A review by greatlibraryofalexandra
The Inheritors by William Golding

2.0

I loved the concept of this, and I really wanted to love the book. In the end I sort of skimmed it / half read it. It was short, and the gist of it was repetitive. It just seemed to lack sophistication. I read Clan of the Cave Bear years ago, and I expected something like that; instead, the way Golding wrote it (attempting to convey the simplicity of the Neanderthals and their difference from the 'Other') just sort of made it hard to follow. Where Jane Auel did an incredible job of providing a nuanced view of neanderthal man while also sharply contrasting them from homo sapiens, this just seems to fall short. Note that I'm only using COTCB as a close comparison because it's the novel that send me in search of more things like it. I enjoyed the vague overarching concepts employed here, but I thought the execution lacked finesse.