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4.27 AVERAGE
4.27 AVERAGE
***Spoilers all over the place up in here!***
Well, things definitely happen in this book, evenm though most of it felt like long, unedited, random filler at the time.
Ugh. I still am loving these books, but I think I'm ready for them to be over. I just...I love me a wordy, enormous series, but this is just getting extreme. I think what I don't like is that all the books kind of run together and aren't self-contained and neatly wrapped up. Things just drag on and on through books and books.. Like, Steven Bonnet was first introduced 2 books ago, and he's still kind of lurking around the edges and popping up occasionally (that storyline FINALLY does get some resolution though). The gold at Jocasta's is still a thing. Ian's finally revealed his secret about why he left the Indians, but it's been so long that I so don't even care anymore (and also it ended up being kind of lame).
Everyone is extremely worried that Claire will get pregnant. But um...by my (possibly wrong) calculations, Claire is about 55 years old at this time. Isn't she supposed to be a doctor and like...know how unlikely that is?
Claire's got her own little doctor-slave in Malva Christie. Halfway through the book I had written this whole thing about how I think that Malva is going turn turn all Single White Female and try to steal Claire's life and her doctoring skills and her Jamie and then...well, it happened.
Claire's not doing much better, with her using the neighborhood kids as guinea pigs for her ether tests, and getting excited when she has a chance to use it (which means getting excited when she performs dirty 18th-century surgeries on children).
Roger has decided to be a minister and it's incredibly boring, and he wanders around the a lot of the book quoting scripture and whining about how his voice doesn't work. Also...of course Roger has a Mini Cooper. Of course. He's such a dork. I bet he would wear a bluetooth headset everywhere if he lived in present times.
Bree is suddenly a mad scientist, making paper, matches, designing guns, and running water to the house.
Jamie doesn't do too much at all except have long philosophical talks with Claire about the nature of war and his FEELINGS. He does rescue Claire a couple of times though, which is more like the Original Jamie I fell in love with, so it's cool.
Lizzie, who has always been a superfluous character, suddenly gets a weird storyline of her own. I need to type this all out because I want to see if it looks as ridiculous as it sounds in my head: she starts sleeping with BOTH of the (also superfluous) Beardsly twins, can't tell them apart and refuses to choose between them, marries them both and is now happily living in a filthy cabin (why is the horrible stench of the place always mentioned?) with both of her twin husbands and her baby.
Stephen Bonnet is still lurking around the edges, popping up occasionally, but no one really seems to care until the end when he kidnaps Brianna again. Yawn.
Arch Bug being a criminal mastermind and stealing all Jocasta's gold and threatening her and having been important enough 30 years ago to take possession of Louis's gold...seems like a last minute addition. Not in character and I hate it.
I've come to realize that Diana Gabaldon is incredibly good at making extremely boring things not seem terrible. I mean, a half hour description of Bree digging a hole or Jamie fishing or Claire stitching up someone's foot - these are things that should bore me, but they don't. But I like weird things sometimes, so I feel like at some point there should've been an editor to be like "hey, maybe we don't need 5 pages of you lancing a boil." Is there an editor for these books? I'm seriously starting to wonder, because the disjointedness, the rambling...is there no one left to reign in Diana Gabaldon?? I feel like GRRM should call her up and set her straight, but he's probably too busy getting drunk with fans and not finishing ASoIaF. She's also REALLY good at writing scenes that are juuuuuust disturbing enough to make me squirm, but not bad enough to make me put the book down. It's like an art for her.
With each book after number two, I find myself having to mention in my review that "I still love Jamie and Claire, BUT...", and...I'm starting to get sick of even Jamie and Claire, really. I...enjoyed the book, I really did! But...I just want it to end.
