The Ancestor

A lot of reviews will mention a shift in this book in the middle but refuse to say what it is, so if you're curious like me and don't want to go on reading here it is there is a species of ancient Neanderthal like beings living in the mountains, the main character is distantly related to them, she meets and briefly lives with them and the book chronicles this for a while. I didn't feel like this was such a huge diversion, I thought it was pretty well built up and barely a surprise. However I don't think once we got there it was done very well, things felt rushed and some things made little sense. I would have liked that section to be longer as I thought it was the most interesting part in the story. A big theme in this book is motherhood but I don't think it said anything meaningful about it, and in the end she kidnaps one of the not-Neanderthals children for seemingly no reason, knowing she will have to bring her back when she is older and she can't hide her anymore essentially just keeping her from having a real life and community until that age. This wasn't something that was explored further it was at the very end of the book.

This was oddly reminiscent of Theory of Bastards by Audrey Schulman despite the very different premise.