This is a strange and wonderful contemporary take on the story of the Crane wife of Japanese tradition. Here a daughter narrates the story of her widowed mother coming home with a crane. But it also delves into the story of the women in her family—flying away when their children were of an age to exist without their mother. It’s haunting, magical, sad, and so strongly grounded in reality. Fans of Seanan McGuire or Jane Yolen take note.

WOAH. That was a rush. What an incredible book - I devoured it in one sitting.

Just like with When Women Were Dragons, I was sucked in from page one. Kelly Barnhill has this style that really speaks to me: I'm not sure what it is in particular, but it's mildly hypnotic. I loved the backdrop of the futuristic farmstead setting, where farmers no longer exist. I loved the closed space that wraps around the family like a trap.

The one thing I would raise an eyebrow for is how similar this MC is to that of When Women Were Dragons? Very similar lives, as a young child is a sole provider for an even younger sibling. The themes were also very similar like this novella was another facet of the issues brought up in the novel.

This was dark, but I love Kelly Barnhill’s writing. She has a great way of getting into the minds of her characters. And although the plot is strange because of the crane, it’s an all-too-familiar story of abuse, familial obligations, and survival.

This novella is about a family who loses their father. Their artist mother soon begins having relationships and one day brings home…a crane. With feathers. Beak. Awkward ways of moving about the home. The narrator, a young girl and her even younger brother try to navigate rural life without their mother who becomes more and more distant. So as not to reveal too much I’ll stop there on the overview. In terms of the story I wasn’t sure what to think at first as clearly it’s a strange premise but I found myself quite moved by the end. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this for everyone but it’s short, powerful and one that could make for a great book club conversation. If you enjoyed the swimmers or even true authors previous book when women were dragons, I think you’ll enjoy this as well.

WOW. This was a stunning (and short) little story! It was not at all what I expected—the premise is a woman brings home a crane, who she introduces as “father”. The story is told from a 15 year old girl’s perspective as she tries to protect her brother, her home, and her mother from the crane. The setting is a small town sometime in the future, which was so great. It was sad and unique and I loved it.

omfg omfg omfg

What was this book? Why was I so revolted and yet I could not stop reading??

Like When Women Were Dragons, the book deals with motherhood and much stifling of emotions on the part of women until they just kinda...transform into something else and go away. Except in this book, the transformation comes to them, as their mother brings home a crane and proceeds to tell her two children that the crane is now their father and then has nasty crane-sex with him (although he might turn into a human at that point; regardless, there are a lot of feathers involved), and because he's a crane and a dude, he's an abusive asshat who literally gouges pieces of her away.

Anywho, it's a real dark fairy tale taking place in dystopian farmlands. While the main part of the book is about a mom shacking up with an abusive crane, other themes of childhood coping mechanisms and survival, older siblings forced to grow up too fast (and not really understanding what is going on but knowing survival is tied to control and stability), generational trauma and tradition, artwork, and the power of reputation and rumor in a small town emerge...all kinda centered on the theme of the meaning of escape.

Kelly Barnhill has a new fan—this was an excellent novella. It was dark and unsettling, made more unsettling with its subtle commentary about motherhood and relationships and parentification.

Our protagonist is a teenage girl living in a small town in a creepy near future. Before her dad passed away, he taught her to care for her mother and little brother, taking on all the practical responsibilities of the house so her mother could focus on her art. It’s six years later: she has been cooking, cleaning, managing the household’s money, managing her mother’s art business, and raising her much younger brother. Cracks are beginning to show. Then suddenly, a crane appears in their life, and their mother is taken with him. The relationship breaks their tenuous day-to-day existence.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor!

Set against the backdrop of a not too distant dystopian future on a midwestern farm, a 15-year-old young woman has been forced to grow up too fast in order to become the family’s caretaker after her fathers death. She becomes the parent, business manager and, for all intents, mother to her artist mother and young brother. The family members are the town outcasts because of rumors of all the women in the family leaving and not ending well; family lore holds that the mothers all turn into birds and fly away when the youngest child turns five. Then the girl’s mother brings home a six foot tall Crane wearing glasses and a hat. Is it a bird or a man? Well written retelling of The Crane Wife.

The Crane Husband is a fascinating retelling of The Crane Wife lore with an adolescent girl at its center: an observant one who is still teetering in that place between childhood and more. What she sees is a lesson in obsession, abuse and oddity. There is horror and definite weirdness. I really enjoyed the stark way the book revealed itself, like the crane himself did.

The Crane Husband is a quick, if not light, read. I suspect this book will be on a number of 'Best Of" lists by the end of 2023, so read it when it's published in February and feel smugly ahead of the curve. I can't say anything so simple about this story as "I enjoyed it," but the pacing is taut, the structure impeccable, and the characters so realistic that I felt frustrated throughout for being unable to help them. They wouldn't have wanted it (and they're fictional), but still. A complex story told with beautiful clarity.

ARC from Netgalley, Macmillan-Tor/Forge

This was intriguing, but ultimately kinda boring. Maybe I'm too dumb to understand the subtle nuances other reviews talk about, but as interested as I was to get answers as to what was going on, I felt like I gained nothing from reading this.

I knew going into this one that it was a loose retelling of the Crane Wife story, but I was certainly not expecting the mom to take a LITERAL 6-FOOT crane as a lover. So it took me a minute to get over that and reset my expectations for the type of book this was going to be.

