Take a photo of a barcode or cover
amalyndb 's review for:
The Last Neanderthal
by Claire Cameron
I received an advanced reading copy of The Last Neanderthal and devoured it happily.
Here is the perspective of a Neanderthal girl-verging-on-woman named Girl with a homo sapiens male living with her family group. (As opposed to Jean Marie Auel’s homo sapiens female living with a Neanderthal family group).
I found this a very enjoyable imaginative and informed conceptualization of what family life might have been like, the thought processes and group dynamics.
Parallel to Girl is the modern-day excavation of Girl and a homo sapiens male by Rose Gale, an archaeologist who has just recently realized she is pregnant. The skeletons commonly referred to as “The Lovers of Valdaro” are represented in the novel to be a Neanderthal female and homo sapiens male, which presents the reader with the striking visual to relate to, with the intertwined skeletons.
Early in the novel, the interlacing of the timelines was frustrating: I wanted to hear more about Girl right then! But overall the contrast of the two women's experiences work together to tell a richer story - we know the endpoint of Girl’s story from the skeletons, and seeing Rose slowly uncover the remains and artifacts - and her drive to continue work on the site - fills in the story in ways a single story from Girl's perspective might not be as satisfying.
content warning: incest (Neanderthal), infanticide
Here is the perspective of a Neanderthal girl-verging-on-woman named Girl with a homo sapiens male living with her family group. (As opposed to Jean Marie Auel’s homo sapiens female living with a Neanderthal family group).
I found this a very enjoyable imaginative and informed conceptualization of what family life might have been like, the thought processes and group dynamics.
Parallel to Girl is the modern-day excavation of Girl and a homo sapiens male by Rose Gale, an archaeologist who has just recently realized she is pregnant. The skeletons commonly referred to as “The Lovers of Valdaro” are represented in the novel to be a Neanderthal female and homo sapiens male, which presents the reader with the striking visual to relate to, with the intertwined skeletons.
Early in the novel, the interlacing of the timelines was frustrating: I wanted to hear more about Girl right then! But overall the contrast of the two women's experiences work together to tell a richer story - we know the endpoint of Girl’s story from the skeletons, and seeing Rose slowly uncover the remains and artifacts - and her drive to continue work on the site - fills in the story in ways a single story from Girl's perspective might not be as satisfying.
content warning: incest (Neanderthal), infanticide