Outlander Book Club: A Breath of Snow and Ashes Chapter 22 breakdown

Just the Outlander chapter

The chapter starts with Malva showing up for the ointment. While there, she takes a look through Claire’s surgery and the black book that Claire writes in. Claire is more than happy to show Malva the book and answer a lot of questions.

This isn’t surprising. Malva is a young girl. She is naturally going to be inquisitive, especially when her father has noted that Claire is probably some sort of conjure woman. Malva even notes that Tom says the black book is full of spells. It is just the time period and not something I put too much focus on.

What I do focus on is the type of questions Malva asks. It’s clear to Claire that this is a young woman who is eager to learn. Claire offers Malva a chance to help her in the surgery. This is the start of what could have been a positive friendship. It’s just a shame that the Christie men completely ruined things.

While I don’t say that Malva is completely innocent, she is a product of trauma and abuse. We have to remember what her brother is like. I’m not going into that here. Let’s get into the foreshadowing section for that. This chapter just makes it clear that Malva is not the witch that some Outlander fans will make her out to be.