Reviews with content warning for Blood - The Crane Husband

“On the farm,” she said quietly, “mothers fly away like migrating birds. And fathers die too young. This is why farmers have daughters. To keep things going in the meantime, until it’s our time to grow wings. Go soaring away across the sky.”

There is just something about the way that Kelly Barnhill writes that just consumes me. She has the ability to write bizarre, disturbing, sad subject matters so beautifully. I've read When Women Were Dragons, and this has a very similar feel in regards to the magical realism and the stifling emotions around motherhood and women's transformations to leave it.

I went into this vaguely familiar with the original Japanese tale of "The Crane Wife" and I found this was an interesting, emotional retelling of it from the perspective of an unnamed 15-year old girl trying to protect and take care of her younger brother, while her mother- a weaver- becomes consumed by an abusive, mysterious crane-man. I will be thinking about this book for a long time.

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dokushoka's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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didireadthat's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective fast-paced

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

4.75

I’m left feeling a little baffled and I know I’m going to be thinking of this story for a while. I already know I should reread it again in the future because I know I didn’t get everything in the first read.

This was a really fast read and very interesting. I loved the writing, it was descriptive but not to the point that the plot was lost in the narrative.

The basic story of the eldest child finding her widowed mother is deep in an abusive relationship and will do anything to protect their younger siblings was a sturdy backdrop for the magical realism in the story. Knowing how the plot would most likely develop made it easier for me to accept the crane in this story and not get so distracted by the impracticality of it and I could really enjoy the fable aspect.

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booking_along's review against another edition

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dark sad 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? Yes

3.75

Stunning writing, but of a weird story.

She had never hesitated when bringing guests over before. Granted: this was her first crane.

i absolutely loved the writing!
it was descriptive but not over the top or getting to lyrical that it didn’t make any sense anymore.
it was just so beautiful to read!
how it described moments, situations and feelings? stunning!

You’ll learn that you’re safest around the people you mistrust and dislike. Your guard is up, you see? The more you love someone, the more dangerous to you they become. The more you love someone, the more willing you are to show them your throat.

the plot and characters as well as the setting was all a bit strange.
A weird mixture of dystopian futuristic sci-fi mixed with magical realism but all in a setting that if it wouldn’t have drones and cameras mentioned a lot i would have placed the descriptions of some things into historical times instead of futuristic ones… but i guess in some ways that does make sense in a lot of ways as well with how the future is looking in real life.

My mother, in all aspects of her life, was a hungry person. Curious and eager. A whirlwind of making and being and motion. The lifelessness that overtook her face from time to time felt so unnatural, so improbable, that it was easy to tell myself that it couldn’t have happened at all.

still the mix of everything that was happening was a bit much for me - maybe because magical realism sadly never fully works for me since i just keep questioning the whys and how’s and they never get explained. but that’s a personal issue and i do think that this book will find a large audience that enjoys the book because of its mixture of genres and making it all somehow work.

from the time of its founding on forward, it has remained fixed in place, like a butterfly pinned to a board, left under glass for so long that eventually it becomes no more than husk and faded color and collapsing dust.

the length of this book was perfect as well.
i have to say that i was a bit skeptical if it a story like this could really be told and make sense in under 200 pages but it does and it works.

and i do think that the authors writing does most of the work for it to work as well as it does.

it gives so much with surprisingly few actual words somehow it manages to sometimes tell an entire setting or part of a story in one sentence!

“On the farm,” she said quietly, “mothers fly away like migrating birds. And fathers die too young. This is why farmers have daughters. To keep things going in the meantime, until it’s our time to grow wings. Go soaring away across the sky.”

sure the story could have given a bit more detail - especially about how the kids grew up and why they did in that way but at the same time that wasn’t what the story was about so it was fine that it didn’t go into details about that.

all in all i really enjoyed this even if i found and am still finding some parts of this novella very strange and would have loved the get more explanation.

but it’s defiantly on of the most beautifully written pieces i have read in a while and that in itself was a wonderful experience.

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