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jolovestoread 's review for:
The Mammoth Hunters
by Jean M. Auel
This book tapped in at 3.75 stars for me, but I rounded up to 4 for rating purposes. Before I get into the meat of this review, I want to state how much I enjoyed this book. I'm beginning to learn I honestly didn't do my romantic heart justice by reading only YA for so long. The more I read of adult novels, the more I love romance and how amazing the relationship and trials can be. I have read some amazing YA romances too, but I find it harder these days to wade through the bad romances for the great ones. With adult novels I seem to have a far better chance of finding a good romance.
AYLA
I still love my gorgeous, strong, brave, honest heroine, but I also lost a bit of respect for her in this novel. I felt disappointed by a lot of her choices and the way she let the misunderstanding grow when she's supposed to be this honest and direct character. But similarly I felt disappointed in Jondalar, which I'll get into below when I talk about him specifically.
I understand the reasoning behind her first sexual encounter with Ranec, but I still didn't like it. I felt that if she could defy the clan ways to hunt why couldn't she sexually? But on the other hand she didn't understand the social conventions Jondalar wanted. Even with the Others it was common for people to have lovers other than their partners. Therefore, I can't fault Ayla for going to Ranec. Jondalar certainly didn't tell her he wanted to be exclusive, he didn't even tell her he wanted to make a hearth with her.
It was her interactions afterwards which upset me the most (even though I cried when she actually slept with Ranec). The first couple of times Jondalar ignores her I understand why she didn't push him. It's hard to face rejection and continue on. However, because of how long it went on, I would have liked to have a third of their interactions cut out. There was SO MUCH of Ayla trying to talk to Jondalar but him walking away and vice-versa. It got old. I loved the angst at first, but because of how long it went on, it annoyed me.
The biggest issue I had with Ayla's choices was her promise to Ranec. She clearly didn't want to, but let him pressure her into it. I guess that's part of her character growth, but I hated how she felt "so bad" for hurting him at the end of the novel. I can't read that without shaking my head and wanting to shake her for agreeing to him in the first place, and for letting it go on for so long. She did not want him, but she agreed.
Despite all that, I still really love Ayla and I can't wait to see how her life pans out. I hope it features more medicine woman stuff, because the spiritual crap was BORING. I don't really buy into any of it and I also feel annoyed, like Ayla does, that she has some "destiny". It's yet to reveal itself and so far the biggest spiritual stuff that happened (the root) seemed to serve as just another reason to float the Jondalar/Ayla boat after she's agreed to promise to Ranec.
I love the herb lore and how Ayla experiments and wants to help people no matter what. I hope they focus more on that in the next novels.
JONDALAR
He's still my favourite. Thank GOD. Despite all the stuff Jondalar could have done to stop the miscommunication between the two I still quite liked his parts in the novel. Those were some of my favourites and I loved his character growth. The conflict of Jondalar feeling ashamed of Ayla's heritage was realistic and sort of endearing. I wanted him to get past it of course, but it made him into a more real character especially because everyone wants to screw him. It humanised him and his back story with Zolena made his fear justifiable.
MINOR CHARACTERS
I'm still yet to be convinced that Ranec loves Ayla for more than her beauty. I didn't see any evidence of it, even when in his POV. He mainly focused on how beautiful she was and therefore I didn't think he was a good mate for her. I feel quite convinced that come the next summer meeting Tricie will win him over and they'll be happily ever after.
I loved Deegie. Such an awesome female friendship with Ayla and her. It's sad they can't make a camp together!
Auel did a great job of incorporating a camp of many characters yet making them individual and therefore able to remember each one.
I hope Ayla one day goes back to the clan but we'll see. It might not be in the cards and that would be okay.
Overall, I did really enjoy this instalment. It began to drag in the last quarter and I skimmed two pages of scenery description, but the romance was A+ and I loved being at the summer festival with the other camps. If only Auel hadn't dragged that winter on so damn much. And, at the end when Jondalar and Ayla DO get together, they just confess their love. They don't talk about why they weren't together: Jondalar's jealousy; Ayla sleeping with Ranec because of their clan background; Jondalar didn't rape Ayla in the field. It makes me feel like this kind of conflict could happen again because does Ayla even know still that Jondalar wants to be exclusive? I dunno. But I guess I should be satisfied after this volume that Auel hopefully won't put me through that kind of separation again. I LOVE THEM TOGETHER.
