Outlaw Girls by Emily Gale and Nova Weetman

Title: Outlaw Girls

Author: Emily Gale and Nova Weetman

Genre: Historical Fiction

Publisher: Text Publishing

Published: 27^th February 2024

Format: Paperback

Pages: 320

Price: $16.99

Synopsis: Kate and Ruby live in the High Country in Victoria. They’re both daring, quick-thinking and prepared to break the rules, and they’re both brilliant horse riders—they’d probably be great friends. But they live in different times, more than 140 years apart.

While galloping through the mountains, Kate rides headlong into a thrilling experience that transports her from 1878 to the future, where she meets Ruby. Kate and Ruby return to 1878, where Kate is secretly taking supplies to her brother Ned and the rest of the Kelly Gang, who are in hiding from the police. Together the girls work to confuse the police and keep the gang from being found and arrested. But the looming disaster makes things less clear-cut for Ruby.

They’re about the have the ride of their lives!

Outlaw Girls is an exciting, fast-paced time-slip novel, narrated by both Ruby and Kate, about family, friendship, loyalty and betrayal, the complexity of right and wrong, and working out what matters most.

~*~

In 2022, Ruby spends her time shoplifting and stealing things with her friends – kids that her mother sees as a bad influence, and when she finally gets caught by the police, her mother packs her off to her uncle’s farm in country Victoria, where Ruby heads off riding wherever she can.

In 1878, Kate Kelly is helping her infamous brother’s gang – 144 years away from a girl who looks like her, and also loves riding horses, is quite good at it, and like Kate, Ruby is prepared to break the rules. One day, Kate rides through a time portal into 2022 and meets Ruby. She convinces Ruby to head back to 1878 with her to help take supplies to Ned, Dan, and their gang. Yet Ruby knows what happens with the Kelly Gang and how things turn out for Ned. As the narrative goes between Ruby and Kate’s perspectives, as well as the past and present, or for Ruby and Kate, the past and future, things are not so clear-cut. Disaster looms ahead – a disaster that Ruby knows about but cannot share and events that she cannot change, despite Kate begging her to. As the girls go back and forth through time, they become friends and learn from each other – different lessons about family, life, survival and appreciating what you have. Even if it takes time and space to make you understand this.

Outlaw Girls is part of Emily and Nova’s timeslip series which began with Elsewhere Girls. Each book takes two similar girls – usually in looks, interests, or something else that connects them – and has them meet or switch places to experience the life of the other. One girl is from the present and the other girl is from over 100 years apart. The key to the timeslip and events surrounding it is that the thing that connects the girls comes to the fore – and often, they need to spend time together or experience the other girl’s life and understand history, at least for the contemporary girl. In the new addition, Ruby’s derailing adolescence in a world where she thinks everyone is against her sees her thrust into the days of bushrangers, where people were against people for being Irish, for being poor – and where the police weren’t as nice as they are to Ruby. As the story unfolds through Ruby and Kate’s eyes, we see how they understand both times – the things they have, the clothes they wear and the ways that they live are starkly contrasted, highlighting the different lives they live and what being caught in 2022 has meant for Ruby – being taken home, not getting in trouble with the police, compared to how the police judge and treat Kate’s family. In this same vein, Ruby also ruminates on how she is treated differently by the police to her friend Emmie, who is Indigenous and what might have happened to her.

Outlaw Girls is Kate Kelly’s story as a teen – what she did to help her brothers who became more famous than she did, and her story has not been widely known until recently. Until I read Kate Kelly: The True Story of Ned Kelly’s Little Sister and then this book, Kate had been a figure that I didn’t really know about – someone who was not in the history books. Whatever she did, she was still part of history and part of Ned Kelly’s infamous story, and these two books have shone a light on her – whatever people may think of her. Emily and Nova’s book shows her as a child – someone who would have done anything for her family, and who perhaps was caught between doing the right thing by law and the right thing by her family. At least the Kate in this book felt as though there were times she was conflicted about what she had to do but knew she had to be loyal to her family. The thing that stood out to me the most about this book was that the women and girls were at the forefront, having their voices heard. It shows that these women like Kate also had stories, also had voices and were also people who had autonomy – and should have had more than the men in their lives afforded them. That is what makes historical fiction like this so powerful – allowing people who have previously been silenced to have a voice, and that’s what draws me to them.

Each chapter is in first person, and alternately narrated by Kate and Ruby, so we get to see the events, time travel and 1878 and 2022 through their eyes as they navigate life and an uncertain time in history and the distinct differences in how people of Kate’s class were treated – perhaps highlighting and speaking to how Emmie may have been treated back in 2022 when Ruby was at her uncle’s farm.  Kate and Ruby teach each other things – what is important and what they should be focusing on, though whilst Ruby can change her future, there’s little to no chance she can change things for Kate – changing the past is never a good idea in time travel books. Emily and Nova also seem to be asking whether Kate was forced into her circumstances or not – something we may never know, but through Ruby’s eyes, we see how peer pressure has affected her in 2022 – so it does raise the question as to whether Kate was doing what she did out of choice, or due to family loyalty and pressures. And perhaps what we see Kate doing in this book explains why she’s not as present in history as other figures – perhaps her experiences made her want to hide. We will never know.

Kate’s story ends at around 1880 – the last time Ruby sees her, and in a way, that is how the story remembers her. Knowing how it all ends is what drives Ruby to want to help, yet it is also what holds her back – and this made sense. She had to let history play out. Emily and Nova’s books bring history to life – the history that is often not in books, or on the official record, and in doing so, they reinvigorate history and fill in the gaps – whether these gaps are filled with good or bad, or even neutral. It is about knowing what has come before so we can understand how Australian history has been shaped in all its forms, and how each story makes up the rich tapestry of Australia, and how the country has evolved. Outlaw Girls is the story of friendship and family, and the lengths people will go to so they can help those they care about, and with added horses! This was an engaging novel that middle grade and young adult readers will enjoy, as it explores history, friendship, and horses and allows girls to speak and have their voices heard.