Reviews with content warning for Sexism - Outlander

Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

84 reviews

sup3r_xn0va_maya's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

💬: “Don’t be afraid,” he whispered into my hair. “There’s the two of us now.” I felt warm, soothed, and safe for the first time in many days."

Gabaldon, Diana. Outlander: A Novel (Outlander, Book 1) (p. 212). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

📖Genres: romance, romantasy, adult, adventure, historical romance, historical, fantasy

📚Page Count: 850

🎧Audiobook Length: 32h 38min

👩🏾‍🏫My Rating: ⭐️⭐️ - 2/5
----

TW -

ableism, animal death, blood, body horror, cursing, death, death of parent, emotional abuse, gore, grief, injury/injury detail, misogyny, murder, physical abuse, pregnancy, rape, sexism, sexual assault, sexual harassment, sexual content, sexual violence, torture, violence, vomit, war

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon is an 800+ page historical romance that has action, spice, time travel, and adventure. Claire is a nurse from 1945 and she's thrusted back in time a few hundred years, where she has to survive until she figures out how to get home. It's here that she meets Jamie, a Scott who wants to show her a love so true. At least she won't have to try and survive alone, with him by her side. I didn't love this story, I barely liked it. Between the weird and slow pacing and the threat of rape being constantly thrown around, by the time the book was over I was exhausted and annoyed from the read.

I didn't like the book's pacing. The book started off really slow, I'd say it took about 2 to 3 hours of listening to the audiobook for the story to actually start moving forward. Once the story started to move, things got interesting and I became invested. Then, I'd say 200 pages into the action, things slowed down to a crawl and I stopped caring about the story. After about 150 pages of the slow crawl, things picked up again. Do you see where I'm going with this? This strange pacing continued throughout the entire novel.

(Trigger Warning - rape, sexual assault)
The threat of rape was constant from the moment the main character went back in time. I understand that your female main character went back in time, that doesn't mean you have to have every other man she encounters try to physically & sexually attack her. I honestly should have counted the amount of times Claire was threated with physical or sexual harm by a man, there are a few times where she actually IS attacked. Claire apparently isn't the only one who's in danger of being sexually assaulted.

At the tail end of the book Jamie gets arrested and he incidentally ran into Randall, well Randall is an evil man so he wanted to take revenge on Jamie and he does that by mutilating, torturing, and raping Jamie for an uncertain amount of days.

(Trigger Warning - rape, sexual assault, drugging)
Unfortunately, it gets worse. Now,

by the time Jamie is rescued from Randall at the end of the book, he has PTSD, he's so sick that he might die, and he doesn't want to look at his wife because he feels ashamed and disgusted with himself because of the sexual assault. How do I know this? Because he tells Claire and there's a dialogue about the assault and Jamie tells Claire exactly what was said and done to him. For some odd reason the author decided to make Claire drug Jamie with opium, so he hallucinates, and then she pretends to be his assaulter (Randall) and she says the things he said and then she does the things he physically did to elicit a response out of Jamie. Well, it does get a reaction, Jamie attacks Claire and they go tumbling to the ground (while Claire is getting beat on by Jamie). Somehow, while they're tumbling on the group Claire is able to insert Jamie into her, and now they're having intercourse. Claire "cured him" and helped him claim his "manhood".

OMG. How ridiculous, gross, and unnecessary.

(Trigger Warning - physical abuse, domestic abuse)
The spice fluctuated. At first I was into it but then there was this strange scene where

Jamie physically held down and beat Claire because he wanted to prove to his band of merry men that he was punishing her for her actions. I just didn't understand this scene, it made me sick to my stomach and it made me like Jamie a lot less than I previously did. After that, I wasn't interested in any spice between Jamie and Claire.

I'm giving it one and a half chilies 🌶️.5 out of five chilies

This book also ends in the

pregnancy trope

, and if you know me then you know I hate that trope very much. So, the ending was just disappointing for many reason. I really tried to trust recommendations and then trust the process with this one and that failed me. There were only a few times during the 32 hour audiobook that I enjoyed the reading experience. I just didn't like this book and I won't be continuing with the series.
⭐️⭐️ - 2/5

I listened to this for free on the library app, hoopladigital.com

Content Warnings

awaywiththefae's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

It was good but VERY violent oh my god

Content Warnings

scottishbeth's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Content Warnings

thalia16's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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tieflingmom's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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solypoly's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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walking_cheese's review against another edition

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adventurous dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

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lilexo's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

A lovely read for anyone who enjoys romance in a historical setting.

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ltesh's review

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Content Warnings

chluless's review against another edition

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slow-paced

2.0

I fear this may become more of a rant than a review. I have thoughts.

So. Many. Thoughts.

I went into Outlander expecting historical fiction with a romantic plot line, and elements of fantasy from the time-travel framing. Instead, I found romance dressed up in the historical genre with little more than a passing mention of time travel.

