My snarky review of The Land of Painted Caves (series end for Clan of the Cave Bear)

[invsagoth]

I recommend this book to no one. You can read the other books and pretend this one doesn't exist if you like. It's one of the most awful books I have ever had the misfortune of reading. And at nearly 700 pages, there's probably better things that could be done instead. Like watching paint dry. It would be less infuriating.

Comments

[misskalloway]

Yeaaaars ago, I think before the fifth book came out, I had found a very long and quite good fanfic (even though I barely knew what fanfic was) that wrapped up the story and it's been my head-canon ever since. It was certainly less of a mess.

I might end up borrowing the whole set from the library at some point if I ever want to re/read all of them, but it's unlikely.

I don't mind bathroom references as long as they're relatively non-graphic and somehow add to the story. Otherwise, I assume everyone pees and it's not really a thing.

[invsagoth]

I kind of wish that I'd looked for fanfic instead, lol. It's awesome that you found a good one that wrapped everything up! The actual last book didn't really wrap much of anything up and it didn't really follow any of the plot threads that would have been interesting to end on.

I've considered re-reading the earlier books, but I'm not sure if I ever will. I'm afraid that I'll find them lacking now that I'm an adult, though I'm sure they were better than the last book!

I'm ok with bodily functions if there's a good reason for them to be there. There was one instance that there was actually a point to a bathroom reference, but all of the others were just there to let the reader know that the characters needed to pee. It would be less of a problem if the entire book wasn't already sorely in need of a good editing!

[misskalloway]

Alas that fic was ~15 years ago and it's probably long lost to time.

I think the last time I re-read was at least ten years ago and you're probably right. I've ruined more pleasant book memories with re-reads than I can probably count.

Blegh.