Ivory and Bone by Julie Eshbaugh

My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

Category: Young Adult
Genre: Historical Fiction
Content: Clean



Ivory and Bone is a YA historical fiction set in prehistoric times. That description by itself doesn't sound like something I would normally be interested in, but add in the words "allusions to Pride and Prejudice" to the description and I'm interested. Unfortunately I was under the impression that this was more of a retelling than it actually was. I guess I should have paid attention to the word "allusion" more closely. There was a similar theme to Pride and Prejudice used in this book, but it was very loosely applied.

I'm not altogether sure how I felt about the execution of the prehistoric setting. I think some parts were well done, but others not so much. There were words included in the story that didn't feel right for the time period, like kitchen and parka and that bothered me.

Out of all the characters in the book I think I liked Kol the best. I wanted to like Mya, but she was just written in such a dull and uninteresting way. Plus, the way the story is told didn't help with that. Most of the book is written in second person with Kol telling Mya the story of what happened from his perspective, with him referring to her as "you" throughout the book. It sort of felt like I was reading something meant for someone else and I didn't like the effect.

I think the thing I disliked about this book the most is that it wasn't very compelling. There were a couple of times when I wished I was reading something else. That much more interesting looking stack of library books I have was calling my name, but I stuck it out and made it to the end of this. There were some enjoyable moments near the end when something finally happens, so I didn't feel like it was a complete waste of time.

I think I'm done with prehistoric stories for a long while now, maybe for good as they are not really my cup of tea.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through a Goodreads giveaway in exchange for a review.


View all my reviews