Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

The Crane Husband by Kelly Barnhill

104 reviews

gondorgirl's review

challenging emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Sexual content, Cancer, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Blood, and Death of parent

misscassylee's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I liked this. The writing was very good. The story was sad and set in an interesting future world. Drones, social workers wearing glasses with recording functions… but also sheep, shearing of wool, and practical farm girls. But also the overarching questions of domesticity, family, loyalty, and the nature of art. Also the connection between a woman and her daughter really resonated at the end for me. The imagery is as stark as the content. 

A woman is a bird, a bird is a woman, a woman is a crane with stunning white feathers and an inky black eye. A woman is a bird is a woman is a bird and so on and so forth until what is even real…

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Violence

itsemmaofc's review

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Terminal illness, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Emotional abuse

count_of_carabas's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Terminal illness, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Death of parent, and Domestic abuse

jashanac's review

3.5

Summary:
 Award-winning author Kelly Barnhill brings her singular talents to The Crane Husband, a raw, powerful story of love, sacrifice, and family.

Re-Readability:
Probably wouldn't re-read this.

Characters:
This is a novella and you know how I tend to fare with novellas. The characters felt slightly surface-level, I guess. I liked the main character and her resilience and practicality and protectiveness over her brother.

Plot:
Obviously this is kind of an "odd" story and there's a lot that isn't quite explained, as far as whether it's meant to be real or fantasy -- very much a magical realism/fabulism vibe. (I'm not sure if it's actually categorized as that or not.) I imagine that anyone who saw abuse in the household as a child would relate to this story a lot and perceive it entirely differently from those of us who didn't have that experience. 

The ending felt really rushed and kind of tacked-on, to me. I think I would have liked the ending more if the main character's narration had ended pretty soon after the Big Event. Like, having her explain what happened 20 years later in such a rushed fashion just fell a bit flat for me. 

Themes: 
Sacrifice. Family. Abusive relationships. Fear. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror

saint_eleanor's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

This was really really good, very weird. It's a really unique way of telling the story of childhood abuse and how children often have to deal with strangers coming into their lives or their parents lives and kind of being this harbinger of neglect. The mother meets a 'crane' and they fall in love and she starts to ignore her children and just throws herself into an art piece with the crane man all the while he is abusing her. It really deeply unsettled me. 
Very well written despite being from the perspective of a teen, the language was really beautiful. I also caught bluebeard's castle vibes from the story her dad told her about the crane wife and also echoes of the green ribbon story, as in like women have these aspects to them that they want to keep just for themselves but men feel so entitled to them that they MUST know, causing eternal curse!! I really appreciated the modern setting as well, made it really creepy, the stuff w the sheep scared me!!! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal death, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Child abuse

gafforama's review

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Cancer, Classism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Terminal illness, and Grief

emilyrandolph_epstein's review

challenging dark tense slow-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? No

4.5

This was an uncomfortable book, but I was able to buy into it until the end, which felt somewhat rushed compared to the pace of the rest.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Death of parent, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Blood, Cancer, and Domestic abuse

pagesofkenzie's review

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Blood, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Violence, and Physical abuse

lthintz's review

dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment and Domestic abuse