Title Outlander Author Diana Gabaldon Cover Art Barbara Van Buskirk Publisher Delacorte Press - 1991 First Printing Delacorte Press - 1991
	Title Dragonfly in Amber Author Diana Gabaldon Cover Art --- Publisher --- First Printing ---
	Title Voyager Author Diana Gabaldon Cover Art --- Publisher --- First Printing ---
	Title Drums of Autumn Author Diana Gabaldon Cover Art --- Publisher --- First Printing ---
	Title The Fiery Cross Author Diana Gabaldon Cover Art --- Publisher --- First Printing ---
	Title A Breath of Snow Author Diana Gabaldon Cover Art --- Publisher --- First Printing ---
	Title An Echo in the Bones Author Diana Gabaldon Cover Art --- Publisher --- First Printing ---
	Title Written in My Own Heart's Blood Author Diana Gabaldon Cover Art --- Publisher --- First Printing ---
	Title Go Tell the Bees That I am Gone Author Diana Gabaldon Cover Art --- Publisher --- First Printing ---
	Title Seven Stones to Stand or Fall Author Diana Gabaldon Cover Art --- Publisher --- First Printing ---
	Title The Exile: An Outlander Graphic Novel Author Diana Gabaldon Cover Art --- Publisher --- First Printing ---
	Category Romance Warnings Explicity sex, rape, violence Main Characters Claire Beauchamp, Jamie Frasier, Jack Randall Main Elements Time Travel Website dianagabaldon.com

Outlander

I'll start off by saying I usually read the book before watching the show, but that didn't happen here, the books were so big they weren't something one could squeeze in at a moment's notice so I put it off for quite a while. However, now that I finished watching the latest season a few weeks ago, I felt it was time to dive in a see what the books were like. Thus, I knew pretty much everything that was going to happen, the show proved to be reasonably close to the book.

The other thing I had before going in, was that I glanced through some of the really bad book reviews on Goodreads. They were complaining of the frequent rape scenes, and the fact that Claire and Jamie tended to make out at a moment's notice. For what it's worth for the latter, I found it wasn't nearly as bad as many YA novels I've read, and remember it is a romance first and foremost, historical second and fantasy third (at least in my view). It would be kind of a disappointing romance if the married protagonists weren't going at it when every opportunity presents itself, even if there was a bunch of dudes sleeping not 10 feet away. And for what it's worth, it wasn't erotica, they did the thing, but it wasn't in graphic blatant details, leaving the reader to fill them in if they wanted.

But yes, there were a LOT of rape attempts on Claire. Now she stood out as she dressed and acted funny, but was it really that bad back then? Did every woman have to fend off a handful of rape attempts in as many months? I mean yes, one needs to remember the time period this novel takes place in and the "place" of women in that society. So there are moments that are hard to take. Like when Jamie beats his misbehaving wife. At first I was shocked, and couldn't understand why Claire would forgive him. But then, beating was a fact of life back then, it was how you punished your kids and apparently your wife. I'm not talking of breaking bones here, or bloody gashes on the back from a whip, but a spanking by belt. No one freaked out in the reviews that Jamie's father beat him, but they all freaked about him beating Claire. But it is 1745...if he treated her as a husband is expected to in 2020, the book would lose all it's authenticity. And Claire did tend to go our of her way to disobey him, and get him and his friends in danger, sometimes hurt or killed, of course he doesn't know *why* she keeps trying to sneak off, she has good reason, but he just thinks she's out of control, her little misadventures putting him and everything he cares about (including her) at risk. Sometimes yes, people do need to learn to do what they are told, when not doing so puts other people at risk of dying.

So not condoning wife beating, but we can't change history either lest we forget it. It should be a shocking scene to us, that was part of the culture shock Claire had to deal with, and also, in the end, the culture shock Jamie has to deal with when he eventually finds out the truth about Claire.

And honestly, after reading a few romances, I've decided that for some bizarre reason, a woman saying no and a guy ignoring it, is apparently sexy and romantic. I personally don't get it. Woman says no, end of story. Don't think "well, she can't be a real woman till I've got her rapturously spreadeagled beneath my manly form, she's just living a shadow of a life without me to fulfill her". No. That only happens in stupid romance novels, but in the real world that just makes you a perverted creep. But it's a common theme, so that a small amount of that trickled down into here too is no surprising. For what it's worth, at least it isn't the core of the romance! And on an aside...I wish romance novels would stop doing that, if a guy reads it he's going to assume he needs to ignore the no's because women expect him to, talk about mixed messages!

And the major rape/torture at the end...well, first I knew it was coming. Second, I saw it in vivid graphic visual detail on the show. The book in fact took it mostly offscreen and told it second person. It was bad, it was vile, but I was expecting it and was ready for it. If you have trigger issues, this is NOT the book (or TV show) for you.

Ok, got the controversial nasties out of the way. Not that I'm an expert is Jacobian England, but I felt it was well portrayed historically and was interesting just from that point of view. And talking of interesting, it's a long book, over 600 pages (and hardcover, thought my arms would fall off), and at no point anywhere in the book did I get bored. That impressed me when I got to the end. You get to see a lot, there's politics, the treatment of women, the way England treated Scotland, they day to day lives, what they ate, how they dressed, and ugh, their medicine, both the cures that would work and those that were kinda questionable (I'm pretty sure horse poop should never be used to treat, well, anything).

On the downside, I found Claire adapted too easily. Ok, Gabaldon tried to set her up for that, giving her a childhood where she spent her time exploring distant archaeological ruins, and then a job as a nurse on the frontlines of a war. So she'd been without electricity and running water and the other things we'd probably think we die if we didn't have access to for more than a couple days (at least she hadn't had a chance to get addicted to a cell phone), but she somehow not only adapted fast but was suddenly an expert in healing. I think take any doctor from today, with all their training and knowledge, they would struggle to figure out that blue flower helps with rashes, and that root could be used for headaches. Now if she were trained in herbal remedies...but she wasn't, it wasn't even what you'd all a hobby, though she had a vague interest. So you know that pennicilin is good, too bad, doesn't exist yet, so how DO you treat an infection? But I guess she'd have been burned as a witch or put away in an asylum if she didn't at least appear to know some basics of living in that time period, even though it was made clear at the beginning of the book she had NO interest in history...for someone with so little interest she sure remembered a lot of dates and details...

And as for the great Claire x Jaimie romance...I just kept feeling bad for Frank. Just because he wasn't young, and muscled, and a warrior (while also a poet), she ended up chosing the other man over him. But Frank was a good guy! At least in this series, so is Jaimie. I remember taking a course and we read Wuthering Heights and all the girls were rooting for Heathcliff (I can't even remember the name of the other suitor) but the teacher stopped us and said "Why?". Heathcliff is a brute, he is cruel, and dangerous, morose and dark. That seems sort of exciting on the surface but do you want to be married to someone who has serious temper issues? Yes the other guy was kind of boring, but he was kind and he loved her and would have been good to her. And since then I've always felt sorry for the good but boring guy. But this is a romance, and you don't settle for the nice guy, you need the one that makes your breath catch and your passions soar. Guess that's why I don't read romances as a general rule. Sorry, not my thing.

Thus in the end, the historical part I loved, the plot was pretty good and complicated too (it goes WAY beyond the romance between two characters), the characters well fleshed out and complex, the writing style was good, the romance I could leave but then not my thing, and could have done with a touch less violence and rape. But on the whole, yes, I did enjoy it and I will read another book in the series, maybe one a year, after all they are BIG books!