Those who know me and have been reading my words for a while know that I have a love/hate/detest relationship with the Outlander series. What started out as an amazing story quickly devolved into the sort of novel I would never read in a million years and yet will torture myself for hours as I read the next book in the series. I fully understand that I am distinctly in the minority with my feelings, but I still proclaim them loudly and proudly. This past week, I received the following comment on my review of Written in My Own Heart’s Blood:
So I needed to post as a result of the joy I experienced when reading your reviews. Knowing that someone else shares my opinions of these books is a serious comfort in a world where these same books have sold over 20 million copies. I started book #1 in October and just finished book #8 last night. These books are each at least 800 pages long. That means I have spent the past five months reading nearly 7,000 pages. I won’t bother converting that number to hours of my life wasted.
The point is these books were BAD. Bad bad bad. Very poorly written and horribly (if at all) edited. Things do not make sense. Not in a weird philosophical manner but more of the 2+2=3 variety. This includes endless inconsistencies and bottomless plot holes (as well as the dropped plots, the pointless plots, and resurrected plots [Frank probably knows about that prophecy because Snape overheard it and told him, via owl]).
Characters do things that either have absolutely zero purpose or they do things that even Clarence the Mule would have identified as stupidly asinine. But as readers we’re expected to understand these ridiculous situations as character “flaws and development”. The sex is crap, in book #2 the main characters age 20 years and by book #8 they are both in their 60s and yet somehow manage to run around boarding ships and fighting in wars and getting shot and popping back up again.
And the way gender was handled got worse and worse with each book. I don’t care what time period it was, when every single main character less one is raped, something is wrong. And Jamie’s action at the end of the last book was ridiculous, it’s like he regresses into a neanderthal “me big strong, me kill man who touch me wife”.
I read through all of your reviews for each book of the series; they are very accurate, honest, and entertaining. You gave #1 and #2 higher points than I did (and #3, once I got to Claire holding on for dear life in a mango tree I read the remainder as comedy, the crocodile head helped). I admit that I enjoyed reading the first two books, however I did feel that halfway through book #1 I was reading fanfiction – which is interesting, because I think that book was published before fanfiction existed, at least as an internet phenomenon. As time goes on, the series reads like episodic stories of contrived scenes smothered in fluff and lemons. Also, I think the first ever Mary Sue was a Quaker.
Anyways, I digress. The point is that I am mature enough to recognize that I wasted my life and my eyesight and my intelligence on these books. Maybe the first two deserve the paper they were printed on but all the subsequent books would have been less of a smear on the world’s carbon footprint if they were used to print editions of the Twilight books in Pig Latin.”
Betty is my new hero. She and I are destined to be best friends. I ADORE her comments and continue to chuckle over some of her sentences. While this has absolutely nothing to do with anything occurring in my life right now, Betty gets major props for her forthrightness and spot-on commentary on this unfathomably popular series.
All of that rape turned me off from the first book. I don’t know how you kept going!
I can handle that. Now that everyone else has been raped, it is rather amusing because it is obvious Gabaldon cannot think of a different story arc.
Betty made me LOL, her comment was so detailed, honest and funny too. Off to Che knout her blog
I know. She made me laugh too. That comment of hers is priceless.
I totally agree. I read the first one because everyone else was and LOVED them but I wasn’t impressed. I’ve thought I should give her another try but now maybe I won’t bother.
Thanks for the time saver. There are so many other good books out there!
No problem! I am happy to help!
My solution was just to only read book 1… I still don’t regret that decision. Book 1 was good.
Good solution. There is a part of me that regrets continuing the series after book 1. Then again, I do have fun skewering the later books.
I cannot read books, no matter how much hype there is around them, if they are poorly written. I read the first volumes of both Fifty Shades and Twilight because everyone was talking about them, and couldn’t finish either. Good writing and editing is important in my books. Thanks for validating my decision not to read these.
No problem! I read the tripe so others don’t have to do it! 😉
And yet…you still read them! LOL.
I have steered clear of these books but my book club said these would be good books to read if you liked the 50 Shades books. I was intrigued by this comment because I don’t think they are at ALL alike just from what I’ve read about them. And, I don’t care to read 50 Shades either so I will never know.
I know. I can’t help it! I love torturing myself with them. Sometimes, they are so ridiculous, you have to read a passage twice to make sure you read it correctly. And they are always good for a laugh or three.
Having never read a single word of the 50 Shades travesty, I can’t compare them. I will say there is no consensual bondage in them. I would never compare the two series either. That is just an odd comparison.
this is amazing. I totally feel validated now for my choice to not have read any Outlander books yet. I think I’ll keep skipping them.
Good for you!
So, I’ve read OUTLANDER twice and listened to part of it once. Sigh. And I never go on. I know that there is a reason for that and I am declaring that I liked book #1 OK and I will not be continuing. There, I’ve said it. 🙂
Welcome to the club!!
Love it – I have not started this series because it is sooooo big and overwhelming but felt they are something I should read so I have slowly been collecting them you know… for like a blizzard or something so I can really dig in. I enjoyed reading your thoughts here as that is the first time I heard a comment like this. It is refreshing.
Journey is out still if I will give them a try but I love knowing ahead of time what I may find myself going “WHA?”
Oh, there are a few of us who thoroughly enjoy making fun of the series. The first book really is impressive, but I would stop there. LOL!
Haha…this is great! I have a lot of friends who are big fans of this series, and I have always felt like I am missing out. I tried, THREE TIMES, to get into it, and it just wasn’t for me. I don’t feel bad about it anymore. Sometimes I’m just not going to enjoy what everyone else is reading and that’s okay with me.
Good for you. I succumbed to pressure, loved the first two, and am now stuck in this cycle of torturing myself with the crappy series because I need to know how it ends. I do love telling people how much I loathe most of the series. It never fails to surprise people and upset fans.