Sunday, July 30

Book Review: The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel

Author: Jean M. Auel
Title: The Clan of the Cave Bear (Earth's Children #1)
Genre: Historical Fiction & classic
Pages: 512
Published: May 1980
Where I Got It: My shelf (B&N)

A natural disaster leaves the young girl wandering alone in an unfamiliar and dangerous land until she is found by a woman of the Clan, people very different from her own kind. To them, blond, blue-eyed Ayla looks peculiar and ugly--she is one of the Others, those who have moved into their ancient homeland; but Iza cannot leave the girl to die and takes her with them. Iza and Creb, the old Mog-ur, grow to love her, and as Ayla learns the ways of the Clan and Iza's way of healing, most come to accept her. But the brutal and proud youth who is destined to become their next leader sees her differences as a threat to his authority. He develops a deep and abiding hatred for the strange girl of the Others who lives in their midst, and is determined to get his revenge. 



This took me longer than planned because of two factors: one...I have had zero time to do anything because of work. Two...this was the slowest book in the entire galaxy of slow books. 

Yes, I finished the book, but at what cost? My sanity? This book just dragged on and on. The author went into detail about every little thing and went into obnoxious detail about things that were unnecessary and not needed in the grand scheme of things. The story itself should've been about 300-350 max. 

HOWEVER, the story was good. I enjoyed the journey and the characters. Wait...what? Yes, that is why I kept on reading even though I felt my eyes bleeding at the speed and over the description of everything. 

I oddly did not mind Ayla even though she was pretty much the perfect character. There were a couple of things that saved her from my hatred. One, she had some serious self-conscious issues because she was weird looking to the clan since she was a different species of human. Two, 99% of people may have loved her they thought she was ugly and weird. 

I also liked that there was one character that absolutely hated her and I could get behind his reasons. She was kind of treated like a princess and given so many exceptions and waivers. She was pretty much allowed to do what she wanted even though it went against their rules and norms. Sure, he went about it the wrong ways...but I get his frustration because it frustrated me too. 

The ending made me mad. Noooooooooo!!! *shakes fist*

In the end, this was okay. The slowness and the obnoxious details had me clawing my eyes out, but oddly the story and plot itself were good enough to keep me hooked. I do recommend this since it is a classic. I'll give this....errrrrr.....*scratches head*....3 stars I think.














5 comments:

Unknown said...

I've been wanting to read this one!

Blodeuedd said...

I read it looooooooooooong ago

Carole Rae said...

Allison, it is worth a try.

B, it is an oldie. :D

Anachronist said...

More often than not I have no patience for slow books.

Carol said...

I read all these ages ago. I really like them then, but I'm not sure if I would now.