Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone by Diana Gabaldon
The past may seem the safest place to be… but it is the most dangerous time to be alive… Jamie Fraser and Claire Randall were torn apart by the Jacobite Rising in 1746, and it took them twenty years to find each other again. Now the American Revolution threatens to do the same.
It is 1779 and Claire and Jamie are at last reunited with their daughter, Brianna, her husband, Roger, and their children on Fraser’s Ridge. Having the family together is a dream the Frasers had thought impossible.
Yet even in the North Carolina backcountry, the effects of a war are being felt. Tensions in the Colonies are great and local feelings run hot enough to boil Hell’s teakettle. Jamie knows loyalties among his tenants are split and it won’t be long until the war is on his doorstep.
Brianna and Roger have their own worry: that the dangers that provoked their escape from the twentieth century might catch up to them. Sometimes they question whether risking the perils of the 1700s - among them disease, starvation, and an impending war - was indeed the safer choice for their family.
Not so far away, young William Ransom is still coming to terms with the discovery of his true father’s identity- and thus his own - and Lord John Grey has reconciliations to make, and dangers to meet… on his son’s behalf, and his own.
Meanwhile, the revolutionary War creeps ever closer to Fraser’s Ridge. And with the family finally together, Jamie and Claire have more at stake than ever before.
~~~~~
This is the first time in the seven years I’ve been reading the Outlander books that I’m caught up enough to read a new release when it comes out. Because of that fact alone, no matter how good or bad the book, it’s already a fun adventure for me. Like previous books, this one is quite lengthy. And typical to Gabaldon’s style, the “in between book” tends to give us the content we want but not the excitement we deserve. This book was a great insight into more of the domestic life of Fraser’s Ridge, which is what I loved about the sixth book, but unlike the sixth book, this one didn’t have as much excitement and danger woven throughout the plot. There was excitement, but it was small moments of excitement in comparison to what this family is used to. I won’t lie, I was thankful for that, I was so terrified by the title that this book would BREAK me. It definitely set up an amazing plot for the next book (dare I say the finale to the series?). It wasn’t what I anticipated, but I enjoyed being back in this world anyway and I can’t wait to see what happens next (the wait might kill me).
Given how new this book is and how highly anticipated it was, I won’t get into it too much because I don’t want to inadvertently spoil anything, even something minor. I will say, this book holds a lot of the same magic that we’re used to. Gabaldon has such a talent for pulling me right into that time period in such an effortless way with only a few short sentences. I loved the more familial interactions of this one (as opposed to the completely battle focused An Echo in the Bone). And the more that the Fraser family grows, the more attached I get to what used to be more outlying characters that are now coming sharper into focus (if any of these characters die in book ten I will riot). We start off with a much anticipated reunion, although I wish we could have seen the immediate aftermath of where the last book left off, I was still satisfied with how it was handled. From there we go along the life of the Fraser’s learning to be a family again with the final dregs of the Revolutionary War coming closer to their peaceful life on the Ridge. There were some great cameos from forgotten characters and for once in this entire series, I actually ENJOYED William’s point of view and I can’t wait to read more about him now.
Now to the length of the novel. Was it unnecessary. Absolutely. Gabaldon spends full length paragraphs running through grocery items that Claire is counting off in her head. I don’t need to know how many jars of fruit they need to survive the winter. I don’t care. In a lot of ways the extensive length of these books do help us get into the mindset of the time we’re reading which is great, but sometimes it goes too far. This one tended to run off plot a lot more than the others. Sometimes I skimmed those pages because it honestly added nothing to the story. Instead of grocery lists, we could have had literally anything else and it would have added some excitement to the duller moments. I also found the “exciting” plot points paled in comparison to previous books which made it kind of a strange read. I do, however, think that the last few hundred pages set up a really great intricate twist that I’m looking forward to seeing play out.
Overall I’m just happy to be back in this world with Jamie and Claire. I do think Bree and Roger got sidelined a bit which I didn’t enjoy (book Bree/Roger is SO MUCH BETTER than TV Bree/Roger. Trust me). It was longer than necessary but that’s just the usual at this point. I still had a fun time reading it and I binged this one faster than any of the others because it was an easy read. I gave it 3.5 stars.