6 YA Reads for Outlander Fans
Outlander is one of the hottest book series and television shows around, a heady combination of fantasy, romance, history, and most importantly, time travel. Set in early 18th-century Scotland and France, as well as post-wartime England, the series chronicles the adventures and love-against-all-odds story of Claire and Jamie Fraser. As season two winds to a close, here are 6 YA books to tide you over until the next one.
Into the Dim by Janet B. Taylor
Time travel and a Scottish setting? Blurbed by La Gabaldon herself, Into the Dim is the story of 16-year-old Hope Walton, who is sent away to spend the summer in Scotland with her mysterious relatives following the death of her mother. Once there, Hope uncovers her family’s deepest secret: they’re part of a secret society of time travelers, and Hope’s mother isn’t dead. Instead she’s trapped in the time of Eleanor of Aquitaine, and Hope is the only one who can save her. Like Claire, Hope is an incredibly resourceful heroine, and one who must make a heartbreaking choice at the end of the book (which we won’t spoil).
Passenger by Alexandra Bracken
Etta Spencer is a violin prodigy in present-day New York City, and Nicholas Carter is a young free black man in 18th-century North America, but like Claire and Jamie, they meet when Etta is swept back into the past following a performance. It turns out that Etta, like Nicholas, is a time traveler, and she’s thrust into the middle of a complex internecine war between rival time traveling families. At stake is an astrolabe capable of controlling time travel, which Etta’s mother stole and hid away. Charged with finding the instrument, Etta and Nicholas set off across incredible and richly realized locales, from 1910s Bhutan, to London during the Blitz, to late 16th-century Damascus, following the clues left behind by her mother. Lots of twists and turns, plus a swoony romance, will keep readers turning the pages to the end.
The Girl from Everywhere by Heidi Heilig
Time traveling pirates! Need I say anything else? If you must hear more, then Heidi Helig’s The Girl from Everywhere is the story of Nix Song, born in 1868 Honolulu to parents from different times, who is from everywhere and nowhere at once. She travels on a magical time traveling pirate ship with her captain father, who’s obsessed with finding the right map to lead them to a time before Nix’s mother’s death so he can save her. Like Claire and Jamie, Nix’s father is desperate to prevent history from happening, but Nix herself is a bit more conflicted. What will it mean if they manage to save her mother’s life? Will the reality Nix has known her entire life cease to exist? Will Nix even be born?
Palace of Spies by Sarah Zettel
There isn’t any time travel in the Palace of Spies series, but there’s plenty of political intrigue and foiling of Jacobite plots. Heroine Peggy Fitzroy, like Claire and Jamie, is working to stop the Jacobites from rising, if for slightly different reasons. Claire and Jamie want to prevent the slaughter at the Battle of Culloden, but Peggy is loyal to the Hanoverian court. Still, the machinations between agents of influence and power between the two series is pretty similar, plus the historical period is the same, so pick these up to scratch your Outlander itch!
Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly
If the 18th-century French setting of Dragonfly in Amber intrigued you, then pick up Jennifer Donnelly’s excellent Revolution. It follows the story of Andi Alpers, a guitar prodigy reeling from the tragic accidental death of her baby brother. Shipped off to Paris with her world-renowned geneticist father, Andi discovers a small journal hidden in an old guitar case telling the tragic tale of another lost boy: Louis-Charles de Bourbon, the son of the ill-fated King Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette. The narrative is told from Andi’s point of view in the present and Alexandrine’s in the past, mirroring each other until they intertwine. Is there time time travel in this book? To tell you would be a spoiler!
Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier
Another book featuring the 18th century and time travel shenanigans! Ruby Red is the first in a trilogy by German author Kerstin Gier about 16-year-old Gwyneth Shepherd, who grew up in a family of time travelers and fully expected her cousin Charlotte to inherit the time traveling gene. However, it turns out that it’s Gwyneth, not Charlotte, who is the chosen one, and must team up with fellow traveler Giden to journey to the 18th century to meet with the enigmatic Count of St. Germain and learn the ways of their secret society. Gwyneth is charmingly normal, a teenage schoolgirl more concerned with homework and texting friends than unlocking the secrets of the universe, but soon the the stakes are to high to ignore.