Gabaldon clearly did her research in some aspects as much of the historical details and descriptions of daily life in the 1700s were incredibly interesting, and the passages I enjoyed most occurred in the quieter rhythms of different households visited by Claire, or in the workings of the Castle and the Monastery.

However, this aspect of the novel was weakened by a lack of political context, missed anachronisms, and some implausible moments inserted for the sake of convenience or comedy. Unfortunately, many of these comedic moments did not appeal to my sense of humour and carried uncomfortably crude or honestly just bizarre undertones.

While I did enjoy a number of the capture and rescue scenes, such as the witch trial and Wentworth Prison break, the sheer repetitiveness of the capture - torture - rescue formula quickly became draining.

Speaking of repetition, I should make it clear that romance is at the forefront of this novel. These moments which I found the most engaging are sandwiched between chapters upon chapters of Claire/Jamie smut interspersed with Claire’s fits of shallow guilt for adultery, pre-relationship jealousy (while supposedly happily married to Frank until a few weeks ago?), and her waxing poetic about how physically imposing Jamie is. It really does read à la Adam Driver *sorry* Adam Carlsen from Ali Hazelwood’s ‘The Love Hypothesis.’

On the subject of Claire and Jamie’s relationship, its emotional depth is overshadowed by a range of factors. Firstly, the one-sided nature of Jamie sharing tales from his own life and a startling lack of reciprocation for Claire. I understand that she’s restricted by hiding her secret in the beginning, but even by the end of 800 pages, I can recall shockingly little about her.

Secondly, I care very little for Claire's (and the narrative’s) obsession with Jamie as appealingly savage, nor for the repeated commentary on how ‘young’ and naive he is compared to Claire. The man is 23, and Claire is 26 at the time of their marriage. She’s certainly not an old woman, and he is an adult man. So why is Jamie’s age mentioned obsessively throughout the first half, and Claire’s hidden beneath this rhetoric until the random revelation that it’s her 27th birthday and then promptly never mentioned again?

There is perhaps another year to give or take from these ages as, like many other occurrences in the book, there are discrepancies in the timeline that don’t always make sense.

But onto the third factor: domestic violence, marital rape, Jamie finding pleasure in both, and Claire’s almost instant dismissal of both.

Personally, I found some of the side characters the most well-written in terms of complexity and moral greyness. Dougal, Colum, and Geillis are no angels, yet I found them far more interesting than Jamie and Claire’s relationship drama. Moral greyness aside, Mrs. Fitzgibbons, Murtagh, Jenny, and Brother Anselm were also some of my favourite characters.

I wish Geillis had been utilised as more than a [SPOILER: dangling carrot for the abandoned time-travel plot point], she had so much potential and allowed Claire to interact with Highland folklore and customs to an extent that has not been replicated since.

Another aspect of the book I haven’t seen much discussion of is the thick streak of homophobia that only grows worse as the narrative unfolds. I gave it the benefit of the doubt for FAR too long.

It begins under the guise of comedy, with tales of the Duke of Sandringham (the only gay character other than Randall) groping and pursuing sixteen-year-old Jamie to the point of him stealing laxatives from the castle kitchen out of desperation to evade the Duke’s next attack. The entire disturbing episode is treated as a joke, and the Duke is viewed as harmless yet inescapably predatory.

The real developments concern Black Jack Randall.

My final straw came as the author associated Randall (the only prominent LGBT character & the cartoonish big villain of the book) with the scent of LAVENDER on both his person and his “bedding,” noted in the context of Claire (without Jamie’s consent or consulting with anybody at all!!) enacting the extremely questionable psychological ‘treatment’ of forcing Jamie to re-live his torture and sexual assault with the manipulation of her role-playing his attacker and putting him under the influence of a heavy dose of opium.

Yes, lavender is a common scented water, but its synonymous nature with the LGBT community is so entrenched in Western culture (and US history) that, for a book written in the 90s, the only excuse can be negligence at best.

Later, it is revealed that Randall called out another man’s name during the assault, then beat Jamie as he rages at this other man to admit he loves him back. Of the numerous assaults depicted in this book - even those enacted by Randall - it is only this one that is given any semblance of backstory or nuance. Every aspect of this plotline adds to a larger, and incredibly distasteful picture.

And before anyone comes for me, I am NOT convinced by the argument that Randall is driven by ONLY sadism and not sexuality. These arguments either present him as indiscriminate (read: bi or pansexual) which again uses negative tropes, fail to account for both Claire and Jenny’s observations that his body displays a lack of interest in them as he attempts to assault them, and also ignore Randall’s stated desire for Jamie (which includes Jamie telling Claire that Randall is jealous of her - his wife).

Honestly, I would not have made it to the end without Davina Porter’s outstanding audio narration.

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