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.

The Ancestor is a surprising gothic novel, that though interesting, is marred by plot holes and strains believability. The book begins one way, and then goes in a somewhat surprising direction. I enjoyed reading the book (and listening to the audiobook), but it was hard to really buy in to some of the choices these characters made, and other elements of the world never seemed fully fleshed out or otherwise didn't make sense. This was disappointing because I usually enjoy these kinds of stories. And indeed, I did enjoy this book- I just wish I could have enjoyed it even more. I was somewhat surprised to learn this was not the author's debut novel, as the plot read like a writer's first completed attempt of writing fiction of this length (this is not a compliment). I also found the prose lacking a sense of beauty and complexity. The word choice and syntax were fairly pedestrian. Overall this book was good, albeit flawed. I would recommend it, but not highly. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

Content warnings: rape, kidnapping, killing, gun violence, stillbirth and miscarriage, death in childbirth, divorce.