Reviews with content warning for Suicide - 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 :)))

Content Warnings

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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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

Content Warnings

kailanlovescats's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Don't get me wrong, this was a good book. But I think I wasn't prepared for how heavy the book would be, despite the content warnings at the beginning. Actually, once I heard the content warnings I did get a minor sense of foreboding.... knowing some of the things in the book are historically accurate also made it feel heavier, as it was easier to put myself in their shoes! So if you struggle with what's mentioned in the warnings, proceed with caution!

ultimately there is a happy ending! You just may cry rivers to get there. Just ignore ch 42

The story is equal parts detective mystery, historical romance, and rescue mission; and has beautiful writing. It was a bit slow at times.

I do wish some words were written in korean vs English as it would've helped with the immersion. Example, having Iseul refer to her sister as Eonni instead of older sister.

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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).

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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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kenny_2288's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.25

I struggled to get into this book for the first 100 pages or so, but then it picked up and became more worth the read.
By the end, I enjoyed the journey of the two main characters, even if it took me awhile to warm up to Iseul.

I think the book struggled balancing the inner turmoil of its two main characters, the murder mystery, & coup storyline, so the story often felt imbalanced or awkwardly paced. Most of the time I felt like the murder mystery seemed rather unimportant in light of other things going on in the story, but the mystery itself could have used some more development.

Occasionally I felt like the story got bogged down in some nitty gritty historical facts or irrelevant characters who were only ever mentioned but not seen, and I think this problem would be fixed if the book was a bit longer and had more time to flesh these parts out. Similarly, the supporting characters were nice enough, but I wished I had gotten more time with them to explore their personalities and really care deeply about them. As is, they’re a bit flat, and one in particular, Woonsik, feels especially disappointing because he comes off as more of a spring board for plot/characterization motivation rather than a fully developed character in his own right (which is a shame, cause he does have a lot of heart to him). I just wish the book was able to accommodate a further dive into his character.

I grew to appreciate the romance of this story, but again, at first I struggled to buy into it in comparison to the incredibly pressing and dark subject matter of the rest of the story. However, romance didn’t ever seem over the top or too out of character and I was glad it remained rather limited as befitting of the rest of the story. This story is a historical fiction & drama book first, romance second, so if you’re hoping for a heavily romantic book, this ain’t it.

Overall, a good read and I’m glad I pushed through my lackluster impression at the beginning. This book is a good example of historical fiction that doesn’t shy away or dilute the horror of history. The story is often bleak but not without hope, and while it doesn’t necessarily have a “and they lived happily ever after ending,” I think it is better for the more realistic ending (which still felt satisfying).

Content Warnings

rknitss's review

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adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.25

This book comes with a page one content warning. It is important to check that out if you're a younger reader or looking to give this book to a younger reader. I wouldn't say that any of the atrocities in this book are described graphically (and in most places are strongly implied rather than shown), but they are mentioned. This is historical fiction that takes place during the reign of a monster. The author has been extremely up front about all of this.

With that in mind, I think a younger reader could handle this. I would have been ok to read this at 13 or so but I know I shouldn't be the bench mark. The writing is excellent but clearly leans hard to a young adult/teen audience.

This was really hard for me to get into (hence the less than 5 stars). Our main POV character is an angry, spoiled girl when she starts and she stays angry through out. Rightfully so. Her journey to get back to her sister is difficult to say the least, there's a serial killer on the loose putting a rebellion in danger... but she is very easy to dislike up front and that made it hard for me to follow her journey. At First. Struggling past the 60ish page mark, I hit my stride and the book sucked me in.

This book features a dual POV that I haven't seen before. In mostly alternating chapters we have the first person narrative from Iseul, the aforementioned angry girl, and then a third person narrative that follows Daehyun, the "favorite" brother of the Tyrant King. It took me a bit to get used to the POV shift but it made for a very interesting read, especially when the characters interacted.

I would recommend this book to anyone (even young readers) who liked Red Palace by June Hur and fans ofhistorical fiction. I would even say this is a good introduction to it.

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