Genre: Historical
Published: 1955
Personal rating: 4/5
The story that William Golding tells in The Inheritors is a compelling one, provided you don't mind the outdated ideas about Neanderthals that were in use when he wrote the book. Golding's Neanderthals are very ape-like. They can speak and use fire, but they don't make tools, don't hunt, and their cognitive powers are far below that of (ancient) Homo sapiens. We now know that those ideas are wrong, and that Neanderthals were far more like Homo sapiens than like apes. However, the fact that Golding's Neanderthals aren't historically accurate detracts nothing from the emotion of the story, in which a small group of Neanderthals has their first meeting with Homo sapiens, with disastrous consequences.
What kept this book from getting the highest rating was the language Golding used. It was very flowery and literary, with lots of metaphors. Sometimes it was hard to follow the story because I had to re-read things in order to get what Golding meant. Still, it was a good book and I recommend it.
Cross-posted on Bookworms and Tea Lovers
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