AYLA
I still love my gorgeous, strong, brave, honest heroine, but I also lost a bit of respect for her in this novel. I felt disappointed by a lot of her choices and the way she let the misunderstanding grow when she's supposed to be this honest and direct character. But similarly I felt disappointed in Jondalar, which I'll get into below when I talk about him specifically.
I understand the reasoning behind her first sexual encounter with Ranec, but I still didn't like it. I felt that if she could defy the clan ways to hunt why couldn't she sexually? But on the other hand she didn't understand the social conventions Jondalar wanted. Even with the Others it was common for people to have lovers other than their partners. Therefore, I can't fault Ayla for going to Ranec. Jondalar certainly didn't tell her he wanted to be exclusive, he didn't even tell her he wanted to make a hearth with her.
It was her interactions afterwards which upset me the most (even though I cried when she actually slept with Ranec). The first couple of times Jondalar ignores her I understand why she didn't push him. It's hard to face rejection and continue on. However, because of how long it went on, I would have liked to have a third of their interactions cut out. There was SO MUCH of Ayla trying to talk to Jondalar but him walking away and vice-versa. It got old. I loved the angst at first, but because of how long it went on, it annoyed me.
The biggest issue I had with Ayla's choices was her promise to Ranec. She clearly didn't want to, but let him pressure her into it. I guess that's part of her character growth, but I hated how she felt "so bad" for hurting him at the end of the novel. I can't read that without shaking my head and wanting to shake her for agreeing to him in the first place, and for letting it go on for so long. She did not want him, but she agreed.
Despite all that, I still really love Ayla and I can't wait to see how her life pans out. I hope it features more medicine woman stuff, because the spiritual crap was BORING. I don't really buy into any of it and I also feel annoyed, like Ayla does, that she has some "destiny". It's yet to reveal itself and so far the biggest spiritual stuff that happened (the root) seemed to serve as just another reason to float the Jondalar/Ayla boat after she's agreed to promise to Ranec.
I love the herb lore and how Ayla experiments and wants to help people no matter what. I hope they focus more on that in the next novels.
JONDALAR
He's still my favourite. Thank GOD. Despite all the stuff Jondalar could have done to stop the miscommunication between the two I still quite liked his parts in the novel. Those were some of my favourites and I loved his character growth. The conflict of Jondalar feeling ashamed of Ayla's heritage was realistic and sort of endearing. I wanted him to get past it of course, but it made him into a more real character especially because everyone wants to screw him. It humanised him and his back story with Zolena made his fear justifiable.
MINOR CHARACTERS
I'm still yet to be convinced that Ranec loves Ayla for more than her beauty. I didn't see any evidence of it, even when in his POV. He mainly focused on how beautiful she was and therefore I didn't think he was a good mate for her. I feel quite convinced that come the next summer meeting Tricie will win him over and they'll be happily ever after.
I loved Deegie. Such an awesome female friendship with Ayla and her. It's sad they can't make a camp together!
Auel did a great job of incorporating a camp of many characters yet making them individual and therefore able to remember each one.
I hope Ayla one day goes back to the clan but we'll see. It might not be in the cards and that would be okay.
Overall, I did really enjoy this instalment. It began to drag in the last quarter and I skimmed two pages of scenery description, but the romance was A+ and I loved being at the summer festival with the other camps. If only Auel hadn't dragged that winter on so damn much. And, at the end when Jondalar and Ayla DO get together, they just confess their love. They don't talk about why they weren't together: Jondalar's jealousy; Ayla sleeping with Ranec because of their clan background; Jondalar didn't rape Ayla in the field. It makes me feel like this kind of conflict could happen again because does Ayla even know still that Jondalar wants to be exclusive? I dunno. But I guess I should be satisfied after this volume that Auel hopefully won't put me through that kind of separation again. I LOVE THEM TOGETHER.