Outlander — Books, Beauty, & Buys

By: Diana Gabaldon
Published Year: 1992
Publisher: Dell
Pages: 850

Summary (Provided by Goodreads): The year is 1945. Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is just back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon when she walks through a standing stone in one of the ancient circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach—an “outlander”—in a Scotland torn by war and raiding border clans in the year of Our Lord . . . 1743.

Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire is catapulted into the intrigues of lairds and spies that may threaten her life, and shatter her heart. For here James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, shows her a love so absolute that Claire becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire—and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.

First Impressions

I have owned this book for almost 10 years. Before the show came out it sounded so cute and I wanted to read it. Then I watched part of the first episode and saw how thick the book was and it went down on my list. So, it has been sitting on my bookshelf ever since. My friends and I are going to the Scottish Highlands this year, so we decided to read it together!

What I thought

I understand the hype.

Claire was a nurse during WW2. After the war, she and her husband (who she hasn’t seen in 6 years) go on their second honeymoon to the Scottish Highlands. While there, they are researching his family history and she is learning about botany. On one of her explorations, she falls through a stone circle and ends up in the Scottish Highlands of 1746.

This book is over 800 pages. It’s insane. It took me a solid 200 pages before I really got into it, because there is a lot of history and world and character building. It’s not slow in a bad way, but it took a little while to suck me in.

There’s a part where Claire and Jamie (the hero of the story) finally leave the castle, and that’s where it started to pick up for me. I didn’t realize that there was going to be a forced marriage and multiple attempts at rape as well as significant violence and abuse. So, if you can’t handle those things, this book will not be for you. I know the Outlander fans LOVE Jamie, so I’m curious how book Jamie compares to show Jamie. I found book Jamie to be a little barbaric. Which, is understandable given the time, but doesn’t excuse some of his behaviors. He did win me over in the end though.

Considering this book is so long, the fact that I want to read the next one I think says a lot. I liked Claire and I liked how she didn’t bend to the times and compromise her values. She stayed a strong modern woman, with the exception of moments in which it would put her in danger. And even then she sometimes did what she believed to be right regardless of the danger.

This book sort of has an epic fantasy feel to it without the fantasy elements. It has a lot of characters and epic journeys and battles, but no dragons or elves. It was interesting seeing the development of the characters and how Claire and Jamie changed.