Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

30 reviews

outofthepinksky's review

adventurous challenging emotional tense slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Murder, Misogyny, Sexual content, Torture, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Violence, Sexual assault, Colonisation, Sexism, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Vomit, Animal death, Death, Ableism, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Child abuse, Classism, Cursing, Grief, Confinement, Infertility, and Homophobia

Minor: Child death, Kidnapping, Suicidal thoughts, Abortion, Gun violence, Death of parent, Fatphobia, and Hate crime

andysanzz_'s review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Sexual violence, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Torture, and Violence

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
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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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Ableism, Body horror, Drug use, Murder, Gun violence, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Grief, Emotional abuse, Animal death, Death of parent, Blood, Infertility, Rape, Sexual content, Domestic abuse, Gore, Violence, Vomit, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Torture, and War

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

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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

tieflingmom's review

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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Content Warnings

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, War, Death of parent, Death, Confinement, Xenophobia, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Torture, Rape, Sexual violence, Sexism, and Colonisation

scytheria's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Rape, Torture, Violence, Sexism, Misogyny, Blood, Sexual content, Pregnancy, and Death

Moderate: Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, Infertility, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Vomit

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

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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

kmac14's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Death, Misogyny, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Domestic abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Sexual harassment, Pregnancy, Sexism, Sexual assault, Blood, Body horror, Violence, Rape, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Infertility, Alcohol, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Infidelity, and Medical content

Minor: Child abuse, Death of parent, Pedophilia, Abortion, Chronic illness, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, War, Gun violence, Vomit, Cursing, and Confinement

clucas0614's review

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? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Violence, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Death of parent, and Blood

ailsaod's review against another edition

adventurous emotional slow-paced

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

1.0

 This review contains vague spoilers throughout.

I genuinely don't understand why this book and show are so popular. For starters this book would do better to be re-named fifty shades of tartan! This is almost 900 pages of increasingly less consensual sex scenes with the occasional bit of historical set dressing. I honestly don't get how this book was so long - its not like much happens and there was a good stopping point at about the third of the way through that I wish had been the end of this book.

I had heard going in to this book that it probably wasn't going to be my cup of tea but I kept on hearing about it and I am far too nosy for my own good. Nosiness and spite is all that got me through this book - it contains literally EVERY content warning you can think of that could possibly be crammed into that time period. I am not kidding; you can play sensitive topics bingo and you will always win (and lose in doing so I guess). It gets to a point where it feels gratuitous as it is one thing to write about these subjects - it does not take a genius to realise that there is going to be a lot of sexism during Jacobite times for example - but some of the things that come up seem unnecessary. Like how is Jamie's story about how a lord groomed him and tried to assault him when he was a teenager funny? I am not a scholar of Jacobite Scotland but it seems weird that everyone would know about an individual being a paedophile - and with a particular liking for boys too - and find it entertaining. Even I know that during that time the people here were very Christian. Even weirder is that Claire (who is from the 1940s) also thinks it is funny and sides against Jamie?!

There are many things in this book that made me question if Gabaldon is existing in her own universe. She has publicly claimed to have researched everything in her books but they are full of inconsistencies - apparently traditional Scottish marriages now include blood oaths?? Nessie is real and there are specimens in the British Natural History Museum? Claire is supposed to have an interest in wild flowers and yet she can't identify a forget me not (one of the most common and easily identifiable wild flowers in the UK!). It is bizarre as there are a lot of details in this book regarding the society and clothing and what was used as medicine that seem accurate and yet Gabaldon is happy to just chuck any semblance of her precious historical accuracy away whenever it concerns something that is actually relevant to the plot. Also why are we using Sassenach as a pet name? It's a very complicated word as in Gaelic (which is spelled Sasannach) it just means "English man" but in scots it is more like "English scum" and that is before we get to the misinformation where some people claim it used to mean lowlander. In the book Sassenach is translated to mean "outlander" which is quite a reach. I am not aware if Gabaldon is aware of the quagmire she wandered into with this one but it just isn't a thing most Scots say anymore and it was uncomfortable to read. After a while Jamie seems to just forget Claire's name entirely!

The best thing about this book was Jamie and even then that only applied until the romance begun. If this book just chucked out the time travel (a sentiment I commonly feel when reading time travel stories) and had this story be about Jamie's tragic circumstances it would be greatly improved. Early book Jamie comes across like a halfway decent person (which in this book is quite something) and I actually wanted to hear his backstory. However that all changed as soon as he has sex for the first time - he immediately becomes demanding and feels entitled to sex and on one occasion enjoys beating Claire.

I won't go into everything I disliked about this book - we would be here far too long! - but there is one particular scene that I would like to mention for all those nosy folks like me. Late in the book there is a character who is on deaths door after being sexually assaulted and badly injured and Claire (someone qualified as a nurse!) decides the best thing she can do is force them to relive their trauma by simulating the assault they experienced. I may have sounded appalled earlier in my review but really a lot of it fades into insignificance next to this one scene. I have never read something so heinous before and I hope not to again. This scene was so bad it was apparently cut from the TV show entirely and I am not surprised!

To conclude I would strongly advise against reading this book unless you enjoy this sort of story (good for you?). Curiosity will kill the cat in this situation!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Rape

Moderate: Kidnapping, Murder, Torture, Death, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Pedophilia, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Infidelity, Incest, Homophobia, Sexism, and Misogyny