Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

The Crane Husband by Kelly Barnhill

37 reviews

thelittle_seokmin's review

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, and Blood

Moderate: Eating disorder

Minor: Addiction, Alcohol, and Alcoholism

hownoveljo's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Child abuse, Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Animal death, and Physical abuse

vanyasingh's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Domestic abuse

bubblegirl858's review

challenging mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Kelly Barnhill loves to turn people in creatures. The transformation aspect seems to be a recurring theme of her books. I didn’t like this book as much just due to how awful every single character was. No one made it out unscathed in the end which is just so heartbreakingly sad. The crane was a dick. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Violence, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual content

frfiallo's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Terminal illness

archaicrobin's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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

5.0

The Crane Husband is a dark and emotional tale of a 15 year old girl who is basically the parent to her 5 year old brother and irresponsibly selfish mother. She manages to just barely keep them all housed and fed by selling her mother’s tapestries and homemade cheese until her mother brings a new man around, which she often does, but this time he stays and he’s also a Crane.  The crane (or man) is abusive and soon her mother becomes obsessed with keeping the crane happy as her children slowly starve. The girl tries to save herself, her brother, and her mother in a situation where she is entirely alone. 

Everything in this novella was superb for me, the narrator, the writing, the pacing, the plot, I absolutely loved it. I had a personal connection with this one and immediately connected with the 15 year old narrator since I was also the sole provider for my younger siblings when I was 14 and on. Making sure they’re fed, in bed, happy, and cared for. Lying to social workers when they came to visit out of the sheer terror I’d never see these kids that were like my own again. This book touched on a lot of trauma for me, but that’s one of the reasons it struck me in such a powerful way. One of my favorite books of 2023 by far!!

Sometimes Mothers fly away, and we’re left picking up their messes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Gaslighting, Grief, Animal cruelty, Blood, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Child abuse, and Chronic illness

katymaryreads's review

challenging dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Child abuse, and Death of parent

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail

its_thekla's review

challenging dark emotional slow-paced

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

4.0

For such a short book, this was not an easy read. It was dark and grim and difficult to stomach, topped with a vague sense of underlying discomfort throughout. The vibe was a weird mix of mildly dystopian, magical realism set in some Midwest adjacent town. 

There's not much you can really say about a book that's 140ish pages without spoiling anything, which would be a disservice to our unnamed narrator and her story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Violence, Murder, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, and Child abuse

illtakethenightshiftx's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.0

This novella feels like something I would’ve liked to read in my high school AP Lit class or a lit class in college! There’s so much to pull out of this story - symbols, motifs, themes - and so many ways to frame the characters and the relationships between the unnamed narrator, Michael, Mom, and Father. The narrator is wise beyond her years and that comes across clearly in this story. This is a quick bite that’s unsettling and strange but stays with you - I haven’t stopped thinking about it all day! 

As always, I recommend reading the content warnings before picking this up.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse

Moderate: Child abuse and Abandonment

ehmannky's review

dark emotional reflective slow-paced

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

3.75

A weird and dark retelling of The Crane Wife that doesn't try to explain away fantastical elements of fairy tales or make them mundane. It's a slow read, despite being a relatively short book, and it deals with a lot of heavy themes of abuse and how the impacts reverberate well beyond the person who experienced the abuse. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, and Child abuse

Moderate: Violence and Gun violence