Share on Tumblr

Tuesday 17 February 2015

Book Review: Outlander by Diana Gabaldon


Pages :  896

Read on : Kindle


Review:  It took me a month to finish reading Outlander. All of January and I was NOT happy about it. It made me want my month back.  Let me get the facts out first. This was published in 1991 by Diana Gabaldon and at a certain point this was one of the highest rated book on Goodreads.

The plot starts in 1945, Claire Randall has just returned from her duties as a British Army nurse and is now reunited with her husband Frank. While exploring a certain area in of the ancient circles, a force hurls her back in time. Claire ends up in the Highlands amidst lairds, spies and Scotsmen in the year 1743. This is where she meets James Fraiser and things happen.

At a lot of points in this book I rolled my eyes, so much that I did say 'Give me a break!' quite loudly in open spaces. Where do I begin? Claire. I feel very mean saying this but the woman seems absolutely characterless. She definitely thinks a lot of the unnecessary, forgets about her husband at the drop of the hat and goes on with her life in the Highlands. She makes no gallant effort to go back to Frank or even explore the cause of this time travel. It was all very bizarre to me. How did the author overlook such gaping details? 

Also, this book is really high on sexual content. So much that I often mocked it by calling it ' 50 Shades of Grey- Version 18th century' and you cannot blame me for saying so. Claire indulges a lot. Jack Randall ( the villain ) is strangely fixated on her with absolutely no valid reason. Jamie Fraser, is always around to save his damsel in distress which I'm figuring turns him on and Claire, I guess indebted to him, doesn't object. I repeat, how does a woman forget her husband so quickly?! How does she get comfortable in a strange place without the itch to go back?

I still don't know what the story was trying to convey to me. What I did like is the setting. I'm a sucker for historical fiction and also the way judgement and ruling was carried out. The punishments, as I expected, pretty severe.

I struggle to find what is it that made people swoon over Outlander and jump into the series which to me seems like it would take me eternity if it went on the way the first book did.

Would I recommend this? No. I just want my January 2015 back.


Final Rating: 2/5

خُدا حافِظ