The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne
By: Jonathan Stroud
My Rating: FIVE OUT OF FIVE STARS
Best for: 12 and up

Jonathan Stroud strikes again!

Based on my previous experience with Jonathan Stroud, I fully expected to enjoy his newest, The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne. I liked Bartimaeus, and Lockwood & Co holds a spot firmly on my “Best Ever” shelf. I assumed Scarlett and Browne would be at least as good.

I didn’t actually expect it to be better.

This is book one of a soon-to-be-completed trilogy about the adventures of Scarlett McCain and Albert Browne, two miss-matched Young Adults who team up to Robin Hood their way through post-apocalyptic England. These two characters are absolute show stoppers! Scarlett has the skills–she can out shoot any sharpshooter, she can out strategize any strategist, and she can out maneuver any man. She’s even been able to out run her past…for now. Albert has the heart, the compassion, and the motivation to keep up with Scarlett and keep her in check. Oh ya…and he can read minds. And make things explode with his brain power–if he can learn to control it, that is. And if he can keep the bad guys from scooping him up and carrying him back to the lab for their experiments.

They are about the most perfect literary dynamic duo I’ve read, and I’ve read a lot! The laugh-out-loud balances with the stressful, which balances with the creepy, which balances with the happy, which altogether delivers one of the most enjoyable reading experiences I’ve had since Lockwood met Lucy and Harry met Ron and Hermione before that.

I hope you’re getting the hint. This book is FUN!

Not only are the characters brilliant, but this post-cataclysmic England Jonathan Stroud created has me more excited than a ScyFy nerd on Star Trek day. Some distant event wiped out the cities and (most) inhabitants of England. Evolution has sped up, and there are some truly scary creatures living in all the places you don’t want them to be. Oh, and the zombies. Can’t forget the zombies. What happened in the past? What happened to the rest of the world? What else is out there? I MUST KNOW!

All this makes for a super cool dystopian future/wild west mashup with the most amazing characters, and I WANT MORE.

Off to book two I go!

No content concerns, although like Lockwood & Co there are some pretty creepy scenes. I say best for 12 and up.

Happy Reading!