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The year is 1945. Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is just back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon when she walks through a standing stone in one of the ancient circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach—an “outlander”—in a Scotland torn by war and raiding border clans in the year of Our Lord...1743.
Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire is catapulted into the intrigues of lairds and spies that may threaten her life, and shatter her heart. For here James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, shows her a love so absolute that Claire becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire—and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.
~ Trigger Warning: sexual assault, rape, gang rape, domestic abuse, BDSM, abuse, blood, public beatings and punishment, trial, suicide~
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, an 8-part series, though she intends it to be 10, is a historical romance fictional novel set in Scotland. Despite its escalated reception because of the television adaption, I hadn’t really heard all that much about the book, and luckily didn’t know the plot. It was only when I found out a friend of mine intended to buddy read it that I thought ‘why not?’ This book is extremely difficult to pin down and I’ve found it difficult to form a solid opinion of the book. While at times I am drawn to it being creative and magical, it is also a novel that is not easy to follow, with seemingly endless boring and useless chapters.
Reiterating what others have been saying regarding the overt sex scenes, the treatment of women as well as the scatty nature of Claire’s character, the book feels like it needed another year of editing, or at least some more planning before it was published. To successfully publish a book of 800 pages involving time travel and historical events involves in-depth research and planning, and often, this book seems to lack both of those things. Gabaldon often forgets characters she mentioned 10 chapters ago and then mentions them briefly - keeping this cycle up for the rest of the book. This dynamic is irritating in the case of Claire who has managed to time travel 200 years, leaving her husband behind. How can someone only remember their husband in a passing thought every 10 chapters? I can only point to bad planning or bad character development, likely both in this case.
Other negative qualities include the sex and rape culture that permeates the book. Not only can this make the reader uncomfortable, but the reaction to it is convoluted. Claire seems to barely react to the fact she has time travelled and left her life and husband behind, she seems to just let the people around her sexually assault her, but then when someone rolls their eyes at her she will rage at them and not speak to them for days. Claire’s character from start to finish is far from well-defined and it is clear the author spent more time focusing on writing raunchy, Scottish sex scenes as opposed to creating a well-thought out storyline.
Additionally, (either because the book is 800 pages long or because of the lack of planning) there was this repeated trope throughout of Claire finding herself in trouble, usually naked and about to get raped, and Jaime seems to swoop in and save her. The first or second time this is acceptable, but after that, the trope became boring, predictable and annoying. After this, she’ll still manage to find a reason to berate Jamie instead of the people who just nearly raped her.
Gabaldon’s writing style is another point of discussion. Whilst her writing is usually good and consistent, there are moments of description that seem comical and overly confusing. Describing someone’s speech as ‘yodelling’ and someone’s breasts as “floating like glass fisher-floats” brings the reader out of their immersion to laugh at how terrible a comparison that was. Not only are her descriptions off-putting, but her writing can often make the reader lose focus, as her passages don’t flow. Often, I found myself having to re-read paragraphs just so I could re-orient myself in the story and navigate where the characters were. After having whole chapters of this, that overall added nothing to the plot, it begs the question of why they were there in the first place and what the author was trying to achieve in these useless paragraphs.
Despite these drawbacks, the book’s overarching plot is extremely unique and had so much more potential if the aspects mentioned above were done slightly better. In terms of little details that link the story together surrounding the time-travel aspect, they are all done well and leave the reader constantly questioning what will happen next and creating theories. This interest in the storyline is what draws the reader in for the opening chapters, teasing you to carry on finding out Claire’s fate.
Overall, the lack of clear plot as well as the often-confusing writing did make reading this a challenge. Luckily though, mainly because of how interesting the plot was and the cliff-hanger that it left on, I’ll most likely be reading the next book. If you’re a lover of fantasy novels or historical romance fiction, this book is definitely one I’d recommend to you. Despite the few negatives it has, that I wouldn’t want to diminish, I see why many people adore this series.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐/5
Purchase the books:
Amazon US here.
Amazon UK here.