The Crane Husband takes place in a not so distant future, where all farms have been taken over by The Corporation and those left in rural communities live alongside electric fences and drones monitoring crops. This is more of a backdrop than the focus of the novel, but it certainly help set the tone.

The story tackles abuse, neglect, abandonment, and kids having to go above and beyond what a child should have to do in order to survive. It's a lot to tackle in a 120 page novella. I thought the concept was interesting and I enjoyed the prose, but perhaps due to its length none of these elements really resonated strongly with me.

I also enjoy magical realism when it's done right, but I was left feeling rather confused about the Crane situation. I get that it's largely a metaphor, but I was distracted by trying to figure out why he would sometimes turn into a man and why it mattered. I think he probably could have stayed a bird the entire story and the effect would have been the same.

Definitely an interesting take on an old tale. I don't think it's really my thing, but I appreciate what Barnhill did to turn a familiar story on it's head.

“‘It’s a sad fact about love,’ my mother told me once….She took my hand between both of hers and became grave…. ‘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.’ At the time, I thought this was wise.”

Since the loss of her father, the nameless teenage narrator of this story has functioned as primary caregiver in her family of three. She runs her mother’s business incognito, and lovingly looks after her younger brother. We meet her when her mother, an artist and social outcast, is falling into a neurotic and all-consuming love with a new man-like crane. As their relationship devolves into destruction, the protagonist must decide who to protect and how, while wrestling with conflicting feelings of love and resentment for her mother.

This story is a powerful allegory of abuse and generational trauma. It discusses the consequences of attempting to meet status quo, and the feminine urge to run (or fly, in this case). It’s a moving story on its own; it’s existential and cathartic if you have witnessed a loved one at the hands of domestic abuse. It will make you feel seen if you were a child made to tackle adult responsibilities or roles. It is a comfort for those who can relate and a warning for those who can’t. An absolutely stunning first introduction to this author, whose backlog I am now eager to delve into.

Thank you, Net Galley and Tor Publishing Group for an advanced reader copy.

CW: domestic abuse, neglect of a minor

A very short read, I finished the book in one sitting. People who are familiar with the original folklore will probably enjoy this story a lot more than I did. Unfortunately I just couldn’t connect with the story or the characters. If the book was slightly longer and if there was more time spent fleshing out the characters experiences perhaps I would have enjoyed it more.

Many thanks to Tor Publishing Group and NetGalley for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review.

Rare is the book that makes me cry but The Crane Husband came close.

It's the story of a resourceful girl, her sensitive little brother and their brilliantly talented artist mother with an obsession for a crane wearing a hat and eyeglasses. It's also the story of loss and the sometimes-stupid things we do for love.

The Crane Husband is extraordinarily written, imaginative, and emotionally loaded. A reader might cry, but it's worth it.

Thank you to Tor/Forge and Netgalley for allowing me to read and review an eARC of The Crane Husband.
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The Crane Husband
Our unnamed narrator, a fifteen-year-old girl, manages to care for her six-year-old brother and creative but irresponsible mother by skipping school and selling her mother’s artwork. Her father taught her everything she knows before he died, and much like Katniss in the Hunger Games, she devotes herself to keeping her small family afloat and dodging the social worker’s efforts to intervene. The Crane Husband opens with the arrival of her mother’s newest lover, an insolent giant crane that soaks up every bit of her mother’s attention while returning her affection with deep cuts from his razor-sharp beak.
From this surrealist beginning, things get progressively stranger. In some ways, this strange, poetic novella reminded me of Australian author Kathleen Jenning’s eerie novella, Flyway. There are fatherless children fighting for survival, allusion to ancestral violence, and odd metamorphosis taking place in remote locations. Underneath the partially inexplicable events are submerged emotions—the wish to escape. In both books, the opposing tension between a life of freedom in the wilderness or duty to family creates supernatural chaos. The daughters are left to sort through the wreckage and make wise decisions.

This delicate, haunting short novel vividly adapts the Japanese folk story of the crane wife with subtle details and real emotion. The story manages to say so much about what it is to be a mother and be mothered ambivalently, without ever creating a maternal villain. The near-future, dystopian-ish setting makes the perfect backdrop for the eerie plot. A great read for teens and adults who love a book that gets a little weird but keeps it real.

I hadn't realized this was the same author who wrote When Women Were Dragons, which I attempted to listen to on audio and ended up DNFing earlier this year. If I had, I think I would have been a bit hesitant to pick this one up, and that would have been a shame because I loved it. This just hit different!

A gorgeous modern day retelling, The Crane Husband is narrated by a fifteen year old girl who's left to care for her six year old brother after their father passes away and their flightly mother prioritizes her art and abusive lovers over them both. After watching all of these men quickly rotate in and out of their lives, she barely bats an eye when her mother brings a crane to her bed. But unlike those before him, the crane appears to have staying power, her mother having fallen under his spell to the detriment of them all. Fearing for their continued survival and her mother's health and safety, our unnamed protagonist begins to take matters into her own hands.

Fans of dark fairy tales and lush prose that ebbs and flows will find a lot to love here.

A simple story yet very profound and emotional. Involves sensitive themes, like generational trauma. Highly recommend it!

A beautifully created story of family, love, and dealing with domestic abuse told through a near future retelling of The Crane Wife.

Thank you to Tor and NetGalley for the ARC