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A review by margueritestjust
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I read this as part of a book club read. Some parts of it I loved, others not so much.
The characters: Well, we have to start off with Jaime. My mom has read the books and watched the show, and so have my friends who did the book club with me (well, at least watched the show) and I've heard quite a bit about him from them, and he was even in his way a little unofficial mascot to me - and my mom and I had referred to him jokingly as "the king of men" (as I understand he's called in the writer's room on the show?) And may I say I was NOT disappointed. Incredibly fierce, protective, and loving, he's pretty much everything anyone could ask for in a fictional boyfriend. The funniest part of it all was realizing that this man is younger than me 😭.
Claire. What to say about Claire. Okay, I'll be honest, she kind of annoyed me. She's pretty much useless as a protagonist because she never seems able to solve problems on her own, and in fact, expects, other people to solve them for her. I could maybe have forgiven this earlier in the book if she hadn't also continued to do so in the last sections of the book. Her relationship with Jamie feels unequal because she's always complaining about having to comfort him when he literally will comfort her even when he's doing worse himself. I don't know, it was just so frustrating to me. There's this nigh unto perfect man (who I will acknowledge is definitely not fully perfect) who cares so much for her in so many ways and she just never seems willing or able to reciprocate that care.
Jack is...well, okay, I have a lot to say about his character. The whole thing about Frank that bothers me, and it goes hand-in-hand with a bit of other writing in other various points of the book, but it's really not a good look that the only gay characters in the book are either (a) a rapist, and (b) a pedophile. I think that the book's messages on sexual assault are important, and the juxtaposition between consensual and indeed loving sex versus non-consensual and damaging sex helps to illustrate that topic well, but it rubbed me the wrong way to have, again, literally the only gay characters in the book be a rapist (and also possibly an incestuous rapist in the case of Jack, as I think it was mentioned that he had lust/feelings for his brother ) and a pedophile (unfortunately I forget his name, he's a minor character). Especially when the book literally won't shut up about all the sex the heterosexual main couple has, literally all the time. Like seriously, so many sex scenes.
Other characters: Ian and Jenny are major couple goals and I love them so much. Dougal was a fun character, though hislust for Claire really comes out of nowhere to me. It's like the author was trying to figure out how to make things hard for her character and just threw Dougal randomly at Claire because then she could be like....#feminist or something I also felt quite bad for Frank, who I really can't say enough deserves better, especially because Gabaldon would literally not stop bringing up how much Jack looked or acted like him pretty much every time Jack and Claire crossed paths, thereby associating the two of them together in the minds of the reader.
The plot: Okay, I'll be honest, the first maybe quarter or so of this book drags quite a bit. It's not that it's uninteresting necessarily, but the pace picks up quickly after that, with a lot more plot threads that are introduced and developed. One of the things that annoyed me was that Claire always said she was trying to get back to her normal life, but it's like girl just enjoy Scotland!! You're there, with a husband that you do actually like as compared to the one who quite frankly deserves better than you!! Once she decided to stay in Scotland is when I really felt like the book had a clarity of purpose. We didn't have to have Claire telling us about how much she wanted to get back to Frank (who she didn't seem to like much in the first place, rip Frank, you deserve better). Another thing that annoyed me was how they somehow managed to keep running into Jack, as if he and his command were the only Redcoats in the entirety of Scotland - it felt practically cartoonish at times. But as the plot threads started to pick up, so did my interest. The final section after all of the stuff goes down at the prison (which is definitely very intense, so definitely check out content warnings especially if rape and graphic violence), there's strong sections of hurt/comfort (forgive the fanfic term from 2011) and that in particular I ate up. It was good enough to convince me to go on with the series.
One other thing is that I didn't really like how they was practically no time travel back and forth or whatever - but I've been promised that it happens more as time goes on (and as the book goes on).
The actual writing itself is not much to write home about - but it's a debut novel, which I always try to keep in mind with any author that I read.
So, definitely a bit of a mixed bag. Hopefully with time she improves, and I do think I've heard that there are eventually gay characters who are not literally the epitome of evil, so that's nice. I liked the world of Scotland in the 17--whatever's and I really liked Jamie.
The characters: Well, we have to start off with Jaime. My mom has read the books and watched the show, and so have my friends who did the book club with me (well, at least watched the show) and I've heard quite a bit about him from them, and he was even in his way a little unofficial mascot to me - and my mom and I had referred to him jokingly as "the king of men" (as I understand he's called in the writer's room on the show?) And may I say I was NOT disappointed. Incredibly fierce, protective, and loving, he's pretty much everything anyone could ask for in a fictional boyfriend. The funniest part of it all was realizing that this man is younger than me 😭.
Claire. What to say about Claire. Okay, I'll be honest, she kind of annoyed me. She's pretty much useless as a protagonist because she never seems able to solve problems on her own, and in fact, expects, other people to solve them for her. I could maybe have forgiven this earlier in the book if she hadn't also continued to do so in the last sections of the book. Her relationship with Jamie feels unequal because she's always complaining about having to comfort him when he literally will comfort her even when he's doing worse himself. I don't know, it was just so frustrating to me. There's this nigh unto perfect man (who I will acknowledge is definitely not fully perfect) who cares so much for her in so many ways and she just never seems willing or able to reciprocate that care.
Jack is...well, okay, I have a lot to say about his character. The whole thing about Frank that bothers me, and it goes hand-in-hand with a bit of other writing in other various points of the book, but it's really not a good look that the only gay characters in the book are either (a) a rapist, and (b) a pedophile. I think that the book's messages on sexual assault are important, and the juxtaposition between consensual and indeed loving sex versus non-consensual and damaging sex helps to illustrate that topic well, but it rubbed me the wrong way to have, again, literally the only gay characters in the book be a rapist (
Other characters: Ian and Jenny are major couple goals and I love them so much. Dougal was a fun character, though his
The plot: Okay, I'll be honest, the first maybe quarter or so of this book drags quite a bit. It's not that it's uninteresting necessarily, but the pace picks up quickly after that, with a lot more plot threads that are introduced and developed. One of the things that annoyed me was that Claire always said she was trying to get back to her normal life, but it's like girl just enjoy Scotland!! You're there, with a husband that you do actually like as compared to the one who quite frankly deserves better than you!! Once she decided to stay in Scotland is when I really felt like the book had a clarity of purpose. We didn't have to have Claire telling us about how much she wanted to get back to Frank (who she didn't seem to like much in the first place, rip Frank, you deserve better). Another thing that annoyed me was how they somehow managed to keep running into Jack, as if he and his command were the only Redcoats in the entirety of Scotland - it felt practically cartoonish at times. But as the plot threads started to pick up, so did my interest. The final section after all of the stuff goes down at the prison (which is definitely very intense, so definitely check out content warnings especially if rape and graphic violence), there's strong sections of hurt/comfort (forgive the fanfic term from 2011) and that in particular I ate up. It was good enough to convince me to go on with the series.
One other thing is that I didn't really like how they was practically no time travel back and forth or whatever - but I've been promised that it happens more as time goes on (and as the book goes on).
The actual writing itself is not much to write home about - but it's a debut novel, which I always try to keep in mind with any author that I read.
So, definitely a bit of a mixed bag. Hopefully with time she improves, and I do think I've heard that there are eventually gay characters who are not literally the epitome of evil, so that's nice. I liked the world of Scotland in the 17--whatever's and I really liked Jamie.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Rape, and Sexual assault
Moderate: Ableism