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3.57 AVERAGE
3.57 AVERAGE
This is a very difficult book to review for me. I LOVED the concept and I thought that the narration, with two timelines, was quite clever. It's also clear that the author did some research. I really enjoyed reading Girl's storyline, although the language was sometimes a bit too graphic for me. It did really drive home what I think could be true, that early humans (Neanderthal or otherwise) considered themselves as animal (more than we do now) and thought about and used their senses in a similar way. I loved the way tools were described as extensions of attributes of animals - e.g., a hand axe being similar to a tiger's tooth. That was a really cool way of visualizing the connection to the nature around them, I think. Girl's storyline was just fascinating, the descriptions of land, people, weather, seasons... Definitely tickled my imagination!
But I wasn't as fond of Rose's modern-day storyline. She's not very likeable, which made it harder for me to get into her storyline. And I also felt that her parts were pretty unrealistic (if only because Girl's was so far into the past that we don't know what it was like). I had no idea what to make of her, and I feel like any individual, no matter how passionate about their job, would devote a bit more time to a pregnancy, especially in these circumstances.
So all in all, amazing concept and it's at least partly well executed, but not enough for me to give it five stars.
But I wasn't as fond of Rose's modern-day storyline. She's not very likeable, which made it harder for me to get into her storyline. And I also felt that her parts were pretty unrealistic (if only because Girl's was so far into the past that we don't know what it was like). I had no idea what to make of her, and I feel like any individual, no matter how passionate about their job, would devote a bit more time to a pregnancy, especially in these circumstances.
So all in all, amazing concept and it's at least partly well executed, but not enough for me to give it five stars.
A good mindless background audio book. A lot of info, good for learning some stuff, but would probably have been very bored if I had not been listening to it
The narratives we choose to construct around Neanderthals and how those narratives have changed over time fascinate me because they're usually semi-veiled ways of talking about race and racism, so that's why I read this book. And on that level The Last Neanderthal certainly provides plenty of material worth discussing. I wouldn't describe my reading experience as fun though.
Perhaps because I was already reading this allegorically and because most things we think we know about Neanderthals have been disputed at one time or another, I didn't mind that Cameron took significant creative license with the parts of the book set in the Paleolithic. However, I found the parts set in the modern day to be unbearable. Rosamund Gale is about as believable as a paleoarchaeologist as Indiana Jones, and doesn't come across as very bright. So that's where my suspension of disbelief stops, I guess.
I thought Cameron's prose seemed stilted and choppy, but that's probably a taste thing.
If you don't know as much about paleoarchaeology and human evolution as I do, you might be able to enjoyThe Last Neanderthal, but I couldn't.
Perhaps because I was already reading this allegorically and because most things we think we know about Neanderthals have been disputed at one time or another, I didn't mind that Cameron took significant creative license with the parts of the book set in the Paleolithic. However, I found the parts set in the modern day to be unbearable. Rosamund Gale is about as believable as a paleoarchaeologist as Indiana Jones, and doesn't come across as very bright. So that's where my suspension of disbelief stops, I guess.
I thought Cameron's prose seemed stilted and choppy, but that's probably a taste thing.
If you don't know as much about paleoarchaeology and human evolution as I do, you might be able to enjoyThe Last Neanderthal, but I couldn't.
I had really high hopes for this book and I definitely didn’t hate it but it really didn’t live up to expectations. First of all, I don’t really know anything about Neanderthals but the way that they were able to smell and sense other Neanderthals and animals from so far away and share dreams with each other seemed a little fantastical and sometimes I forgot that I wasn’t reading about a superhero. I also thought the language that the author created for them was a little annoying. Why did they use combinations of different English words?? I think the author would have been better off using made up “nonsense words” rather than making them speak a weird version of English. Because of this, the glossary in the beginning was super unnecessary because we can kind of figure out what the words are supposed to mean by ourselves and if we can’t, there’s an explanation right there in the narrative. As for the present day timeline, I liked how it had so many parallels with the Neanderthal storyline and it really got across the message that humans and Neanderthals weren’t so different after all. However, I found the main character extremely irritating. All in all, this book did not fulfill my expectations of it but it did pique my interest and I’m about to go read about what we know of the Neanderthals and their lives.
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
A great book
adventurous
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
When the quote on the front cover of the book said something like, "you will never think of humanity the same way again," I thought to myself, "sure, okay, buddy, whatever you say, it's just a book take it down a notch" (as I am wont to do). But I always believe that (one of) the signs of a good book is immediately putting it down, after staying up much to late to finish it, and starting a long in-depth google search to find out more about The Lovers of Valdaro, and Claire Cameron's background, and the actual links we've now discovered between humans and Neanderthals, leaving one very, very, tired for work the next day, but with a sense that, while the book might not have totally altered your view of humanity, it did, at the very least, shed light on the power of our shared history, dating back thousands of years, which science will never be able to accurately capture the way Claire has in her latest work.