Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance, Sci-Fi
In a Nutshell: Lots of violence and scenes of torture. Very small amount of Sci-Fi (time travel concept), mostly Romance in an otherwise historical fiction novel.
Would suit fans of: I don't even know! Sweeping sagas like The Thorn Birds
Outlander by Diana GabaldonMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
The Good
Gabaldon's writing style is very episodic making the book a fast read despite the fact that it is HUGE (12 hours reading time according to my kindle and the audio is about 33 hours). It also makes it easy to see how this would be suited to a TV series. The historical fiction aspect was also interesting, throwing us into 1743 Scotland. The start of the book really reminded me of Deborah Harkness, although (as you're about to find out) I think Harkness is a far better author.
The Bad
I didn't care for the relationship AT ALL between Claire and Jamie from about 43% and "that" scene. It only got worse from there in terms of the power dynamic and I just can't abide by relationships where the male completely dominates. There are just far too many examples in literature of heroines that are meant to be strong and smart just letting themselves being trampled upon by their partner.
I also really struggled with how Claire could just forget her husband in the current day within about 2 weeks (view spoiler)
The Ugly
And boy is it ugly. The unnecessary consistent violence, particularly the sexual violence just didn't work for me. By the end of the book I was comparing Claire and Jamie in my mind to those crazy sadist murderous couples you see on true crime shows every so often.
So although I'm glad I managed to get to the end, now I can move on and never read a Gabaldon book again.
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