I just finished re-reading this series of books written by Jean M. Auel. I call them my “prehistoric book series” because they talk about the Neanderthal clan and the Cro-Magnons. Yes, it sounds really literature-y and not books that you can just pick up and skim through, but I found them surprisingly interesting!

They start off by introducing the main character, Ayla, whose whole tribe gets killed by a massive earthquake, leaving her alone. She’s about 5 years old when this tragedy happens, so she doesn’t know how to take care of herself. She gets mauled by a cave lion, and is near death when she is rescued by a Neanderthal clan (referred to as “flatheads”).

As she grows up, she constantly goes against the ways of the clan. She learns how to hunt, which only men in the clan do, and so on. In order for her to fit in more easily, her new mother who is the medicine woman, decides to teach her healing skills, which she picks up very easily. At the end of the first book, she becomes an outcast from the clan, and she leaves to find her own people.

The other books continue with the story of her long journey to find the Cro-Magnons and eventually, her mate. She makes friends with a horse, wolf, and cave lion at different stages in her life, who become her companions. This amazes everyone she meets because in those times, animals only have one use…to be hunted and eaten.

There are many parts of the books which I find too wordy, she goes on for pages and pages describing the plants/animals/surroundings (of course I skip these parts! Hehe..) but overall, I enjoyed the books. What I find amazing is that she wrote the first book in the 1980s and the 5th book was only recently released in 2002! Apparently there’s going to be a 6th book as well. I wonder when that will come out. 2010?

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