A review by triciajk
The Crane Husband by Kelly Barnhill

challenging dark emotional sad tense

5.0

The Crane Husband will tear you to shreds. It is violent and wrenching and filled with truths the way most good fairy tales are. The main character remains nameless throughout the story, her invisibility a product of her neglect as she becomes the caretaker for her family. This is a story of sacrifice, a story of abuse, a story of generational trauma, a story of the effects capitalism and monopolization can have on working families. Barnhill weaves all of these themes into her story, the story of a nameless girl disillusioned by the harshness of the world too soon as she finds her own path to survival. At the end, the reader is left to deal with the pieces as they fall.
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