This part of the series covers the years right before the Revolutionary War, so you have politics mixed in with the art of living in the mountains of North Carolina in the late 1700s. There is tragedy and joy, mysteries solved and solutions found. It's a 900 page book, so there's no way I'm going to cover everything that happens, but life on Fraser's Ridge changes greatly between the beginning and the end of the book. There is such attention to detail in what Gabaldon writes, whether it's about making blood pudding or making ether or being kidnapped in a raid. And at the end she picks up all the little threads she's dropped along the way (even the ones you've forgotten about) and ties them into a neat bow.
This is the first audiobook I've listened to in the series, and Davina Porter is a treasure. That may be my preferred way of reading these from now on!
This one, as with the others in the series comes with so many content warmings, I lost track of them all.
As to the actual story, there's the usual mix of trauma and humor, sadness and satisfaction. Most of the mysteries were fairly well wrapped-up by the end, and a longtime villain finally meets his end.
I do wish Gabaldon were not so fond of having her characters raped. Whether or not it was common for the time, it's still not all that much fun to read, and I read for entertainment and escapism, not for reality.
Chronicling our beloved characters' lives from March 1773 to December 1776, A Breath of Snow and Ashes is full of fiery delights and fiery ends. As settlers reel from the War of the Regulation, a band of marauders stalks the Carolina backcountry. Presbyterian fisher-folk, including the vocal Christie family, settle on Fraser's Ridge, and a generation of teenagers explore the pathways of their hearts and veer towards self-destruction. Jamie acts as the King's agent to the local Cherokee tribes. Fergus and Marsali question whether farming life is right for them. Roger decides to become a minister. Ian mourns his wife. Stephen Bonnet stalks the waterways. First Phaedre and now the Bonnie Prince's gold have disappeared from River Run. The only things growing faster than Claire's healing business are the whispers of witchcraft. Lord John and Willie despair as Jamie's Tory, Loyalist facade crumbles to reveal his Whiggist American ideals. The revolution begins, and, of course, the bloody house burns down.
Yeah, so, if you can't tell from the mess of all that plot, it's basically a Gabaldon fiction. Like the other two books set in the American Colonies, A Breath of Snow and Ashes does not have a focused, overarching narrative. One could conceivably argue that A Breath focuses on the thematic question of "When does the Revolution begin?" Does it really start with the battle of Lexington and Concord? Or is it before that, in the minds and hearts of individuals who bend themselves toward change? What about for Claire, a British citizen, who only knows this history secondhand? Has it already happened for Brianna, a modern USA citizen? What about Jamie, who goes against clan, oath, and his very nature to be on "the right side of history" for once? Gabaldon explores this theme well.
However elegant the subtextual question is explored though, the textual plot of novel is haphazard at best. While Gabaldon's struggles with POV are over, this book's plot structure is distractingly bad. In broadstroke, A Breath reads like a series of novellas, which are taped together by occupying the same characters and the above question of revolution. Each novella's plot arc is told about 75% of the way through, abruptly ends, and the next chapter moves on to a different novella. It leaves characters and threads hanging and is unsatisfying to read. In the last 200 pages, Gabaldon remembers to finish her plot lines, and all is wrapped up in a tidy bow...which would be great if that felt in any way organic and not the author showing their hand. I'd heard in The Outlandish Companion that Gabaldon's writing process involves sort of writing big puzzle pieces and then fitting these pieces together later. That's super apparent here, and maybe her editor should have been more rigorous in the fitting.
Here's an example
My other big bone to pick with the novel involves sexual violence and violence against women. As an amateur historian, I have a lot of respect for Gabaldon in her Outlander books, with how she doesn't gloss over how common sexual assault and even rape was in this time period. The threat of sexual violence is so, so high, even today. In past novels, these traumas feel organic to the plot and characters. The instances of violence are well woven in and dealt with respectfully. In A Breath of Snow and Ashes however, there are instances of gang rape, incest, and the sexual slave trade, and these moments are not given the same weight and space as in previous novels. They feel more like random events inserted in to give the characters something to react to and a chance to show off historical research. It was awful to read and awful to stomach. Bleh.
While I still love the characters and will continue to follow their journey, I'm not as keen on the series as I once was. Here's hoping that An Echo in the Bone goes better.
