Reviews

The Crane Husband by Kelly Barnhill

lycheeteareads's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

paperd's review

dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

tddrdfrd's review

dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

orion1225's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

caitcoy's review

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

 The Crane Husband is a magical realism/fairytale retelling featuring a twist on the story of the Crane Wife in order to discuss cycles of violence and abuse. As you might expect, using animals doesn't remove the heavy nature of the themes so check your content warnings.

This is one of those stories that I've seen a lot of folks rave about and was 99% sure would not be for me. When it landed on the Nebula short list for this year, I figured I'd give it a try and unfortunately my initial feelings were correct. The writing for this is fine and if you enjoy books that are super obvious in their themes and don't dance around it at all, you might enjoy this one. I did not. I was immediately frustrated by how on the nose everything was and the thin veneer of sci-fi spread over the story to make it feel more speculative.

If you enjoy magical realism and these themes, you might give this a try. After my feelings on this, I think I'm going to chalk Barnhill's adult books as just not for me. 

youngthespian42's review

5.0

This book is amazing. Haunting. Hard to read impossible to stop. Novella can feel like short stories with too much padding. The Crane Husband is not that. This book is surgical and exact and will have a long lasting impact. First 5/5 for r/fantasy bingo

lizbeth_wolff's review against another edition

dark emotional fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

lauralauralaura's review against another edition

4.0

Well written but brutal, as all tales of child neglect are (even when they have big mystical elements).

sara_mackey's review

5.0

This little book knocked my socks off. It was an amazing, troubling, weird, engrossing read. A great surprise.

beth21's review

challenging dark mysterious sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75