The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne
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5.0 • 2 Ratings
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- £6.49
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- £6.49
Publisher Description
England has been radically changed by a series of catastrophes – large cities have disappeared and London has been replaced by a lagoon. The surviving population exists in fortified towns where they cling to traditional ways, while strangely evolved beasts prowl the wilderness beyond. Conformity is rigidly enforced and those who fall foul of the rules are persecuted: some are killed, others are driven out into the wilds. Only a few fight back – and two of these outlaws, Scarlett McCain and Albert Browne, display an audacity and talent that makes them legends.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
After handily knocking over a bank to settle a debt, red-haired, gimlet-eyed Scarlett McCain—"no ties, no allegiance"—disappears into the woodland wastes between England's Surviving Towns with a rucksack full of cash, her prayer mat and cuss-box, and "little to worry about." When she comes across the aftermath of a terrible bus accident, however, she encounters in the vehicle's toilet cubicle the incident's sole apparent survivor: seemingly clueless youth Albert Browne, bony and bright-eyed. Scarlett begrudgingly agrees to accompany Albert to the next settlement, but the appearance of bowler-hatted trackers sets off a reluctant partnership between the cued-white protagonists that sees them pursued over land and sea across a postapocalyptic, flooded Britain that's menaced by plague, enormous water monsters, ghastly cannibals called the Tainted, and Faith Houses "on the watch for any kind of deviation, be it physical or moral." Some elements feel less sensitively rendered than others, but Stroud (the Lockwood & Co. series) expertly builds flawed characters, cahoots close and tender, and a fully realized setting in this rollicking series opener, employing arch phrasing, witty rapport, and quick pacing alongside the brutally rendered truths of a world intent on controlling outlaws of every type. Ages 10–up.
