A Breath of Snow and Ashes—Outlander series

As I was saying in my Instagram account (@deconstructingenglish), every once in a while I read a book that’s not a classic. Unlike what happens to me with classics, I tend to binge-read novels with contemporary authors. I call them my reading guilty-pleasures since a literary connoisseur should not be reading young-adult stuff right? Well, I don’t really care about that lol

As young-adult goes, last year I read the three books written by Jenny Han: the To All the Boys series. It was a light, but fast paced read. I can’t say it was a masterpiece at all, not even a well-written and thoroughly engaging novel, but I read it nonetheless and it was alright. This time, I read something slightly different.

Four years ago, I started reading the Outlander series, before the first season of the TV series came out—I didn’t even know it was planned. Of course I felt devastated by that ending, so much that I couldn’t stop ranting about it to whomever felt like listening. One of them was my good friend thanna (yes, the name is written with a lowercase “t”), who decided to pick it up as well. Little did I know his interests were not so much in the book as they were in me lol, but I finally had someone to share my Outlander passion with!

We’ve simulwatched all the series and read the majority of the books. So far, I’m starting book 7 and he’s struggling to go through book 5. I completely understand why it’s getting so grueling for him since book 5 is thee one I enjoyed the least. I spaced out most of the time and even skipped lines in order to go faster, which is something I very rarely do. Probably since I skipped or failed to pay attention to most of the events, I barely understood half of what was happening in the story, nor who the new secondary characters, inhabitants of Fraser’s Ridge, were. It mattered not, though, since I got the general idea and somehow managed to get through book 6 without much trouble.

Book 6, which is actually called A Breath of Snow and Ashes is one of my favourites. I can’t really pinpoint the reasons as to why that would be the case, but it is how it is. If I had to mention at least one of those reasons, I would probably say that we have fewer issues and more family everyday slice-of-life than the previous books ever had. As you may probably recall if you’re a fan of the books or the TV show, we had barely seen the main characters actually residing in a house for more than a few years. In Outlander (book 1), Claire had no home and they spent most of the books horse-riding from one place to the other. We do see them living in a house in Dragonfly in Amber, where they stay in France for about a year or two. But they quickly move on the the war events that separate them for twenty years!

Voyager (book 3) was them reuniting, wasn’t it? lol and going to Jamaica, I think it was, but they didn’t stay. Finally in Drums of Autumn (book 4), they start the construction of their new home, but things happen and they also have to make a trip to where the native tribes live and so many inconvenient nuisance takes place that no one feels at peace. We finally have a wedding in The Fiery Cross (book 5) and, my god, how could it be so long! Talking about modernist techniques, hah! In my opinion, the story of Stephen Bonnet as villain was dragged far too long, he wasn’t even so remarkable or threatening passed book 4. But, well, book 5 is all about them thinking about how strenuous war is and how they are all wary and frightened by it. But they only march around some towns and then return home… and then I don’t know what else happens because I forgot…

A Breath of Snow and Ashes was much calmer and relaxed, though. We learn a bit about their daily lives and activities in the Ridge. A few heart-wrenching events happen, but they are quickly solved—except maybe the part where Claire is kidnapped and violently treated, which made me put the book on hold for months, as I didn’t feel like going through the excruciating pressure of reading it just yet. I managed to pass through those pages much later, but, by then, I had forgotten in which chapter I had left off, so I accidentally had to reread a good chunk of it all over again, as I didn’t want to skip too much. All in all, it took about a year to read the whole thing—which is usually how I’ve been rolling lately with these books. I do not allow myself to postpone the reading longer than that.

If you happen to be struggling with book five, because the beginning of the season is only a month away, and you are considering dropping this series just because you’re not enjoying it at the moment, worry not. I assure you it gets much better in book 6! If you like reading about Claire’s little life events as much as I do, then you’ll have plenty of her there. Of course, I loved Bree’s, Roger’s, Jamie’s, and even Ian’s stories just as much. Something quite life-changing happens at the end of book 6, but I will not say a word about it just yet. Just believe me that you don’t want to miss out on that 🙂 It made me all excited for book 7. But, in the meantime, I need to finish other things, An Echo in the Bone can wait for some time. I promise I’ll let you know my thoughts on it as soon as I finish it, which may very well be January 2021—ayy, I’m getting old.

#DiannaGabaldon #ABreathofSnowandAshes #Outlander6 #OutlanderBooks #Outlander