A review by breegoux
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

Outlander is an interesting read and I'm not quite sure how to classify it. Historical romance isn't quite right as it spends a good deal of its time setting up a deeper political plotline, but historical fiction doesn't fit either because (at least to me) it ventures a little too far into the drama aspects of someone is always captured/in trouble/under threat to quite fit there. So probably closer to dramatic historical romance? And there is something to be said for "well what does the genre really matter?" which is fair, but I found myself constantly bouncing around in the narrative confused as to what exactly the book was trying to do or where we were going - it just wasn't cohesive to me. Some plotlines had me hooked and unable to put the book down and others had me thinking that Gabaldon had really lost the plot somewhere. All that being said, it's easy to see why Outlander is such a hit and a bestseller - it's hard to put down. It keeps you on the edge of each page wondering what's going to happen next, the characters are loveable if not rough around the edges, and the landscape of 1744 Scotland is magical. Where it failed for me is the repetitive "oh no they're captured again" narrative and over the top drama that seeped into a lot of the subplots
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