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A review by caughtbetweenpages
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
4.0
I know that Diana Gabaldon initially marketed Outlander as a romance novel, but to me, all 850 pages read more like a story about survival against all odds.
The protagonist, Claire, comes equipped with all sorts of skills that help her hold her own among a brash crew of clansmen, skills she picked up while traveling the world with her uncle as well as on various WWII battlefronts, but the most important trait she has in her arsenal is her resilience.
I've heard arguments that her sort of time-travel thriving in the past would not work for someone from the 2000's because of the vast technological changes that occurred between WWII and modern day, but I think a Claire born in 1987 would have the same sort of nerve and backbone necessary to be the badass she is in the Scottish Highlands of the 1700's (though with considerably less wartime experience).
I'm a sucker for characters peppered with flaws and virtues who have the agency to make good or bad decisions at their discretion, and Outlander provides them in spades. It's impossible to not get emotionally attached to each of them in turn. For such a plot-driven novel, I think the characters are what actually makes the brick (yes, it is a brick. This book is kinda huge, y'all) such a page turner.
Outlander contains some mature themes, sex being the least of them, so I would not recommend it for children under the age of 16, nor for people triggered by rape or physical violence. Death at a young age was common in the Highlands and I commend Gabaldon for holding true to the harsh realities of the time period instead of trying to paint a purely romantic picture of the setting, though it can make reading the novel a little sensitive for some readers. I know I was a little iffy on what some critics have called the spousal abuse in the book.
I'm also a little iffy on the portrayal of homosexuality in the novel. While I understand that the art doesn't always reflect the views of the artist, I think that making a joke of homosexuality (as it sometimes seemed to be done throughout the novel) and by tying it so closely to rape or sexual harassment is careless at best and cruel at worst. I hope that those views aren't carried over into the rest of the series as I am very excited to continue with it.
The protagonist, Claire, comes equipped with all sorts of skills that help her hold her own among a brash crew of clansmen, skills she picked up while traveling the world with her uncle as well as on various WWII battlefronts, but the most important trait she has in her arsenal is her resilience.
I've heard arguments that her sort of time-travel thriving in the past would not work for someone from the 2000's because of the vast technological changes that occurred between WWII and modern day, but I think a Claire born in 1987 would have the same sort of nerve and backbone necessary to be the badass she is in the Scottish Highlands of the 1700's (though with considerably less wartime experience).
I'm a sucker for characters peppered with flaws and virtues who have the agency to make good or bad decisions at their discretion, and Outlander provides them in spades. It's impossible to not get emotionally attached to each of them in turn. For such a plot-driven novel, I think the characters are what actually makes the brick (yes, it is a brick. This book is kinda huge, y'all) such a page turner.
Outlander contains some mature themes, sex being the least of them, so I would not recommend it for children under the age of 16, nor for people triggered by rape or physical violence. Death at a young age was common in the Highlands and I commend Gabaldon for holding true to the harsh realities of the time period instead of trying to paint a purely romantic picture of the setting, though it can make reading the novel a little sensitive for some readers. I know I was a little iffy on what some critics have called the spousal abuse in the book.
I'm also a little iffy on the portrayal of homosexuality in the novel. While I understand that the art doesn't always reflect the views of the artist, I think that making a joke of homosexuality (as it sometimes seemed to be done throughout the novel) and by tying it so closely to rape or sexual harassment is careless at best and cruel at worst. I hope that those views aren't carried over into the rest of the series as I am very excited to continue with it.