My cousin recommended Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon, to me. It wasn’t an enthusiastic recommendation. It had been recommended to her, and she hadn’t really been into it, but she thought I might enjoy it.

I’m often hesitant to take on a book that is a solid two inches thick, especially on a recommendation that starts with, “I didn’t really like it, but…”

As it turns out, I did enjoy it. 

The book is full of dry humor and combines history and time travel.

What’s not to love? Some graphic sex scenes made me feel like I’d been temporarily transported into a romance novel, and then dropped back into historical fiction when the scene was over. The scenes could have been less graphic and still have communicated what the author wanted to convey.

The book also contains some pretty harrowing violence as well, including sexual violence, although the author protects the reader from the worst of it with innuendo and descriptions that let you know while it was worse that she’s said, she’ll spare you the details.

The author was fantastic with Scottish dialect, writing it in such a way that I could hear the characters speaking in my head. The descriptions were detailed so as to put you right there in the action from minute to minute, and there was a lot of action.

I didn’t begrudge the book its length. It was a really enjoyable read. The adult content overall was contextual, and the story and the idea the book was based on were fascinating.

The story had me wondering about my Irish ancestors, and wondering about the differences in clothing from Scotland to other areas in Europe during the 1740’s.

Once I was finished, I started feeling curious about the TV show that is based on the book. I was also wary – knowing about the content in the book and the way shows seem to like to smear your face in sex and violence lately, I suspected the show would be too graphic for me.

Of course, the internet was onto my doubts, and offered me a $5/month for three months subscription to a streaming service that would allow me to binge watch the first three seasons or so. Even if I only watched a couple of shows and then decided it wasn’t my cup of tea, I would get my money’s worth.

On a Sunday afternoon, I sat in bed for three hours and watched 3 and a half episodes, and surprised myself by loving it. In terms of content, the worst is yet to come. So we’ll see if I make it though to the end.

I’ve already requested book two of the series from the library, and only hope if I continue with the show that I can keep up my reading so that I’m ahead of the plot.

The show is doing a good job so far of interpreting the book. It’s always fun to watch a show or movie based on a book right after you read it while the details are still fresh. It has only veered from the book a few times – once, to right a historical wrong in the book (women wore stays, not corsets, in the 1700’s. Otherwise the show was a bit loose with historical costume accuracy. The female actors were made up like harlots when their natural beauty would have been more accurate. Plus, it would have suited them better. My take on the period clothing is based on immersion in historical dress for the past couple of months.  I’m not an expert by any means, so who knows. Maybe 1740’s ladies in Scotland did wear chunky knit shrugs.) The other two things I noticed were plot differences – one, I agreed with, and the other, I’m not a fan of but we’ll see if it makes a difference to the overall storyline.

I haven’t read historical fiction based in Scotland recently, if ever, and this was a wonderful read. It was also super long, so it kept me immersed for a while. I was a fan.

I saw an interview with some of the actors and makers of the show Outlander, where they described the process of picking the actors for the main characters. According to them, they had known immediately that the actors were the right ones when they saw their tapes. Maybe they’ll grow on me, but I’m not a fan of either actor yet. It’s not that they’re bad, it’s just that they didn’t match the image I had in my head or the way I thought the author described them. Maybe I wouldn’t have minded so much if I’d waited longer between the show and the book.

Update: I made it through the first season of the TV show and found my knowledge of the book was invaluable for helping me to know when to skip ahead through the really bad parts, which were much easier to read than to watch. Having read the book also gave me the confidence that if I skipped ahead a little too much, I wouldn’t miss anything because I already knew the story. I tentatively started watching Season Two while still waiting for the second book in the series to come in at the library. Mistake. I couldn’t anticipate any of the questionable content and if I navigated away, I would lose the plot. I’ll be waiting to watch more until I have a chance to read the book.