Outlander by
Diana Gabaldon
My rating:
3 of 5 stars
I really struggled to decide how many stars to give this. On one hand, I enjoyed the story overall and was interested in what was happening to the characters the entire time. On the other hand, there were some really problematic elements that bothered me a lot.
My biggest problems circled around Claire's relationship with Jamie. On several occasions, she
(view spoiler)[ expresses that she does not want to or cannot have sex with him, but he basically forces her to because he is "not a man to be stopped." She doesn't seem overly upset by this, but I am of the opinion that if someone says "stop," you stop -- no matter what. Anything else is rape, which is obviously not an indicator of a healthy relationship. I also hated how he literally beat her and then she forgave him the next day. I know she was angry at first, but then she rationalizes it. I also know that for the time period it may have even been expected, but I don't see that an excuse to make it ok. Finally, this is a little thing, but it really did bother me that she didn't struggle more when thinking about her first husband, Frank. She rarely seemed to miss him and didn't even struggle that much when thinking about wedding (and bedding!) another man. I'm not sure what this says about her first marriage, but I can't think it is very good. (hide spoiler)]For all of those reasons, I almost gave it 2 stars. However, as I said before, I did enjoy the story. I am on the fence about whether or not to continue the series. I am thinking about just watching the TV show, because I heard it takes out some of the problematic elements, which would make it still more enjoyable for me. We'll see.
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Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin
