Reviews tagging 'Infertility'

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

79 reviews

addisonpatrice's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

3.75

What an adventure! This one took me nearly a month to finish because of the 1700s setting and the density of the writing, but I'm glad I did so. Jamie and Claire are just dreamy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Infertility, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Torture, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

outofthepinksky's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional tense slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Vomit, Grief, and Classism

Minor: Child death, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Hate crime, Suicidal thoughts, Kidnapping, Abortion, and Death of parent

honestlyyours77's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is a reread as I needed an audiobook to listen to before bed that I didn’t have to 100% focus on.

As always it’s a favorite and I love listening to Davina narrate.

I think at nearly 35 years old it should be reading modern classic status as boy does it stand the test of time!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Bullying, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Infertility, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

deutschemausi's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Spoilers for sure!

This book is excellently written but damn it’s so long 😂

I was a tad bit bored at first but I’d say about a quarter of the way through I was all ears. It does get a bit repetitive every once in awhile but that reqlly isn’t a biggie. 

My biggest issue was the god damn treatment of women.  I know that’s how it was back Then but it’s still incredibly difficult to read. 

I really liked Jaime at first I was so hoping he would be that one guy that was a decent human being and I know it’s an unpopular opinion but he’s a piece of shit. Sorry he really is,

there’s things he does that he says he’s obligated to do or wants to have sex with her where he does not care about her decision, regardless if she ends up enjoying herself or forgiving him does not MAKE THIS OK. gah.  

Also beating Claire so bad that she herself says within an inch of her life just because she disobeys him (which almost led to her own brutal rape yet again so I’m sure she learned her lesson either way)?! And then forgives him the next day??? What is that?! No matter what time point this is, Claire herself is from a future where this isn’t ok and although in her time point violence against women is still a little more prominent then it is today she still knows it’s not acceptable behavior. So why is she forgiving him the day after? 

I do not believe all the defenses of oh it was “spanking”. Spanking and beating someone so bad they can’t do anything more then lay down for several days are two very different things. 

It says and I quote “Gentle he would be, denied he would not.” 

That’s rape. And it maybe wouldn’t bother me as much if 

a. This kinda shit didn’t happen all the damn time in the past and still happens today  

b. This book and show is so god damned popular and Jaime is seen as an amazing partner and husband and person! 

He’s not and he’s scum and I hate that he’s defended. I will not do it. 

And the absolute normalization of molestation and rape is appalling for both men and women.

Given that this book is a representation of the past I can live with that. I think my biggest issue here is that people in today’s world defend him. That’s where my true issue lies.

And I’m sorry he was raped too but just because a rapist is raped doesn’t forgive the rapes they’ve done themselves.

I just don’t get. 

Now saying all that and obviously I didn’t enjoy those parts of the book but it is amazingly written which is why I gave it a higher rating. This writing is impeccable and I don’t think I’ve ever read a book that I can dislike and enjoy at the same time. Gabaldon is a true storyteller and an amazing writer. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Infertility, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

my_name_is_jess's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad

4.0

This book was a lot. Sometimes I had to put it down and walk away for a few hours. The story and the characters will be something I'll think about for a long time probably. 

Audiobook narration: 5/5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Infertility, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, and Medical trauma

taylor_perry's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual content, and Torture

Moderate: Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Blood, Medical content, and Alcohol

Minor: Infertility, Infidelity, Suicide, Vomit, and Pregnancy

sup3r_xn0va_maya's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

💬: “Don’t be afraid,” he whispered into my hair. “There’s the two of us now.” I felt warm, soothed, and safe for the first time in many days."

