Outlander Book Club: The Fiery Cross Chapter 86 breakdown

Foreshadowing in the Outlander chapter

The chapter certainly has some foreshadowing. One element is in the dream Brianna has. It’s clear that Bonnet is still to come. There are comments of the monster in the background, and I get the sense that there may not be a monster in the background. Is Bree the monster that Bonnet sees? The one that can bring him down or prevent him from facing a terrible fate?

Then there’s the sword fighting. Roger is learning skills that he’s going to eventually need. Yes, we get this moment of clarity for Roger settling into life in the past, but we also get this sense that anything could happen. And something is going to happen.

Adapting The Fiery Cross chapter

The chapter wasn’t adapted in the show. I’ll admit that I’m glad a lot of these chapters weren’t used. I can see why a lot of this book was skipped over.

For a book, seeing life as just life can work. However, this sort of storyline doesn’t work for a TV show. The lulls would be too much, especially if they happened for episode after episode. TV shows need to have drama and action in each episode.

I do struggle with this book with each read-through. If it wasn’t for knowing A Breath of Snow and Ashes gets better, I could have stopped the series partway through this book. I did worry about how the show would adapt it for the fifth season.

There was a small part of this chapter used in the series. We got to see Jamie and Roger have fun with swords for a brief moment.

What did you spot while reading The Fiery Cross Chapter 86? Let us know in the comments below.

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