Elisabeth Zguta's Book Reviews

This story swept me right along with the characters, across the Highland countryside, while plunging them into the deepest core of degradation, then lifting them to the ecstasy of humanity—all in one book.

This novel is a cross between historical fiction, thriller adventure, and romantic tragedy. The reader will discover more about the Scottish clans and truly feel as if sitting beside them. Although this is the first book by Diana Gabaldon in this series, the author managed to deliver a full and hearty plot, wonderfully described characters each with their own unique strong voice, and many swings up and down, pacing an epic adventure.

The protagonists, Claire and Jamie, are bigger than life. I am adding the next book in the series to my must read list. I highly recommend this novel—great reading!

Some reviews posted of the story on this site have postured that rape violence was used by the author as a gimmick plot device, however I wholeheartedly disagree. Some topics are dramatic by themselves surely, however the author delved into the heart of the matter and brought out a real human experience from the violence. She also portrayed the characters as real sexual beings, which I find most people are, and fleshed out how the characters reacted to the horror. All topics that touch upon humanity should be fair game to use in our writing - if not, what would be left to write about?