Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

45 reviews

addisonpatrice's review

adventurous dark slow-paced

3.75

What an adventure! This one took me nearly a month to finish because of the 1700s setting and the density of the writing, but I'm glad I did so. Jamie and Claire are just dreamy.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Confinement, Child death, Rape, Gun violence, Grief, Death, Torture, Blood, Animal death, Sexual content, Physical abuse, Murder, Medical trauma, Infertility, and Alcohol

deutschemausi's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

Spoilers for sure!

This book is excellently written but damn it’s so long 😂

I was a tad bit bored at first but I’d say about a quarter of the way through I was all ears. It does get a bit repetitive every once in awhile but that reqlly isn’t a biggie. 

My biggest issue was the god damn treatment of women.  I know that’s how it was back Then but it’s still incredibly difficult to read. 

I really liked Jaime at first I was so hoping he would be that one guy that was a decent human being and I know it’s an unpopular opinion but he’s a piece of shit. Sorry he really is,

there’s things he does that he says he’s obligated to do or wants to have sex with her where he does not care about her decision, regardless if she ends up enjoying herself or forgiving him does not MAKE THIS OK. gah.  

Also beating Claire so bad that she herself says within an inch of her life just because she disobeys him (which almost led to her own brutal rape yet again so I’m sure she learned her lesson either way)?! And then forgives him the next day??? What is that?! No matter what time point this is, Claire herself is from a future where this isn’t ok and although in her time point violence against women is still a little more prominent then it is today she still knows it’s not acceptable behavior. So why is she forgiving him the day after? 

I do not believe all the defenses of oh it was “spanking”. Spanking and beating someone so bad they can’t do anything more then lay down for several days are two very different things. 

It says and I quote “Gentle he would be, denied he would not.” 

That’s rape. And it maybe wouldn’t bother me as much if 

a. This kinda shit didn’t happen all the damn time in the past and still happens today  

b. This book and show is so god damned popular and Jaime is seen as an amazing partner and husband and person! 

He’s not and he’s scum and I hate that he’s defended. I will not do it. 

And the absolute normalization of molestation and rape is appalling for both men and women.

Given that this book is a representation of the past I can live with that. I think my biggest issue here is that people in today’s world defend him. That’s where my true issue lies.

And I’m sorry he was raped too but just because a rapist is raped doesn’t forgive the rapes they’ve done themselves.

I just don’t get. 

Now saying all that and obviously I didn’t enjoy those parts of the book but it is amazingly written which is why I gave it a higher rating. This writing is impeccable and I don’t think I’ve ever read a book that I can dislike and enjoy at the same time. Gabaldon is a true storyteller and an amazing writer. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Death, Cursing, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Murder, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Torture, Violence, Domestic abuse, Infertility, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Physical abuse, and War

my_name_is_jess's review

adventurous dark emotional sad

4.0

This book was a lot. Sometimes I had to put it down and walk away for a few hours. The story and the characters will be something I'll think about for a long time probably. 

Audiobook narration: 5/5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Animal cruelty, Infertility, Animal death, Sexual violence, Domestic abuse, Medical trauma, Violence, Pedophilia, Rape, and Child abuse

sonygaystation's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

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

1.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Sexual content, Blood, Body horror, Infidelity, Medical trauma, Sexual violence, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Rape, Violence, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Alcohol, and Medical content

Moderate: Homophobia, Grief, Gun violence, Domestic abuse, Racial slurs, Vomit, Gore, Xenophobia, War, Body shaming, Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Death, and Confinement

Minor: Abortion, Suicidal thoughts, Animal death, and Child death

im_jennaaa's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Medical trauma, Domestic abuse, Medical content, Misogyny, Sexual harassment, Infertility, Grief, Alcohol, Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Death of parent, Death, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and War

tealeavesandfoxes's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Medical trauma, Violence, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Rape

elphabethany's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Sexual harassment, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Blood, Death, Sexual violence, Gun violence, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

owlyenthusiast's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

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

2.75

I had a rough time with this book, so I'm gonna do my best to spell out my thoughts. I'll start with the positive. It's quite clear to me that Gabaldon poured tons of scientific and historical research into this book. Even the fantastical portions of the novel felt grounded in the world, and I think that she was effective in crafting a rich cast of characters and an engaging environment for them to play in. I legitimately found the historical setting to be interesting,  and I appreciated Gabaldon's commitment to a rough-around-the-edges approach. Even within romance, I tend to prefer when the given circumstances and the starting points of the characters aren't pretty and next to perfect. With that being said, my biggest problem with the book was how Gabaldon utilized violence, especially sexual violence. I consider myself a pretty tolerant reader, and there is plenty of controversial topics that I can consume without objection. I think that violence within Outlander is necessary and inevitable, since I believe that the beating heart of the story is about war and how it changes people. Claire (our protagonist) is not just a nurse, she is a nurse that is from 1943, and just served in WW2. Jamie, our love interest, grew up in a Scotland being actively terrorized by the British and has faced unspeakable punishments at the hands of British military personnel. I think it would be naive to think that these characters would not face further danger, react violently to certain stimuli, or, in some cases, absorb terrible treatment with a hardened demeanor. However, there is only so many instances you can read about Claire being almost assaulted before you start to wonder why Gabaldon is relying on sexual violence as much as she is. Certain scenes made narrative sense, but many, to me, felt superfluous. It became annoying, rather than horrifying, which undercuts what those scenes could be achieving. There are many ways to establish stakes and the dangers that Claire faces without having almost every man Claire comes into contact with want to force himself on her. And there are ways to communicate Jamie's traumatic past and current situation without consistently showing what an angry and violent person he can be, even to Claire. This undoes some of the believably the main romantic plot had for me. I ended the book with the conclusion that Claire had a strange trauma bond with Jamie, not the deep love that Gabaldon wants them to have. Not to mention some mild Christian and gender essentialist undertones that were thrown in throughout the love story, some of which I'm tempted to forgive given the time period both characters are supposed to be from. To conclude, I am not sure I will continue this series, which seems like a testament to how exhausting I found the aforementioned elements, seeing as there are nine more books and I have little desire to pick up another. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Animal death, Sexual violence, Medical trauma, Murder, Sexual assault, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual content

Moderate: Domestic abuse

The sex scenes are riddled with innuendo, but there are many and they are explicit enough to be graphic in my opinion.

lizzyspooks's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexual harassment, Physical abuse, Rape, Alcohol, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, and Blood

Moderate: Medical content, Kidnapping, Sexual violence, Torture, Medical trauma, and War

ash_bees's review

adventurous dark emotional funny sad 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? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Infertility, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Death, Gore, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Death of parent, Self harm, Sexism, Violence, Vomit, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, War, Torture, Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide