here is post-Cataclysm, an event that is mentioned but not really explained. Whatever it is has affected the geography as well as the wildlife of the country and maybe the world. It was so cool to read about man-eating otters the size of humans and the carnivorous birds that just swoops in to grab babies if left unattended. And the cannibals known as the Tainted were a terrifying feature too.

I loved the author’s vision here and I have so many questions. I was also a huge fan of how he paid attention to culture as well and talked about religion. All the religions seemed like a mixed entity in these Surviving Towns and I was surprised by how easily that was integrated into that society.

It was fascinating to read about the Faith Houses and their shunning of anyone who is different because, the way I see it, they live in a world that has practically mutated. It was also a chilling commentary on how bad things could get in a society that would not accept its people for the way they are.

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne by Jonathan Stroud. Though the pacing in the middle had me struggling a bit, I fell in love with the quirky and surprisingly loveable characters and the terrifying but fascinating take on a dystopian version of England. This is definitely a very strong series starter and I am already in love with these protagonists! I can only hope that the sequel comes out sometime soon!

Here’s more The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne content you should check out: the author’s guest post with The Booktopian, Sifa’s review, Alex’s review

Jonathan Stroud is the author of two internationally bestselling series: the award-winning Bartimaeus Sequence, which has been published in thirty-six languages worldwide, and the critically acclaimed Lockwood & Co., which is currently being adapted by Netflix. His stand-alone titles include Heroes of the Valley, The Last Siege, The Leap, and Buried Fire. Jonathan lives near London with his wife and three children. You can visit him at jonathanstroud.com and follow him on Instagram at @jonathan.stroud and on Twitter at @JonathanAStroud.