Reviews

Reindeer Moon by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas

astralpika's review

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

charlie9_9's review against another edition

4.0

interesting book if you like seeing how people lived back in the days of the mammoths. loved learning how they married into different tribes because of what they offered each other.

allisontaylor317's review

informative sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

I enjoyed this book and found it informative and interesting.  I became confused by the main character towards the end of the book and upset by the ending. This book is brutal and unforgiving and will stay with me and haunt me for a long time I'm sure.  Lots of descriptions of animals/people hunting and killing. 

minorcan's review

adventurous challenging emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

blakew321's review

adventurous mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This is one of the strangest books I have ever read. It is set in a hunter-gatherer society 20000 years ago in Siberia. It was quite interesting to read about the culture that the author created for this society, presumably based on existing indigenous cultures and other research that she conducted. I liked learning about the environment and the different kinds of animals that lived there, and just how hard life was for humans.

However, the words faeces, scat, urine and coitus (among so many others) were used far, far too often in this book. To be honest, it was a bit like the author would try in any way she could to put them in there. Also the 

sex scene where they were wolves (I think the author was a furry before furries were a thing), the touching of private parts as a mammoth, that caught wolf having semen and faeces in the trap, the random dead baby passages, so many awkward coitus references, the incest between multiple family members, the humans eating the wolf vomit and vice versa, and the bizarre breast milk imagery

were just some of the highlights that made this book truly disturbing. 

I didn't find the prose to be boring or bad but I also didn't think it was good. The actual plot was alright, and kept me wanting to finish the book, but I didn't feel like it rewarded me in the end.

There was no real climax and then bestie just died of childbirth for like no real reason in the story.

I didn't think the flashforwards to her being a spirit were that useful -

they only felt like they were building up to her death which wasn't very climactic. At least the babies weren't her second cousin's!

. I also didn't feel like Yanan was a very compelling protagonist. Yes, she had some skills, but I felt like she always made shitty decisions and let her temper run wild for no reason. She had nothing about her for me to latch onto and like. 

Anyway, even though I've laid into this book and the strange, strange reading experience that came with it, for some reason I don't feel like it deserves less than 3 stars. I always actually wanted to keep reading, and I was interested in the world. So there you go! But I can say with certainty that I will not be reading the sequel, thank you very much. 

tidybex's review against another edition

3.0

Not a book I would have picked off a shelf usually, but I rather enjoyed it. Ms Thomas took me to another time and place, and on occasions I lost myself in the narrative; always a sign of a good book to me. Not the best ending, as it was rather inevitable, and I feel the author could have expanded on it. However, Ms Thomas's research, coupled with her vivid imagination and ability to tell a story, made this a very satisfactory read.

bahoulie's review against another edition

4.0

This was a truly good prehistory book with a really interesting mix of fantasy (for early religion). I loved the chapters where the main character was a spirit and took the form of different animals. The author gave what felt like a very good version of what it might be like to be those different animals.
This is a sad story, but somehow not depressing.

xoffelokin's review against another edition

I feel really bad for not finishing. Someday I'll buy it and then I'll have all the time in the world to finish.

riverdaydream's review

adventurous dark emotional informative inspiring reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

bmoonc's review

adventurous informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.5