Gabaldon, Diana. Outlander: A Novel (Outlander, Book 1) (p. 212). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

📖Genres: romance, romantasy, adult, adventure, historical romance, historical, fantasy

📚Page Count: 850

🎧Audiobook Length: 32h 38min

👩🏾‍🏫My Rating: ⭐️⭐️ - 2/5
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TW -

ableism, animal death, blood, body horror, cursing, death, death of parent, emotional abuse, gore, grief, injury/injury detail, misogyny, murder, physical abuse, pregnancy, rape, sexism, sexual assault, sexual harassment, sexual content, sexual violence, torture, violence, vomit, war

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon is an 800+ page historical romance that has action, spice, time travel, and adventure. Claire is a nurse from 1945 and she's thrusted back in time a few hundred years, where she has to survive until she figures out how to get home. It's here that she meets Jamie, a Scott who wants to show her a love so true. At least she won't have to try and survive alone, with him by her side. I didn't love this story, I barely liked it. Between the weird and slow pacing and the threat of rape being constantly thrown around, by the time the book was over I was exhausted and annoyed from the read.

I didn't like the book's pacing. The book started off really slow, I'd say it took about 2 to 3 hours of listening to the audiobook for the story to actually start moving forward. Once the story started to move, things got interesting and I became invested. Then, I'd say 200 pages into the action, things slowed down to a crawl and I stopped caring about the story. After about 150 pages of the slow crawl, things picked up again. Do you see where I'm going with this? This strange pacing continued throughout the entire novel.

(Trigger Warning  - rape, sexual assault)
The threat of rape was constant from the moment the main character went back in time. I understand that your female main character went back in time, that doesn't mean you have to have every other man she encounters try to physically & sexually attack her. I honestly should have counted the amount of times Claire was threated with physical or sexual harm by a man, there are a few times where she actually IS attacked. Claire apparently isn't the only one who's in danger of being sexually assaulted.

At the tail end of the book Jamie gets arrested and he incidentally ran into Randall, well Randall is an evil man so he wanted to take revenge on Jamie and he does that by mutilating, torturing, and raping Jamie for an uncertain amount of days.

(Trigger Warning  - rape, sexual assault, drugging)
Unfortunately, it gets worse. Now,

by the time Jamie is rescued from Randall at the end of the book, he has PTSD, he's so sick that he might die, and he doesn't want to look at his wife because he feels ashamed and disgusted with himself because of the sexual assault. How do I know this? Because he tells Claire and there's a dialogue about the assault and Jamie tells Claire exactly what was said and done to him. For some odd reason the author decided to make Claire drug Jamie with opium, so he hallucinates, and then she pretends to be his assaulter (Randall) and she says the things he said and then she does the things he physically did to elicit a response out of Jamie. Well, it does get a reaction, Jamie attacks Claire and they go tumbling to the ground (while Claire is getting beat on by Jamie). Somehow, while they're tumbling on the group Claire is able to insert Jamie into her, and now they're having intercourse. Claire "cured him" and helped him claim his "manhood".

OMG. How ridiculous, gross, and unnecessary.

(Trigger Warning - physical abuse, domestic abuse)
The spice fluctuated. At first I was into it but then there was this strange scene where

Jamie physically held down and beat Claire because he wanted to prove to his band of merry men that he was punishing her for her actions. I just didn't understand this scene, it made me sick to my stomach and it made me like Jamie a lot less than I previously did. After that, I wasn't interested in any spice between Jamie and Claire.

I'm giving it one and a half chilies 🌶️.5 out of five chilies

This book also ends in the

pregnancy trope

, and if you know me then you know I hate that trope very much. So, the ending was just disappointing for many reason. I really tried to trust recommendations and then trust the process with this one and that failed me. There were only a few times during the 32 hour audiobook that I enjoyed the reading experience. I just didn't like this book and I won't be continuing with the series.
⭐️⭐️ - 2/5

I listened to this for free on the library app, hoopladigital.com

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Infertility, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

bookish_bry's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I liked this book at the start and was ready for some intrigue and internal conflict as our main character dealt with being a complete fish out of water, but we honestly didn't see much of that and what we did fell flat. To be fair to it, I think it may have been advertised to me as something it wasn't meant to be. There were some parts I liked, but the length and the parts that I didn't like made it a hard read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Infertility, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

The love interest does at one point physically beat the main character mostly off screen. This is forgiven and rationalized away.

im_jennaaa's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Infertility, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

sflatla's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Death, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Blood, Vomit, Grief, and War