Ramona Ausubel

A mixed bag of a book. This book is about but is not enough about mammoths, cutting edge science, feminism, or women in science. Instead, this book centers on extinctions, broadly defined: megafauna extinction, prehistoric humanoid extinction, personal extinction, familial extinction, and possibly the biggest one of all, the very real possibility of global extinction through climate change. It's a weighty theme and the author is at their best at moments when the characters realize that despite their hopes and wishes, extinction is permanent. There's no coming back from it, which generates the grief that permeates the novel.

Greater character development was needed. We never have a sense of what's really driving the characters apart from grief. Grief is powerful, but it's not enough to explain many of their choices. There's a lack of depth to relationship between the father and daughters, as if they never really knew each other, so it's hard to understand why they're so overwhelmed with grief. We also don't have any other real information about Jane other than that she's a grieving widow and having a hard time parenting teenagers as a single mother. There's also not quite enough action or unexpected developments to sustain the readers' interest and certain plot points that could have given the novel a push are never explored. (Why does Jane never refer to The Professor by name? Are the British couple really the villains? They never really feel that sinister, just odd.) At one point, literally all of the main characters are just hanging out on an Italian estate doing nothing waiting for something to happen but it's never quite clear what they're waiting for. It would not have been hard to add some suspense and action to this novel, which I regret to say ended about the way I expected. I love the idea and exploring the theme of extinction, but this wasn't the book I was hoping for.… (mehr)