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A review by thepurplebookwyrm
The Crane Husband by Kelly Barnhill
emotional
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
"Art exists to transcend, transfix, and transform."
The literal power and symbolic meaning of transformation seems to be a motif particularly favoured by Ms Barnhill, at least judging by the two works I've read written by her: the novel When Women Were Dragons (a soft new fantasy favourite from 2023) and, now, the novella The Crane Husband, which I didn't enjoy quite as much as the former.
That being said, I still found it very poetic and 'quietly beautiful', for lack of better wording. It's just that the symbolism, here, and theming rooted therein, didn't feel as defined and graspable as it did in When Women Were Dragons. Said theming definitely felt very related to (some of) that of the latter though; the quiet oppression of female domesticity, domestic violence, the often complex push and pull of familial bonds of love, the deleterious constriction of the female self, etc... all were present, as they are present in When Women Were Dragons – albeit more strongly. The Crane Husband, however, also plays – a bit – with the following question: what does it mean to be an artist, to create art? And also subverts the trope of the tortured, isolated (and arguably somewhat egocentric at times) artist by having the artist, here, be a woman, and mother. You could obviously go a lot deeper with this, but I still found this aspect of the story noteworthy.
The prose was, broadly, as enjoyable, elegant and evocative as I found it in When Women Were Dragons, though that novel certainly has much more moving and meaningfully strilking imagery for me, personally. The character work was decent, what it needed to be for this story to keep flowing and resonate emtionally – to some extent at least.
Ultimately, this novella feels more like magical realism stricto sensu than fantasy, but this didn't raise my 'anti-magical realism' hackles too much, thankfully. Still, whilst I found meaning in the crane therianthropism at the heart of this book (in terms of domestic and emotional abuse, specifically), I'm also not entirely sure I really 'got' all of it (especially when you consider the fact the women of the protagonist's family also transform into cranes, birds... and the mother does too, eventually... it really muddled things for me ). Which I guess just kinda comes with the territory of magical realism – and which, yeah, I generally do not enjoy at all. 😅
I'd wanted to read this one for a long while, and I'm glad I finally got around to it. Like I said, there is beauty here, and delicate, meaningful symbolism, all in bite-sized snack novella format. But for me, When Women Were Dragons clearly stands as the superior work. With all that said, I'm definitely tempted to read more of Ms Barnhill's work in the future! 🙂
The literal power and symbolic meaning of transformation seems to be a motif particularly favoured by Ms Barnhill, at least judging by the two works I've read written by her: the novel When Women Were Dragons (a soft new fantasy favourite from 2023) and, now, the novella The Crane Husband, which I didn't enjoy quite as much as the former.
That being said, I still found it very poetic and 'quietly beautiful', for lack of better wording. It's just that the symbolism, here, and theming rooted therein, didn't feel as defined and graspable as it did in When Women Were Dragons. Said theming definitely felt very related to (some of) that of the latter though; the quiet oppression of female domesticity, domestic violence, the often complex push and pull of familial bonds of love, the deleterious constriction of the female self, etc... all were present, as they are present in When Women Were Dragons – albeit more strongly. The Crane Husband, however, also plays – a bit – with the following question: what does it mean to be an artist, to create art? And also subverts the trope of the tortured, isolated (and arguably somewhat egocentric at times) artist by having the artist, here, be a woman, and mother. You could obviously go a lot deeper with this, but I still found this aspect of the story noteworthy.
The prose was, broadly, as enjoyable, elegant and evocative as I found it in When Women Were Dragons, though that novel certainly has much more moving and meaningfully strilking imagery for me, personally. The character work was decent, what it needed to be for this story to keep flowing and resonate emtionally – to some extent at least.
Ultimately, this novella feels more like magical realism stricto sensu than fantasy, but this didn't raise my 'anti-magical realism' hackles too much, thankfully. Still, whilst I found meaning in the crane therianthropism at the heart of this book (in terms of domestic and emotional abuse, specifically), I'm also not entirely sure I really 'got' all of it (
I'd wanted to read this one for a long while, and I'm glad I finally got around to it. Like I said, there is beauty here, and delicate, meaningful symbolism, all in bite-sized snack novella format. But for me, When Women Were Dragons clearly stands as the superior work. With all that said, I'm definitely tempted to read more of Ms Barnhill's work in the future! 🙂
Content Warnings
Minor: Domestic abuse