It’s so beautifully detailed and you get trapped in the simplicity of the world. It felt like I could take a break and just relax while I read about this story. 

I found this book extremely off-putting to read as it was essentially prehistoric soft p*rn. Ayla was extremely s*xualised. 

It’s saving grace was its novelty as a book set in prehistoric times which I enjoyed—it transported me to a different world and ultimately that’s what a good fantasy book does. 

The rest of it is not my cup of tea though

This book is indeed well written and takes you into another world fully. But boy is it a dark book. A lot of errors and obstacles. Way too dark for me. But still left me wanting to know what will happen next…

At the age of five, Ayla finds herself orphaned when an earthquake kills her family. 
After surviving in the wilderness for days, she is discovered by another Clan who take her in.
As Ayla grows up she struggles to conform to expectations of the Clan:  the prejudices, superstitions, distrust and hatred of her because she doesn't look or behave like one of them.
This was an interesting story but overlong on description and explanation in places.

TW: rape and domestic abuse

A fantasy story about a young human adopted by a tribe of Neanderthals. The author has clearly up a good deal of effort into research Neanderthal culture as far as we can piece it together from archaeology and has a strong knowledge of the plant lore her medicine women use (although sometimes North American plants creep in which I’m not sure would have been present in in the Black Sea area during the Palaeolithic).

The story about power struggles within the Clan and the impending fading out of Neanderthals is credible and there are some moments of tension although other episodes are a bit formulaic. 

The thing that I found increasingly irritating as the book wore on was the fact that the Neanderthals are supposed to communicate most by hand signals. There is obvious no evidence that they did this and it becomes increasing laboured as the author keeps saying thing like “She signed” or “Using rapid gestures he explained to the group…”.

There is also an assumption that women stay at home in the cave and have children while men hunt. There can’t be any evidence that Neanderthal society assigned gender roles in this way. Ayla, the main character, challenges this but is punished for it so although arguable the book tries to portray a strong female role the overarching assumption is that women who don’t stay at home and breed are unnatural. 

Stylistically the author seems unable to leave a noun or verb without an accompanying adjective or adverb. Description is good but having too many descriptors makes for slow reading and doesn’t allow the reader space to imagine for themselves.

This book was a tricky one. The general world building was great and the concept was really interesting. I loved the detailed descriptions of how the people use nature to survive. 
However, the writing is very slow and at times is far too descriptive. I found myself skimming sections describing things I felt just didn’t matter. 
Also, the rape scenes are completely unnecessary. It followed the typical fantasy trope of rape being a plot device and providing character growth for a woman which I hate. It was incredibly graphic. The behaviour of the clan clearly showed Ayla’s alienation, the raping wasn’t necessary to add on top. It added nothing to the story. I think it’s meant to provide some kind of sexual awakening when she meets Jondalar in the second book and realises that sex is good. But that would be achieved anyway because it could have been ‘no one wanted me and no someone does’. 
I also hate that she stops being effected by being literally raped just because she knows she has a child and is happy about it. Really sick