Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Crane Husband by Kelly Barnhill

18 reviews

rektress's review

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challenging emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.25

Small little book that is incredibly big and heavy

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suzannekm's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character

5.0


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huntress's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75


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cryfest's review

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dark emotional mysterious reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot

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bessmonet's review

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adventurous dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75


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antimony's review

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emotional mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

some novellas give me an unfinished feeling like there's more to be told. but this was the perfect length. the writing was wonderful and the last chapter was sad as things often are. my excitement was warranted i really enjoyed this book! that isn't a very good review sorry. well it is a good book 

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forthesanityof1's review

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challenging emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I was given a free eARC in exchange for an honest review through NetGalley. Thank you so much for the opportunity!

I was enamored with this book from the title and beautiful cover art alone. It's honestly arresting and I think it connects with the story of The Crane Husband very, very well. This is a story about generational trauma through the lens of a hard-working Midwest farming family fighting for survival. It is based on traditional Japanese folklore (The Crane Wife) looking at themes of love, sacrifice, suffering, and the associated moral cost. Both male and female aspects of this family have engaged in repeating a cycle of abuse and being subjected to poverty at times. The narrator of this novella is 15 year old girl (a strength of Barnhill as a writer) who's mother is an artist in the thrall of a crane.

Compared to the folklore, Barnhill's narrative is as atmospheric as it is disturbing at times. For me, the discomfort was an integral part of the reading experience. To me, the crane is intentionally flat as a character because of the lens of our narrator based on her background and her age. I think this works well within the story and brings in an interesting and human horror element around domestic violence and the people who suffer tangentially related to the main victim of domestic violence. We see how the cycle is going to play out and how the narrator works to subvert and break it. I think success looks very different for people, and the lack of an outright victory and happy ending is perhaps the most heartbreaking but most real aspect of this book. I loved how Barnhill centered the narrator on her upbringing in moments and her descriptors of the crane and things going on around her. Especially at the end, Barnhill was able to really show her characters without laboriously telling us as the readers that X is doing Y.

Overall, I really, really enjoyed this. I would definitely recommend it if literary fiction, trauma, resilience, and love are for you.

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marywahlmeierbracciano's review

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dark mysterious medium-paced

5.0

Kelly Barnhill has molded an ancient Japanese folktale into a semi-futuristic Midwestern warning.  A small family lives on a plot of land with a barn—the adjacent farmland is owned by a conglomerate which uses automated machines to grow monocultures, fields patrolled by drones to keep even the birds away.  The widow is a prolific textile artist whose woven tapestries elicit extreme responses, her current work-in-progress inspired by her live-in lover, a foreboding crane.  Narrated by the woman’s fifteen-year-old daughter, this visceral retelling explores the limitations of domestic life, the contradictions of love, and the price of inheritance.

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