The Shelters of Stone by Jean M. Auel
My review
rating: 2 of 5 stars
I was excited to read this when I borrowed it from the library. Valley of Horses has been one of my fave books for years and I have read it many times. I read the Mammoth Hunters and Plains of Passage quite a long time ago but I dont remember them being as bad as this book.
NOTHING happens in this book. They arrive back at Jondalars home, they go to the Summer meeting, get mated (these two take FOREVER TO HAPPEN and then the rest is a few chapters at the end….), come home and she has a baby. THAT IS IT!
The most annoying thing for me was the repetitiveness. I dont just mean Ayla explaining to new people how she found the horses or the wolf, but as an example there was an explaination about how there would be two matrimonial ceremonies at the Summer meeting – one at the start and one at the end and why. BUT then just a few pages later it gets explained in detail AGAIN! Dude i got it the first time!
And this happens with many different things within the book. I got so sick of it and i was struggling to finish it.
Aylas run ins with the guy whose mother was half Clan just kept getting more and more extreme and you were all ‘ok something is gonna happen soon right?’ but no – she has one last arguement with him and has ANOTHER discussion about the fact she ‘may have made an enemy there’ (which also happened before in the book!) with the First chick and then the book ends.
There was heaps of descriptive stuff in this book but it seemed like thats all there was. The only break from the description and repetitiveness was when Ayla and Jondalar did it and that got boring fast too. haha
Anyway, so yes I was disappointed in this book. Which is sad because I really, really loved Valley of Horses. 🙁
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