Maliha's Reviews > Into the Wilderness

Something must be very wrong with me since I did not LOVE this novel despite all its 5 star reviews. I am a huge fan of the Outlander series and pretty much anything Diana Gabaldon decides to write so I read Into the Wilderness because of her praise and her fans' praise for this novel. And I have to say that it was just OKAY; it was not bad. The author definitely put a good amount of research into the story but it failed complexity. The characters were not as developed as they could have been and neither was the flow of the plot. Her writing style was mediocre to good. I don't know if my attitude was wrong coming into this novel, I was expecting maybe too much but Elizabeth Middleton's character was too routine. She was too much of a goody-two-shoes who did everything right without thinking twice about her actions. And everyone (except Richard Todd and Julian) and their mother just kept praising her and saying how she was such a "strong woman." Again, I might be overreacting, but it was all just too SQUARE for my liking. I guess I found her character as naive despite all she experienced.

I thought that the "hero" Bonner's character was introduced into the story MUCH too soon and much too abruptly. Everything was just obvious to be enticing. But there was excitement to it after all. I read it relatively quickly but I am hesitant to read book 2 of this series. I suppose if I grow tired of waiting for Gabaldon's next novel, and run out of other books to read I will give the sequel to Into the Wilderness a go. But do give it a read, it is worth that at least.