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Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Abortion, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Infertility, Pedophilia
Minor: Abandonment
I think beyond the world building and insane amounts of detail about Neanderthal lifestyles, I really liked the writing style. I've noticed in some of the other older fantasies that I've read, like The Blue Sword, the authors will just head hop into multiple characters in literally the same paragraph. However, the reason it works for me is because they do it purposefully and not by accident. They use it to build out the other characters and in turn the main character, and overall, it keeps the story moving with momentum and expands the world in a way that makes it feel fleshed out. Genuinely, I need this style of writing to make a comeback in fantasy stories today.
There are a lot of characters followed, and every single one is fleshed out and consistent throughout it all. The way Broud's hatred progressively grows is so realistic and, in a way, satisfying seeing every piece fall into place as the story goes. He is one of the most annoying, and probably more evil antagonists I've read in a long time just by how common his attitude is.
Also, soooooo much happens in these 500 pages, like more plot than most modern day books can dream of. I guarantee if this were written today, the first book would've stopped when Ayla got back from the death curse, and they also would've dragged out most of the plot points two-fold. I appreciate how much ground is covered in one book.
It is kind of hard reading about the super strict patriarchy, but it helps that Ayla constantly chafes against it. It also helps that there are some really decent characters who are not a-holes that we follow (in all actuality, there's only one a-hole and his name is Broud).
Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Child death, Death, Infertility, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Violence, Grief, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence
Moderate: Animal death, Gore
Minor: Death of parent, Pregnancy
Graphic: Animal death, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, Death of parent
Graphic: Sexism, Terminal illness, Violence, Death of parent
Moderate: Animal death, Death, Blood, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Abortion, Sexual harassment
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Abandonment
Moderate: Death, Miscarriage, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Pregnancy
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Misogyny, Rape, Blood, Cannibalism
Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Incest, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Medical content, Pregnancy, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Misogyny, Rape, Violence, Pregnancy
Minor: Child death, Death of parent
The book has two modes: either it is providing rich descriptions of reconstructed Neanderthal life (for which the author did a truly impressive amount of research and filled in the gaps very believably), or it's advancing the story of Ayla, Cro-Magnon who finds herself adopted by her cousin species after an earthquake kills her family, and struggles with her differences as she ages into adulthood.
The novel's age makes it hard to read as a straightforward educational text. Even if I assume the writer did her research, anything I read will necessarily reflect the scientific consensus of fourty-five years ago - for all I know, half the things I read haven't been taken seriously by paleontologists for all of the current millennium. Having to constantly second-guess the things I was reading really took away from this part of the work.
Ayla's own story is... slow, mostly. Entire pages are devoted to our heroine's positively glacial thought process (when they're not being interrupted by more scenes of plant-gathering), a small crowd of several dozen characters fights for their own spotlight time, and as if that doesn't sound bad enough already, the novel eschews timeskips in favor of telling us, year by year, of how the found five-year-old grows into a teenager.
Then there's the B-plot, which I found extremely uncomfortable because it amounts to "Isn't it so sad how these evolutionarily stagnant but deeply spiritual people are doomed to be replaced by a fitter, smarter, better branch of humanity, who are anachronistically blond btw". One significant character's entire arc resolves around his people's inevitable doom, and I kept just waiting for those scenes to be over whenever they popped up.
Still, the book has its virtues. The worldbuilding is incredibly believable and very evocative, the character work is competent, and the ending wrapped everything up very nicely. The Clan of the Cave Bear isn't always perfect, but at least it's interesting.
Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Abandonment
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Pedophilia, Rape, Terminal illness, Abortion
Minor: Dementia
Moderate: Rape, Violence
Minor: Animal death