Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
(Format used for this read: Print–paperback)
SO MANY FRIENDS have been telling me for YEARS to read this book series.
The same friends (and also friends who are not readers) have been telling me just as long to watch the TV series as well.
When I read the description of the books and the series I was like “Oooooo yes….historical fiction, time travel, romance….this DOES seem right up my alley.”
I wanted to stick to my rule about reading the books FIRST before I tuned into the show (even though I broke it COMPLETELY to watch “Poldark”…no regrets there, yall) so I placed all 8 books on my Amazon wish list. (anyone else have a wish list that is JUST a bunch of books? 😆)
My amazing older sister knows bought me the ENTIRE set for Christmas this year–she knows the way to my book nerd heart, yall 😁–but they have just been sitting on my shelf ever since.
Usually when I start a book series, I have a tendency to just devour them one right after the other….and these books are LOOOOONG (800+ pages)….so I knew I had to be ready to COMMITT once I got going. My TBR pile on my bookshelf had SO MANY OTHERS in line ahead of them too.
BUT…the time had finally come for me to dive into this highly anticipated and much hyped up series.
And yall…..I have very conflicting opinions on it.
😬😬😬😬😬😬
Here is what this first book is about:
“What if your future was the past?
1946: Claire Randall goes to the Scottish Highlands with her husband Frank. It’s a second honeymoon, a chance to learn how war has changed them and to re-establish their loving marriage. But one afternoon, Claire walks through a circle of standing stones and vanishes into 1743, where the first person she meets is a British army officer–her husband’s six times great grandfather.
Unfortunately, Black Jack Randall is not the man his descendant is, and while trying to escape him, Claire falls into the hands of a gang of Scottish outlaws, and finds herself a Sassenach–an outlander–in danger from both Jacobites and Redcoats.
Marooned amid danger, passion and violence, her only chance of safety lies in Jamie Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior. What begins in compulsion becomes urgent need, and Claire finds herself torn between two very different men, in two irreconcilable lives.”
**Before I get going on this review, I will say that there WILL be a few minor spoilers. I have some STRONG feelings about some of the events that take place in these pages and there is NO WAY for me to explain my opinions without giving a few details away. I will do my best to not be specific with character names and pivotal moments in the plot, but if you plan to read this book and don’t want ANY chance of spoilers beforehand, you may not want to read any further.**
The first part of the book I was TOTALLY digging this story.
The author is a fantastic and vivid storyteller so I was drawn right into the character development and the descriptive settings.
Plus, the time travel mixed in with the historical fiction piece is SOOOO my kinda vibe.
So many interesting layers of narrative and plot development to unravel.
BUT….
Once the steamy sex scenes began though, I was like “Wait a second…is this taking a turn now to be some type of bodice ripper Harlequin style book?”
Because listen yall….I am ALL FOR some exciting love scenes…but the exaggerated and raunchy ones?
Not my style.
So…there were PLENTY of those type of scenes which were not my fave…but the surrounding storyline was engaging enough for me to just quickly speed read through them.
And reflecting back on the story as a whole, I can see why having most of those scenes are important to the reader’s understanding of the character’s relationship in the future.
What I could not handle though was the scene of domestic violence that happened….and then was TOTALLY glossed over, rationalized and even joked about.
The character who was the victim of the very extreme violent act FORGAVE the abuser with an extreme quickness and then proceeded to just “move on.”
I don’t care that the abuser said it would never happen again (and it didn’t in this book).
I don’t care that the time period this occurred (18th century) beating a spouse was considered acceptable and even NECESSARY at times. 🤢
I get that the author was trying to remain authentic to the era and whatnot…but I do not think that scene added ANYTHING important to the story and it was dreadful and quite infuriating to read.
The author’s descriptive and vivid storytelling skills are used in EVERY piece of the book, even the most unpleasant ones.
I hate violence…ESPECIALLY graphic scenes of violence…there is not one BIT of entertainment value to me related to violence.
I wanted to quit right then if I’m being honest….but a friend told me to keep going ….and I HATE quitting books.
So, I decided to keep reading.
Because admittedly, I WAS still really into the rest of the story….I just HAD to see what was going to happen to the characters.
There is a lot of heart pounding, page turning adventure moments in this book…and TONS of crazy plot twists that make putting the book down quite hard.
The evolving romance also pulls you in repeatedly, even WITH the problematic stuff…I can’t lie about that. (I was frustrated at myself for this LOL)
The bits of history regarding Scotland during that time period was interesting to read about too as I was not familiar with any of it.
So, I was able to find enjoyment in the story again for most of the book.
BUT then….
The last part of the book there is a HORRIFIC rape and sexual torture that occurs to one of the characters (I will leave out names and specific info to prevent major spoilers) and it was AWFUL to read about.
Again, the vivid storytelling skills continued to happen even with this monstrous moment.
I was EXTREMELY nauseated reading about it.
I don’t usually skip parts of a book because I feel like I will miss some detail I will need to know about, but when I come to really difficult things to read, I try to speed read or skim over words as fast as I can just to get past it.
I had the hardest time getting thru this part even with speed reading…it was so many levels of atrocious.
(HUGE trigger warning….if you or someone close to you has experienced sexual violence, this may not be the book you need to read. In my opinion, you should probably stay away from it completely.)
The thing with this book is that the parts I didn’t like, I REALLY did NOT like.
I downright HATED them.
On the other hand, the parts that I DID like, I REALLY liked them.
I downright LOVED them.
You can see why I said earlier that I have conflicted feelings about it.
This is why I’m torn on if to continue the series or not. Half of me wants to, half of me doesn’t.
My friend Jessica reassured me that while there IS trauma and rough references related to this incident in other books, this was the WORST it will get in the series. She also told me that one thing widely noted by many readers is that recovery from traumatic events is handled more thoroughly than other books/TV shows that have similar events.
More than likely, I will probably continue on with the series to see for myself what’s up. (I mean…I do have all 8 books on my shelf 🤦♀️)
But I think I need a little break from it all before I jump back in and give it a second chance.
Because I am not all the way sure about it.
(As for the show….I am unsure if I can watch…I was told that it is also VERY graphic. It was bad enough watching the scene play out in my mind as I read…not sure I could handle it on screen.)