Submitted by gotsomerantintodo t3_xyxn26 in books
❗️SPOILERS INCOMING❗️I was so excited to start reading Outlander because it is such a popular and highly praised book. I was totally hooked in the first few chapters. In the beginning it seemed like an interesting book with an actual plot. She falls into the past and now she must get back. Sounds entertaining to me. Even the beginning chapters where she was at the McKenzie castle were pretty entertaining. But then she gets married and it basically turns into a sex book. I feel like there was so much potential for some good action/adventure plots. But the focus seems to be on sex. Every single chapter from the time they get married has AT LEAST one sex scene. I don’t mind a good sex scene every so often when it makes sense, but I wasn’t trying to find the next Fifty Shades of Grey when I picked up Outlander. But that’s not why I stopped reading. About halfway through the book there’s a scene where she “puts the clan in danger.” So her new husband Jamie must punish her. And he does. He beats the shit out of her and even enjoys it. The author spends the whole book up to this point trying to paint Jamie as a kind and respectful man who is different from the rest. But then he beats the shit out of her. The author spends the first half of the book trying to paint Claire as a strong independent woman who isn’t going to take your shit. And yet her husband beats the shit out of her and she forgives easily and even understands why he did it. I understand that extreme domestic violence may seem more fitting for the times (1700s), but this felt more like I was reading some house wives fucked up fantasy. It also just didn’t fit with the way she set up the characters and it’s not like the author had been super historically accurate in her representation of how a female such as Claire would have been treated by her husband and the clan up to that point anyway. I read a spoiler somewhere else that he rapes her in the next chapter too so I stopped reading. What did other people think about this book?