Shortlisted for the Books for Older Readers category, Children's Book Awards 2022 | Shortlisted for the UKLA Book Award 2022 ages 11-14 | April 2021 Book of the Month
Bravo to Jonathan Stroud! With its cast of charismatic characters and extraordinary world-building (think broken Britain with Wild West vibes), The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne is an audacious firecracker. And, in even better news for fans of funny, inventive adventure fiction, this is but the beginning of what’s set to be an extraordinary series.
“Britain was a land of ruin…the country was maimed and broken - but full of strange fecundity and strength”. It’s also brimming with the likes of bears, wolves, flesh-eating spear-birds and gruesome cannibal creatures, all of which whip-smart, cuss-uttering Scarlett takes into her swaggering stride. She makes an unforgettable impression from the off: “A slight slim figure in a battered brown coat, weighed down with…all the paraphernalia of a girl who walked the Wilds.” After killing four grown men who’d tried to rob her, Scarlett struts into a bank and proceeds to hold it up (turns out she needs money to repay a debt).
On fleeing the scene, Scarlett finds a crashed bus, all its passengers dead but for a lone boy hiding in the toilet. Enter Albert Browne, “awkward, skinny and wide-mouthed, like a frightened skeleton”, and seemingly a piece of powdery chalk to Scarlett’s pungent cheese. Her scathing sarcasm (and Albert’s obliviousness to it) provides many a laugh: “You just holler if I get in your way,” she seethes as he admires a seed pod while she sets about making a fire, cooking a bird and establishing a camp for them, and all while they’re being pursued. But, for all his unworldliness, Albert turns out to have hidden talents. Sensing he might be of use to her after all, Scarlett agrees to help him accomplish his own mission. Albert wants to reach the Free Isles, remnants of London that “don’t have any restrictions on who you are or what you can do. They welcome people who are...different”, unlike the dictatorial High Council of the Faith Houses, which is “desperate to keep the old ways going”, and “on the watch for any kind of deviation.” Trouble is, as their respective pursuers close in, time and space is running out for our unforgettable outlaws.
What a story, what characters, and what a wait it will be until the second instalment. I defy any reader not to fall for Scarlett and Albert, and to become gasp-out-loud, laugh-out-loud invested in their quest.
A fast-paced fantasy adventure set in a broken, future England, following the further exploits of the outlaws Scarlett and Browne.
Scarlett McCain and Albert Browne have outwitted their pursuers and escaped into the wilderness once more, and it's not long before they become famous for their audacious heists across the Seven Kingdoms. Yet neither is fully able to escape the shackles of the past - as they discover when a dangerous job turns sour.
Soon old enemies and sinister new threats are pressing in on every side, and Scarlett and Browne must pull off an impossible mission and strike out against The Faith Houses and the Brothers of the Hand if they are to save the people they hold most dear.
You won't be able to put this down. A classic in the making. - Eoin Colfer
Perfectly paced, beautifully written and bursting with black humour and bold ideas. - Philip Reeve
Imaginative, original, taut and with multi-layered protagonists... A wild ride. - Jo Cotterill
Scarlett and Browne is phenomenal, unputdownable storytelling of the highest order. - Piers Torday
Humorous, nail-biting and rich in unexpected turns of phrase, this is beautifully constructed storytelling of the first order. - Sunday Times
Funny and gripping, it will be irresistible to anyone, child or adult, who loves action movies and steampunk. -- Amanda Craig - New Statesman
Another brilliant book from Jonathan Stroud! [...] The Notorious Scarlett & Browne is has everything I want from a teen/YA fantasy adventure: action-packed, fast-paced, with quippy dialogue, intriguing mysteries and plenty of creepy moments - the sort of book that you can't help but fly through! - NetGalley
Pleasingly violent, sprinkled with some brilliant nuggets of very dry humour and perfect for its target audience of readers 12 and over, this is a book which will thrill them when it is released on July 7th, making this an ideal read for the summer break. - NetGalley
Author
About Jonathan Stroud
Jonathan Stroud wrote his first novel – Buried Fire – while working as an editor at Walker Books.
He is the author of two internationally bestselling series: the award-winning Bartimaeus sequence, which has been published in 36 languages worldwide, and the critically acclaimed Lockwood & Co, which is currently being adapted by Netflix.
His other novels include The Leap, The Last Siege, Heroes of the Valley and the critically acclaimed quest novel, The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne.
Jonathan lives in Hertfordshire with his wife and three children.
Chosen by our Guest Editor April 2021, Geraldine McCaughrean; The heroes of The Outlaws Scarlett & Browne by Jonathan Stroud don’t have an easy time of it. Dangers and horrors pelt them like hail. There’s barely a let-up in the relentless terrors of a post-apocalytic England. Monstrous creatures, and even more monstrous humans, dog every move of gun-toting Scarlett and the weird boy she has to keep rescuing. He’s an annoying pest who’s slowing her down. Or is he? The more she – and we – learn of Albert, the more remarkable he proves to be...
He’s a splendid creation. Special powers can often take the humanity out of character: well, they’re impervious to danger, aren’t they? But Albert is both vulnerable and afraid. It’s a tale of opposites, jostling along until they are both altered by their journey.
It’s a brilliant representation of English towns, countryside and people all radically altered by the ferocious threats to their safety that have plagued them for years.
Scary, violent and gruesome in parts, this is a story which doesn’t relent for a moment, so you’ll need to hang on tight – and also hope that our real-life Future looks nothing like this one when it arrives.
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A review from our LoveReading4Schools expert, Tricia Adams;
First volume in a humourous, adventurous series from the powerhouse that is Jonathan Stroud.
Britain has become a fragmented kingdom – in fact made up of seven kingdoms – where outlaws like Scarlett McCain survive by robbing banks and living by her wits! Life is hard for Scarlett as wakes beside a dead man who had tried to rob her the night before as she looks down on the fortified town of Cheltenham. As she waits for the town to open its gates to allow her in a wolf watches her – than sets off to investigate the dead outlaws…
Life would probably have continued like this for Scarlett except that she rather unexpectedly came upon Albert Browne in a wrecked bus – appearing somewhat traumatised and very disorientated. Albert has a rather strange and mysterious background – and it takes some considerable time for the two to become a partnership – of two misfits in a broken society.
This novel contains a fascinating world built by Stroud, where society – such as it is – is expected to conform, but our outlaws have other, bolder ideas. The multi-layered adventure, laced with humour, is led by our pair of anti-heroes on an odyssey - you won’t be able to put the book down. There is something for everyone here in this amalgamation of monsters, gunfights, and strange governmental institutions.
A roller-coaster of an adventure novel – I can’t wait for volume two!
