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A review by irenevh
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
slow-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? Yes
3.75
After starting on the outlander TV show, which I quite enjoyed, I decided to also give the original book a go. The problem in this is that the shows is a very straight adaptation so most of the book was near exactly the same as the TV show I watched. But I guess that is my own fault.
The main difference is that with the book I actually felt how dense this story is. Over 700 pages long this book has so many events propped in there I think it could easily have been split into two books. Add to that the fact that often times after reading for about half an hour I was left disappointed by how few pages I had read, and I was left somewhat demotivated by the book and how slow my progress was. This doesn't immediately impact the story, but definitely did impact my reading experience.
The story overall I do like. And I think Outlander does a better job than most time travel stories like these, to explore how weird it is to be in a different time period. How many things we say and know would be unknown or strange to the past. And of course as a woman also the role people expect you to take and the rights you have on any given day.
While reading I also couldn't help but wonder how much shorter this book would be if the author would spend less time focusing on what Claire and Jamie get up to in their bedroom (and so many other places as well), as at some point those scenes just get very repetitive and add very little to the plot.
Despite my liking the premise and the overall story, the amount of pages and the denseness of the book does provide somewhat of a hurdle. So although I am curious to see what happens next, there's a good chance I'll rather watch the TV show than to continue reading these lengthy books.
The main difference is that with the book I actually felt how dense this story is. Over 700 pages long this book has so many events propped in there I think it could easily have been split into two books. Add to that the fact that often times after reading for about half an hour I was left disappointed by how few pages I had read, and I was left somewhat demotivated by the book and how slow my progress was. This doesn't immediately impact the story, but definitely did impact my reading experience.
The story overall I do like. And I think Outlander does a better job than most time travel stories like these, to explore how weird it is to be in a different time period. How many things we say and know would be unknown or strange to the past. And of course as a woman also the role people expect you to take and the rights you have on any given day.
While reading I also couldn't help but wonder how much shorter this book would be if the author would spend less time focusing on what Claire and Jamie get up to in their bedroom (and so many other places as well), as at some point those scenes just get very repetitive and add very little to the plot.
Despite my liking the premise and the overall story, the amount of pages and the denseness of the book does provide somewhat of a hurdle. So although I am curious to see what happens next, there's a good chance I'll rather watch the TV show than to continue reading these lengthy books.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Rape, and Sexual assault