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3.52 AVERAGE
3.52 AVERAGE
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
What a wildly interesting look at how humans are destroying earth as we know it while incorporating imagined creatures and what sounds like impossible science
Content Warnings
Minor: Animal death, Car accident, Death of parent, Pregnancy
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
I’m sorry, but I hated it. I liked the last paragraph.
adventurous
emotional
funny
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
hopeful
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was very lovely! I picked it up initially because the premise being centered around the very experiment I’d been interested in in school - using CRISPR technology to bring back wooly mammoths to help global warming - in the form of a fiction novel was super interesting to me. What this book was on a larger scale was a reflection on familiar love, grief, and what it means to be alive and a living creature on this planet. The prose was beautiful and the dialogue funny and at times heartbreakingly raw.
There were times I felt like the characters and their interactions felt written kinda flatly as we pretty much see everything through Vera’s eyes, but even then it kind of feels like we are at a distance from what’s happening. But that is just a writing style preference issue for me. In any case, by the end I found myself so connected to the fate of this family and the cutest little wooly mammoth baby Pearl, and felt the smallest bit hope for the future of this planet, that I think the journey was worth it.
There were times I felt like the characters and their interactions felt written kinda flatly as we pretty much see everything through Vera’s eyes, but even then it kind of feels like we are at a distance from what’s happening. But that is just a writing style preference issue for me. In any case, by the end I found myself so connected to the fate of this family and the cutest little wooly mammoth baby Pearl, and felt the smallest bit hope for the future of this planet, that I think the journey was worth it.
The life of every woman is greatly influenced by the “invisibility lady cloak”, serving as both a blessing and a curse. Jane, and her daughters Eve and Vera, learn this only too well as we follow their path through “The Last Animal”. What a gorgeous novel intricately weaving together weighty and important themes-feminism, motherhood, misogyny, scientific ethics and climate change. While a voracious reader, due to life circumstances over the last week, I have not been able to provide this beautiful novel the attention it deserves. I cannot wait to read it again, when I am in a “reading mindset.”