Outlander (Outlander, #1) in Overdue Podcast

Mar 06, 2018 Sarah rated it liked it

2.5 stars 🤷🏼‍♀️

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Feb 28, 2015 Anita rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: did-not-finish, nope, audio, dnf

This book has issues, and it's way too long. And it reinforces unattainable masculine ideals. Men don't cry. They are never scared. They live to protect their women at all costs. "Ooooo, Jamie is so manly he took 100 lashes without even crying out. His dad dropped dead it was so horrifying." And that's not even the worst of it.

So Game of Thrones is pretty messed up too, and it has a lot of questionable content too, but I still prefer it. Jon Snow is an example of an unattainable male ideal, but This book has issues, and it's way too long. And it reinforces unattainable masculine ideals. Men don't cry. They are never scared. They live to protect their women at all costs. "Ooooo, Jamie is so manly he took 100 lashes without even crying out. His dad dropped dead it was so horrifying." And that's not even the worst of it.

So Game of Thrones is pretty messed up too, and it has a lot of questionable content too, but I still prefer it. Jon Snow is an example of an unattainable male ideal, but then he's got a foil who shows his "worth" in other aspects and gets the girl, Sam Tarly. And it doesn't seem to be passing off any of the depicted relationships as romance.

And finally, this book puts the "phobia" in homophobia. I chalked this up to being more than 20 years old and seriously needing an update, but it is this aspect and its length that is keeping me from continuing any further. Nowadays, you think of homophobia as not so much fear of homosexuals, like fear of snakes, but simply HATE and disgust. But this book is actual fear. Fear of being so incredibly irresistible to gay men that they will chase you down and rape you. It's not that I insist that all gay characters have to be "good," it's just that these are so obviously formed out of fear and discrimination that I cannot stand for it. I really hope the TV show modernized this aspect or else I won't continue with it either.

I got halfway before ditching it, so it's not all bad, and I do see why so many people like it. They took the female virgin ideal and flipped it, which was interesting. The premise and world building is great. Claire can be super annoying and make poor decisions, but she is overall an extremely capable woman. They even teach her how to defend herself. Granted it was in order to set up a later scene, but I hope they didn't just drop that. Who am I kidding, they almost certainly did.

Also I have to mention that the clan leader is disabled and that hasn't impacted his ability to lead nor does he make any effort whatsoever to hide his deformity. Some may think that is enough of a foil to the unattainable masculine ideal I was complaining about, but while it's a positive aspect of the book, it's not enough to be a foil in my opinion. It's about more than physicality.

I liked the witchcraft stuff because it gave the natives a little credit. As far as I can tell not all of it was medieval attitudes mistaking "modern" medicine for witchcraft. I like the idea that magic was once real, but it all dried up or is mostly overlooked because we stopped believing in it.

The TV adaptation is great: the setting is absolutely gorgeous and the soundtrack is amazing. Seriously, those still reading should get a copy of the soundtrack and play it as they read it's so perfect. As for me, I'm ditching the books and sticking with the show.

UPDATE: I heard in a podcast that this whole series basically started out as the author's Dr. Who Hurt/Comfort fan fiction back in the day and suddenly EVERYTHING MADE SENSE. I didn't know the Hurt/Comfort term before, and even after they explained it that didn't make me want to read anymore of it, but it DID change my perspective quite a bit. So apparently if you found this book entertaining, and this goes for Fifty Shades of Grey as well, then you really should get out of the bookstore/library/ ebook-commerce site and just start searching the internet for fan fiction. It's way better in the campy, bad-is-good sense and usually there are tags to tell you what you can expect as far as how messed up it gets. ...more

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Dec 27, 2015 Kaylie rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: made-me-swear, set-uk

I fair raced through Outlander. Partly, that's because the Christmas holidays always involve me sitting in the living room keeping my mum company while she watches NCIS, but also because it was really good. I liked the main character a lot, and the plot never really stopped to draw breath. I laughed, I swore, I stayed up into the early hours of the morning reading. That's everything you want from a book, really. I also got given the DVD box set of this for Christmas, by complete coincidence, so ...more

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Aug 09, 2019 Jeni rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Yeah, I liked that as much as I thought I would. It took me a while to get through just because it's long, but I loved it, and like every other woman who's read this book, loved Jamie. It's imaginative but real and gritty without being dark for the sake of it.

On to the next one... ...more

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