• Title: Ivory and Bone
• Author: Julie Eshbaugh
• Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Retelling
• Publication Date: June 7th 2016
• Publisher: Harper Teen
• Rating: 2.5/5 stars

I wanted to love this book.

It started off interesting, and I did read through most of the book in one sitting. The story premise is great, though the plot and the writing wasn’t as skilled as I’d want. It’s an odd voice, where “you” seem to be a character named Mya in the book, but towards the end, Mya becomes her own character. So I found the book jolting because of that, and had to keep reminding myself that I’m Mya, or so I think the author intended. I’m still unsure.

The plot itself is rather boring – clans are fighting over…something? There was a rift in one clan, and a murder between two other clans, and so there’s been anger and hurt in several clans. Warfare nearly began in a few of them. And now, a young leader wants to murder the leader of another clan – but the reasoning is weak.

Ivory and Bone is supposed to be an Ice Age retelling of Pride and Prejudice Overall, the book didn’t deserve the hype. It didn’t have the Pride and Prejudice depth, appeal, or intelligence. The characters were weak and flat. The conversations, the same. The descriptions were too technical at times, and I didn’t feel immersed in the world, much as I wanted to. It didn’t even have much pride or prejudice in the characters, because they didn’t have much of anything. The romance was weak, and it swayed like a pendulum – not like Darcy and Elizabeth, but like unintelligent teenagers.

I do like the idea of a neolithic retelling of a classic, and I think that was a clever idea on the author’s part. But the execution was not as clever. I likely won’t be reading the sequel.

Favorite quotes from Ivory and Bone:

“There is strong danger in a person who can create such powerful deceit they can no longer distinguish their own lies from the truth.”

“Ignorance never protected anyone for long.”