First of all, yes, this is essentially a five star review, but please note, it’s five stars with reservations. The five stars is almost entirely due to the first 1/3 or so of the book (and maybe a little past that) and how it absolutely took over my life. If I could, I’d probably rate the first 1/3 six or seven stars, and the rest four, but that’s obviously not possible, so here we are. The rest of the reason that I settled on five stars is due to the fact that I just really super enjoyed myself while reading, as weird and disjointed as it got towards the end, and even if the end didn’t match the absolute emotional perfection that was the beginning.
I mean, the first half, just . . . absolutely delicious agony. That’s the best way I can think to describe it. After that cliffhanger ending that was Dragonfly in Amber (wherein Claire learns that Jamie in fact did not die in the battle of Culloden like she thought he did). This section of the book switches back and forth from three different POVs: Claire, Roger, and Jamie and Claire’s daughter Brianna searching throughout the historical record for any trace of what happened to Jamie and where Claire can find him were she to go back; flashbacks to the past twenty years for Claire, Bree, and Frank; and flashbacks to the past twenty years for Jamie. I found Jamie’s sections particularly fascinating (how he survived, yes, but a bunch more stuff that I really shouldn’t spoil in this review). This whole section builds and builds, culminating in Claire traveling back through the stones to find Jamie. And this is when I nearly lost my damn mind. It just builds up the tension of EVERYTHING until you’re ready to absolutely die, and then they finally meet again for the first time in twenty years, and you DO die, and it’s so perfect. I will admit: it was pretty much impossible for things not to be a bit disappointing after that.
The second half slash 2/3 (or whatever) was good, but it got Gabaldon Weird and didn’t have the structural integrity of the first half. The second 1/3 of the book mainly features Claire and Jamie re-learning to be in love, and Claire attempting to fit herself back into Jamie’s life (which is very different than it was twenty years previously, mainly as a result of what happened at Culloden). They also have twenty year blanks to fill in with each other, including the births of multiple children. (The scene where Jamie sees pictures of his daughter for the first time made my soul hurt.) There’s stuff with Leg-whore (Malin informs me this is the fandom’s name for Laoghire), Jenny, hidden treasure, a kidnapped nephew, and smugglers. Also, kilts are banned! There are no more kilts! I can’t believe I didn’t know the English did that. The last 1/3 of the book got all rescuey and adventurey. There was a thing with a ship to Jamaica, shipwrecks and pirates and voodoo and witches and drunken priests. Oh, and Jamie’s adopted son Fergus* and a wedding. And a pretty racist depiction of a Chinese character Jamie calls Mr. Willoughby (I’m pretty sure Gabaldon intended to portray the racism of the time period here, but as always she seems to have trouble delineating between that and actually being sort of racist herself). And a Very Special Person shows up just when you least expect it. By the end, Jamie and Claire have basically spanned half the globe, and some crazy shit has gone down, but it basically all hangs together, and everybody is happy.
*I forgot to mention how much I love Fergus in my review of Dragonfly in Amber. I love Fergus. That’s all, really.
After finishing this book, I officially count myself a fan of this series, although the end of this book was the perfect place to stop, as it’s clear from the ending that the series is going somewhere super new after this. Hint: the year 1776 is coming up real quick like. Also: I can’t wait for Jamie to meet Bree, and I think partly my taking a break from the series was a way to extend that delicious agony just a bit longer. I wonder who the show will cast in that part? She’s got to be tall, have red hair and be able to have a passable American accent. Google has been very unhelpful in this matter, as has the fancasting I’ve seen (although I very much support the idea of Henry Cavill as Roger). None of the girls I’ve seen as potential options seem likely candidates to me. Thoughts, fellow Outlander fans?