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A review by brandidean
Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone by Diana Gabaldon
3.0
I *did* enjoy this. Despite all odds, I guess. I suppose I just like the characters having spent so much time with them by this point. But.
It is 900 freakin’ pages long. That’s not even rounding up. And nothing happens. All the other books in the series are … the one where they go to Paris or the one where they got to Jamaica or the one where the get to America. The story does not move ahead at all in this one. I don’t know how they even wrote a plot summary for the back of the book, because there is no plot, there is no climax, there is no ending.
Also, this is the first one that I read as it was written, rather than one after another after another. And … I don’t know how many minor characters we have met at this point but I for sure know that I cannot be expected to remember them all. The previous books are too long to reread to refresh my memory, so I just had hope that if they were important the backstory would eventually become clear. It mostly did not, whether or not it was important. (It mostly was not.)
There were also weird details and “plot” points that never went anywhere. What in the world was the point of the dead man who looked a little like the man who raped Claire (one or two books ago? I can’t remember.)? And why in the world did they need to speculate on whether he was Jewish?? And Ulysses. What? He shows up, threatens them … just because he’s dastardly I guess? … and then it’s resolved off screen.
And I can’t stress this enough: I do not care about John Gray.
(ETA: I do think the author’s notes at the end of the book make it clear that she is just throwing in things to prove she’s done some research. I just saw another review that described the book as self indulgent, and that seems extremely accurate. There is no other explanation that I can come up with for some of this.)
It is 900 freakin’ pages long. That’s not even rounding up. And nothing happens. All the other books in the series are … the one where they go to Paris or the one where they got to Jamaica or the one where the get to America. The story does not move ahead at all in this one. I don’t know how they even wrote a plot summary for the back of the book, because there is no plot, there is no climax, there is no ending.
Also, this is the first one that I read as it was written, rather than one after another after another. And … I don’t know how many minor characters we have met at this point but I for sure know that I cannot be expected to remember them all. The previous books are too long to reread to refresh my memory, so I just had hope that if they were important the backstory would eventually become clear. It mostly did not, whether or not it was important. (It mostly was not.)
There were also weird details and “plot” points that never went anywhere. What in the world was the point of the dead man who looked a little like the man who raped Claire (one or two books ago? I can’t remember.)? And why in the world did they need to speculate on whether he was Jewish?? And Ulysses. What? He shows up, threatens them … just because he’s dastardly I guess? … and then it’s resolved off screen.
And I can’t stress this enough: I do not care about John Gray.
(ETA: I do think the author’s notes at the end of the book make it clear that she is just throwing in things to prove she’s done some research. I just saw another review that described the book as self indulgent, and that seems extremely accurate. There is no other explanation that I can come up with for some of this.)