goodreads | Go Tell the Bees That I am Gone

Title: Go Tell the Bees That I am Gone (Outlander #9)
Author: Diana Gabaldon
Genre: Historical fiction
Rating: 3/5
# pages: 902
Date read: August 2024

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 war are being felt. Tensions in the Colonies are great and local feelings run hot enough to boil Hell’s tea-kettle. 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 book suffers from having a too-famous author and therefore not a critical enough editor. I actually really liked it, and had the rating been tighter, I could easily have given it four stars. But long book is LONG and it didn't need to be. There were SO many plotlines that could have been left out, and it shows.

I think one of the main issues is that Gabaldon writes from too many POVs. The earlier books didn't have that problem, and were a lot tighter for it. I don't care enough for neither Ian, Bree/Roger nor William to read chapter upon chapter about their ongoings. It made sense in "Drums of Autumn" when we had the "then and now" timelines, but not really any longer. I didn't mind the chapters from Jamie's POV as much - probably because those still took place at Frasier's Ridge, and that is what I was interested in reading about!

All in all, I liked the first half the best. Despite everything, the first half read as a comfort book, and I loved reading about the going-ons at Fraiser's Ridge. I loved reading about the every-day life there - the cooking, the farming, the doctoring, the family life - everything! But of course it wouldn't be an Outlander novel without some sort of trouble, so trouble we had -- although FORTUNATELY not to the extend of some of the earlier novels. Diana Gabaldon has learned her lesson and isn't being quite as hard on her darlings as we've seen previously. For which I'm grateful! That did get old rather fast.

As per usual, there were still threads left hanging, so once again I will finish my review off by saying - I hope the next book is the last one. Not because I don't still enjoy the series, but because it deserves a fitting end, rather than to be drawn out ad nauseum.