Review: Outlander

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

WARNING TO PEOPLE THINKING OF READING THIS BOOK: There are many attempted sexual assault scenes and other very graphic violence scenes. Be careful, and don't read it if this could be harmful or triggering to you!

Honestly, this book made it to my favorites shelf around 50 pages in. By then, I was obsessed.

I've seen many booktubers rave about this series (i.e. Tasha, Sasha, and Naya mainly), and I'm so glad I was finally able to get around to this. It's a big intimidating book when you first pick it up, but it honestly flew by so quickly.

The romance leaves something to be desired. Here's the thing: it's a historical romance. Like, way, way, way back to the 1700s, where men weren't exactly known to be chivalrous or respectful or all the lovely things that men are supposed to be are today. There are many attempted r*pe scenes, because I'm pretty sure that's how men viewed women back in those days. I am by no means condoning this - it was absolutely revolting to read; but I understood where the author was coming from if that makes sense without sounding horrible???

Another thing about the romance: Jamie Fraser is not the perfect angel people make him out to be. There are many times in the first half where there is physical abuse and sexual coersion! FORTUNATELY, Claire sets him straight. It was definitely jarring to see at first how so many people were in love with him because there were just !!! WARNING !!! signs going off in my head, but he gets himself together and eventually becomes the ~steamy romance man character~ everyone knows and loves. (I do hear that the second book is better about this.)

Finally, ~the plot~
This book was absolutely amazing plot-wise. It's technically a romance book, but oh wow it was heavily action-packed. I don't think there was a single dull scene the whole book to me. It's also, as many people probably saw from my updates, SO cool to see how Claire, a modern 1940s nurse, has to deal with lackluster 1700s medicine. I took a class on plants last semester where we learned some medicinal properties of different ones, and it was fun to see old and new ones used here.

If you can stomach the first half of the book and the problematic romance (that eventually turns out much better), you'll probably really like this book.

I'm used to very dark movies, shows, and stories, so I knew going in that this was something I could handle. Others may not be able to (and that's 100% okay!!!), so please be careful and think of your mental health. If this could be triggering or harmful to you, please don't read it no matter how good the reviews may be for others.

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