Thursday Thirteen: THE EXILE

Thursday 13 Books

Thirteen Things I Liked about THE EXILE:

In no particular order:

S

P

O

I

L

E

R

S

1) The "wedding kiss" portrait of Jamie and Claire.

2) Gorgeous landscapes!

3) Jamie's Butt (along with the rest of him <g>) on page 5.

4) We finally learn what happened to Claire's shoes.

5) The white owl and its symbolism.

6) Jamie's face in the early pictures, especially in Chapter 1, is just as I imagined it.

7) "And if one of those effing sparrows sh!ts in my tea...." (I love that line.)

8) How Murtagh and Rupert acquired a wedding gown. ("Force, or bribery?")

9) Murtagh saw Claire come through the stones (!)

10) The story of the nameless girl in France.

11) The wedding-night sex scene -- even if it IS "expurgated" <g>

12) Ned Gowan, who looks very dignified in beard and spectacles.

13) The very last panel on the last page, with Jamie and Claire literally riding off into the sunset, the standing stones in the background, and Murtagh looking at Ellen's picture. I love that.

You will notice that I didn't include the Geillis-Kenneth storyline here. I'm still not quite sure how I feel about it, but aside from the mystery factor on the first reading -- "Who the hell IS that?!? And what's he doing here?" -- it wasn't one of my favorite aspects of this book.

Feel free to add your own favorites to this list. I have more things that I liked, but there wasn't room to include everything above.

*** NOTE ABOUT SPOILERS ***

You don't need spoiler warnings to discuss THE EXILE on my blog. But if you're commenting about this on Facebook, please be careful not to reveal major spoilers. People can't avoid reading the comments. Please comment here on the blog directly if you want to talk about the specifics of the story or artwork. Thanks!

7 comments

Jane said...

I couldn't add to your excellent list. You hit right on the head as far as I am concerned.

Anonymous said...

You're mostly right, Karen.

Dumb ol' me, I still don't know what happened to Claire's shoon and don't even remember they were missing. (Same with the "girl in France".)

But what about the other 36 pages?

Your fan,

B Schumacher

Karen Henry said...

Barbara:

About the shoes: Sorry, that may have been a bit too much of an inside joke. This has been a running joke on Compuserve for several years -- the question being, "What happened to the 20th century shoes Claire was wearing when she came through the stones?"

The answer is found in THE EXILE, in chapter 9. Look at the shoes Claire is wearing in chapter 1 when she first comes through the stones. Then look at chapter 9 again, paying close attention to the female characters' feet.

That's all I'm going to say, without giving it away. But I was VERY surprised! :-)

The nameless girl in France is mentioned by Jamie in ECHO, chapter 94, "Paths of Death", p. 774 in the hardcover. He's talking about the girl in the tavern in chapter 1 of THE EXILE.

Um, what other 36 pages??

Karen

Anonymous said...

There was one moment that I loved and thought was absolutely sweet, when Claire faints after their wedding and he sits by her side and tells her he loves her and always will. That kind of broke my heart which lead into Murtagh and the picture of Jamie's mother <3

Karen Henry said...

Mariam - yes, I loved that scene! That was the part that made me cry.

Karen

Anonymous said...

The other 36 pages are the ones we all have gripes about (i.e., Jamie's face, Claire's hair and eyes, the cookie-cutter look of the men, the questions about Kenneth, and the boobs).

That said, however, I am among those who worship at Diana's altar. I have the whole Outlander series on unabridged talking books (takes about 6 months of commuting to get through all of it), and there's always something new that comes through.

Barbara

Anonymous said...

One of my favorites pictures is during the wedding when Claire and Jamie are gazing into each other eyes, and Jamie says, "Say the words after me, lass..."

It's such an intimate moment between the two of them, and I found it quite amazing that Hoang could show that kind of raw emotion between two people in a graphic novel.

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