A review by kendraerin
The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel

adventurous dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This book series was a long time coming for me— my mom loved them when she was my age and I grew up dying to read them! I didn't know what to expect when going in, but I still had high expectations.

Overall, it was a very good and very strange book. Auel clearly did a lot of research for it, there's facts and extremely thorough descriptions throughout to paint a picture of what life could have been like in prehistory for the Neanderthals and early Homo Sapiens. Ayla is a wonderful character with a lot of passion, intelligence, and empathy that makes it easy to root for her (even if I was consistently horrified by her age— we meet her when she's five and finish the book when she's a preteen!) The other characters feel as fleshed out as the world building. This book does not shy away from adult content (shout-out to my mom for age-restricting this one), but it doesn't delight in it either. If parts of this and other aspects of the clan and ending didn't feel a little plot-contrived, I'd give the book five stars (or at least a 4.5).

The ending was a little frustrating, with Ayla being declared "dead" for the second time by her clan and Isa and Creb, the only other characters I was really rooting for, both dying. It was definitely necessary for Ayla's journey and leaving, coming full circle with another cave of hers succumbing to an earthquake and losing her family at about the same time, but I'm already missing life with the clan. Very excited to see what comes next, would recommend this book to anyone interested in prehistory/anthropology and is okay with a little adult content.
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