Go Tell the Bees that I am Gone
Ratings38
Average rating4.2
WHAT?!? It's done!!! I thought it was the end of the series... Now I have to wait for Book 10!! Grrr!!!
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The Outlander series has been going on for a very, very long time. 30 years, in fact. Some would say that its about time the series wrapped up, and honestly, yeah, I think I agree. Now, don't get me wrong, I absolutely adore the characters and the story with all my heart, but sheesh. How much more could possibly happen to this family?
Not a lot happens for the majority of Go Tell the Bees that I am Gone, which I was fine with for a good while. I love the characters enough that I happily read about Claire tending to her bees, or Jamie doing Jamie-things, but after awhile it was a slog. There was no real reason this book had to be over 900 pages long. Every character has their own little plot line in this book, which was nice, but once that plot line resolved, said character basically disappears.
Roger and Brianna are in the book for the first....half? And then they fade into the background. Same thing happens to Ian and Rachel. It's weird to have these characters who are SO IMPORTANT in the other books basically get shoved to the side to do almost nothing. Hell, Brianna, Roger and Ian all are POV characters in other books, and while they do appear as POV briefly in GTTBTIAG, it's just that — briefly. Why make them so important in prior books only to basically ignore them now?
Wasn't there supposed to be some big prophecy thing with Brianna's kids? When's that coming back?
I did enjoy seeing Claire come into her powers. I read the scene with the baby twins twice over because it was so beautifully written, and so heart-wrenchingly tragic. As a new mom, any scene involving a baby was extremely hard for me to read. Any reference to Faith almost physically hurt. I cried more than once reading GTTBTIAG. Diana Gabaldon is an expert at pulling out emotions.
BRIEF SPOILERS AHEAD REGARDING JAMIE.
When Jamie's "death" scene happens, at no point was I actually worried he was going to die. I get the feeling if either Claire or Jamie do kick the bucket in this series, it will be at the very end of the next book. Because of that, this "death" wasn't particularly suspenseful. I figured that no matter what happened to Jamie, Claire would bring him back. I was right.
I think the next book is supposed to be the last, and for that I am grateful. It's time to wrap up the Outlander series.
Seven years after [b:Written in My Own Heart's Blood 11710373 Written in My Own Heart's Blood (Outlander, #8) Diana Gabaldon https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1365173799l/11710373.SX50.jpg 16657990], I no longer have the patience or energy for a 900+ page saga. But I couldn't NOT read it. Although it had its moments, overall I was underwhelmed. I liked spending time with most of the characters, but the book needed more plot (the action doesn't really kick in until well past the halfway point), and fewer scenes of people rehashing and processing events from the first eight books. Plus there was one incident involving what I would consider a traumatic event for a child that was inexplicably glossed over (Ian travels to New York to find his Indian former wife, whose husband has died. She hands over her oldest child, who is obviously Ian's, but there is no mention of how the boy feels about being separated from his mother and everyone he knows. I guess being adopted into the Jamie Fraser family cures any and all emotional distress) I skimmed the last 200 pages because I was sick of it all by that point.
Okay this one was a roller coaster! And it only took me half the time to read compared to previous books. The healthy pacing helped me enjoy spending more time with some secondary characters that are organically coming to the forefront. There were a lot of harrowing twists and turns with the Revolution on everyone's doorstep. I teared up a few times and was a little breathless too. Great installment to the Outlander series.