Book #38: Outlander
My Review:
I've had Outlander by Diana Gabaldon downloaded on my Kindle for about a year now. I'd avoided it for that time due to its length. After deciding to write a fantasy novel based on time travel, I figured I'd jump in and see how Gabaldon did it. I wasn't figuring on being as swept away by the plot as I actually was.
At first, I couldn't put the book down. I think mainly I was anticipating the moment when Claire would time travel, but I really enjoyed the flow of the story. I had read a few reviews on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Goodreads.com, so I knew how she time traveled. As the suspense built up, I couldn't put the book down. I kept waiting for that moment of contact when her world would change, literally.
*Spoiler Alert* However, after Claire and Jamie marry in this new world, I became quickly fed up with all the sex and sexual innuendos passing between them and the rest of the Highland clansmen and found it difficult to dive back into the plot. I was frustrated for about two hundred pages, and after Jamie was captured and the sex ended, I got swept into the story once more. I realized that I liked Claire more than Jamie. I liked her strong personality and no nonsense attitude. The fact that she was still sane after everything she'd gone through made me like her character even more. I wasn't worried about Jamie, I wanted more adventures with Claire.
When the book ended, I was caught off guard. My Kindle was showing that I still had 7% to go, but that was just the excerpt from Gabaldon's next Outlander book: Dragonfly in Amber. I was disappointed; my heart slammed against my rib cage. Gabaldon had left off with the best cliffhanger ever! I immediately picked up my copy of the sequel and read the first couple of chapters. (It's not as good, unfortunately, but then again, I've only given it a very small chance. Maybe it'll pick up.)
Minus the ~200 middle pages containing sex every two to three paragraphs, this is probably the best book I've read since the first of the year. I gobbled up 870 pages in less than a week.
Rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars
Kelly <3
P.S. Sorry for the poor review. I'm exhausted from a week of cold/flu symptoms.