Reviews with content warning for Sexism - A Crane Among Wolves

when the author said this book reads like a historical k-drama, well i guess she was right! this book tells about iseul, a girl in a mission to seek her sister, set in the joseon era around the ruling of king yeongsan. this book describes his cruelty and it was based on the history. it looks like it takes a lot of research just for this book.

the romance in this book was what got me the most. the MC went from trying-to-kill-each-other enemies to i'll-protect-you-even-if-it-costs-my-life lovers, making it interesting, honestly. but aside the romance, this book has such a heartwarming portrayal of sisterhood and friendship. it also deals with grief, how grief could make you so afraid to love anyone ever again. These quotes below was the ones that shattered my heart the most.

I did love my sister. The same way I had loved my parents, the same love that had left me bedridden with grief and depression, the love that left me haunted and sleepless many nights still.

More than ever, now, I was afraid of this love for her, afraid of the intolerable agony that came with loving anyone at all.

my only complain probably is that the plot twist wasn't that shocking. but it wasn't that much of a problem. overall, i enjoyed this book, SO MUCH actually i couldn't stop myself reading it especially near the end. so if you're looking for a romance-historical fiction with enemies-to-lovers and found family trope, try this book!!

p.s. prepare yourself for chapter 42 :)))

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a1exander's review

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adventurous slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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thechaoshour's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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iixxii's review

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dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

3.0

A crane among wolves gives us a historical retelling of a Korean tyrant and how heroes sometimes aren’t truly heroes. The book doesn’t shy away from the atrocities and horrors of human actions while still not being explicit (so quite appropriate for a YA read).

The romance was also quite sweet with subtle but important character developments in both the FMC and ML. However, this book is more of a retelling of history rather than a romance fiction. So don’t expect any focus on romance at all and you’ll enjoy a pleasant read

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filipateodoro's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

It was darker and more violent than what I had anticipated, which I liked. Basically, this was not a 5 star read because I didn't love the way descriptions were handled. In some scenes I felt a bit lost and had to go back to recap where things were taking place, or in what positon characters were in a room. I found that travel between locations got a bit awkward too, I didn't feel like the author was giving the reader a good sense of how far away/near the locales were (maybe a map would've helped?). This was probably done to keep the narrative tight and moving along, but it made it harder for me to be immersed in the story. If the writing had dedicated a bit more space to describing the settings, the story and world would have felt a lot more atmospheric and rich, and this would have benefited the mystery plot.

In any case, it was a good time and I'm probably going to be reading the author's other work. The nerd in me loved that the author included the bibliography she used for research at the end. I'll probably look at some of those in the future.

EDIT: Forgot to add that there were a lot of korean terms that I had to look up on Wikipedia, even as someone who consumes south korean media and entertainment, for example the names for different ranks/types of palace maids/servants. Would've REALLY appreciated it if a clarification on these had been accessible (Keep in mind I read this on an ereader).

Content Warnings

spellbindingtomes's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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