Outlander
Ratings535
Average rating3.9
I heard such good things about this book that my expectations were high but 200 pages into the book and I was bored to death
I couldn't finish this book it was too gritty for me. The story line was excellent but it's not for the faint of heart. I had to put it down unfortunately. I still think about the story line and I really wish I could have finished it.
I love these books. I have most of them both in print & on audio book. Davina Porter is the best possible narrator for this series. Her accent is on point.
DNF @486 pages.
Way too overhyped, the TV series is where it's at. 90% of the pages could be cut to make the book way more interesting, half of it was useless fillers.
Inconsistent, disturbing ignorance of historical life and attitudes - frankly, I never finished the book.
mmmm conflicted with this one. there were a lot of hits as there were misses.
loved how fleshed out Jamie's character was as well as Claire's wittiness and her intelligence.
HOWEVER.
found it conflicting how Claire accepted time travel so easy??? also, the whole “punishment” thing made me cringe.
overall? four stars, but the whole punishment thing knocked one down for me.
the beating scene is gross and disgusting, and I hope the show handles this better than the book.
good book if you want to forget about the real world.
It was so bad that it made me cry. I stopped reading in the middle, because this book was enough for me. so many unnecessary scenes, so many toxic relationships between characters, so much raре, I just couldn't stand it, no matter how hard I tried to turn a blind eye to these moments. but the last straw for me was Jamie's words,
“you belong to me. You have no voice here. And if I want to, you won't eat or drink for weeks. if I want to, you get up and let me beat you with a belt,”
and that's after he SAW that she had survived the RAPE.
and after commenting on this case as
“you decided to take revenge on me for not saving you, so you went to sleep with my enemy,”
“you know how it killed me when I saw you then.”
MAN YOUR WIFE WAS RAPED WHAT THE FUСК
Strange book. Too hodge-podge. There's some romance, some history - that I like. But the entire plot is inconsistent. And there's a ton of unnecessary vulgarity in it. Towards the end, the story turned almost evangelical / biblical! Can't imagine why it is bestseller. Did not like it, won't be continuing the series, either.
i'm not sensitive to sexual assault in fiction, it doesn't bother me, but there's like a goofy amount of sexual assault in this book. that said it is incredibly fucking good
read ahead if you want a reason to never read this disgusting excuse of a book.
Are you kidding me? i am violently disgusted. I read 46% of this book and liked it until chapter 21 and 22. I can't physically read anymore because it's making me ill. I'm shaking.
I actually loved this book but what happened just really disgusted me.
I will be discussing rape and women violence from here on out, not really spoilers but read on if you need a reason to not read this book.
Our main character is raped. Jamie saves her. Jamie then says its her fault, angry at her for disobeying his orders and there for deserving what she got, he threatens to beat her for being upset about being raped, calls her names for being upset, makes it about him and how her being raped upset HIM and forced her to apologize for being raped, he then wants to punish her by wanting to have sex with her but she says no. I quit reading as soon as it looks like it was going in a disgusting direction so i dont know if he ends up raping her but i don't doubt it.
Theres 9 or 10 books about this couple and people enjoy it? i can't even look at this man without thinking about what he has done.
Again... people love this man????
if you do then i think you need to have a deep hard look at yourself and think about what went wrong.
I don't care if he makes up for it in other books, what he has done is unforgivable and a slap to the face of women everywhere.
i believe the tv series has a better flow to it, but they are very similar content wise.
3.5 ⭐️
Wow, this is very much a product of its time. I'm going to be delving into some spoilers, and want to put a content warning up front for discussion of pedophilia and sexual assault – they will be behind spoiler warnings though! It took me a bit to settle into the writing style, which I found to be elegant if a little dry at first. I'm not sure I would have made it very far if I wasn't listening to the audiobook. The narration was so immersive and really added to the experience. Once I got into the rhythm, I found that I really loved the book!
That wore off about halfway through. I know a certain amount of sexism is to be expected given that Gabaldon wrote this in 1991 and it takes place over 200 years ago. But there was a lot I really could not handle. At one point Claire leaves where Jamie has left her only to be captured by the Big Baddie and is saved just before being raped. Jamie then BEATS HER for disobeying his orders because otherwise the other men will be ~upset~, as if almost being raped wasn't severe enough. I was absolutely livid and considered DNFing, but managed to keep listening and ended up enjoying the story again.Lol, just kidding. I mean, I did manage to get back into the story but unfortunately it went way off the rails again. There are two gay men in this book and one of them is a pedophile. At least he's portrayed as harmless enough... as harmless as a pedophile can be portrayed, I guess. The other gay character is a sociopath who tortures people mercilessly and literally rapes the male love interest. Again, I know this was written in 1991 but seriously? The rape plotline really soured the end of the book for me, and I couldn't wait for it to end.
It sucks because the first half of the book had me expecting a 5-star rating and recommending it to my friends. The second half made it really difficult to decide on a rating and had me rescinding those recommendations. I don't even know if I'm going to be able to continue the series and I really don't know if I want to. I guess I can at least check out the TV series. I hate that I ended up being so disappointed by this after loving it so much. I'm not sure I can recommend this on good conscience without warning about everything mentioned in the spoiler brackets above; some of the content truly made me nauseous.
content warnings: sexual assault, pedophilia, domestic abuse, gore (graphic injuries), animal death
As far as literature goes, the language used to write this book was fairly simple. It was a relatively easy read and rather enjoyable.
600 pages too long.
It was like a Harlequin romance, except epically long. The characters were okay.
It's two stars, because, in the 850 pages, there were some 200 pages of decent plot and characters.
The rest was sex, violence, and rape.
I can't rate this book. I was good with it at first, but when the main character goes back in time, I just can't relate to her. She doesn't emote how I keep expecting her to. It drags me out of the story.
I enjoyed this book about a nurse enjoying a post WWII holiday with her recently discharged husband who falls through some standing stones at the top of a hill in Scotland and winds up in mid-18th century Scotland. I couldn't help but see many echoes of Dorothy Dunnett's Francis Crawford of Lymond, though, and of the two, the Lymond Chronicles are less domestic, more prickly, and more interesting. I'm not convinced I'll read another book in this series.
I've owned these books for years but have always been intimidated by the length of them. So after bingeing the show (twice) over quarantine, I thought what better time to start reading them than now. I'm mad at myself that I waited so long. I am obsessed. James Alexander Malcolm Mackenzie Fraser and his love for his Sassenach has ruined me.
This is skilfully written and full of cliffhangers. But it is also an annoying book, filled with melodrama and endless protracted sex scenes that are all boringly magical and transporting - and there is some sadism that gets described way too fully.
The first chapters about her genealogist-husband Frank were very witty. Very relatable ;-) None of the rest really comes near, in retrospect.
So I was hooked. I could not put it down, (ie stop listening to the audiobook) but I did not like myself better for it. If I hear Sassenach one more time, I will scream.
Really loved this book, but I think it could have been at least 50 pages shorter. A lot of time spent on descriptions and atmosphere that muddled the plot and slowed the action down. Not exactly plodding but by the last fifty pages I was ready for it to be over.
That was a huge commitment for only 3 stars. Phew! (I felt I had to finish it though as it is a friend's favourite book