deinonychusa 's review for:

The Mammoth Hunters by Jean M. Auel

3.75

adventurous emotional slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I'll start by saying that I liked this book a little less than the first two. The pace is really slow, almost dragging, for the first half of the book. It's interesting to get to know all the new characters but so little happens in the first half of the book that I found it hard to stay interested. I think I managed to get past the first half just because I was already too invested in Ayla and Jondalar and wanted to know how their story would develop.

The conflict/misunderstanding between Ayla and Jondalar seemed forced too, especially since the main focus of the conflict seems to be Jondalar's jealousy of Ayla's relationship with Ranec, while his inability to accept her background seems almost an afterthought for most of the book, even tho towards the end the conflict is resolved cause Jondalar learns to accept her fully. I would have liked a deeper exploration of Jondalar's inner conflict and his struggle with his bias toward the Clan. It's also really hard to believe this conflict played out as it did considering Jondalar and Ayla are portrayed as really smart and then proceed to act this stupid for most part of the book. That said I really liked most of the side characters, like Talut and Nezzie, and really appreciated Frebec's character development. I also liked Ayla's relationship with Rydag, the parallels with her son and her struggle to let him go. Rydag's death and his funeral were also really emotional, tho maybe a bit rushed considering how long some descriptions of mundane activities are in the first half of the book. I'm happy that Jondalar and Ayla are back together, tho it was obvious it would end this way I really liked the ending too. I cringed when Jondalar got down on one knee to propose, there was really no need for that, it was meaningless for him to do so even tho the author tried to make it seem some sort of adaptation of Ayla's Clan ways. And I'm so done with the sex scenes, I skimmed through almost all of them, they're corny and add very little to the plot. I really liked the very thorough descriptions of the Mamutoi's society and customs tho, they really added depth to the story without being overwhelming.

All in all I liked this book and will for sure read the fourth book of the series.