Review: Extinction

 

Hmmm so many complicated thoughts on this one. I genuinely love the premise – anything with prehistoric creatures is an automatic draw for me. In fact, all of the bits of this that were original were pretty compelling. But man, as soon as it got into the traditional thriller elements, there were some problems.

Most importantly, Cash was an incredibly one-dimensional cliche of a strong woman. She had no personality beyond being offended by men doing things for her. She kept dropping hints about some kind of incident in her past, but then it never actually got revealed? And then the sheriff was nearly as bad. Take a generic cop, put a cowboy hat on him, and that’s about the impression I got. All the characters were pretty much along these lines; every interpersonal dynamic was predictable.

Also, content warning for animal death. Without spoiling anything, there was a scene I found deeply upsetting as far as that goes.

But the fundamental concept was great, and there was clearly a ton of research that went into the worldbuilding and story. I suppose it’s not surprising that the characters were a letdown, since they really aren’t the main focus, but man I wish they had been less cliche. For me, a lack of compelling characters tends to make it hard for me to really enjoy a story, and in this case the author really needed to put in a bit more effort to at least not make them detract from the story.