By Norah Jewett ’25
With beautiful fantasy settings, complex family dynamics, and a wonderfully unique protagonist, Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim plays on these aspects to create a magnificent world of blood, magic and evil that draws you in from its opening sentences. This book—inspired by Ancient Chinese and Japanese culture—follows Shiori, the singular princess of Kiata, who is burdened by the forbidden magic that courses through her. Not that anyone knows about it. That is, until she accidentally reveals this secret to her family. Her stepmother Raikama takes it upon herself to turn her six beloved brothers into cranes as punishment, and with every word she speaks to another person, one of her brothers will die. Banished from her home, Shiori travels the kingdom looking for her brothers and stumbles into more trouble than she originally intended to. It will come down to her to save herself, her brothers, and her kingdom before everything collapses in on itself.
I’ll admit it, I finished this in under twenty-four hours after getting it for Christmas, it was just that good. The main protagonist, Shiori, was a joy to read about. Submerging myself in her stream of consciousness not only made me sympathize with her situation, but realize that she didn’t need any sympathy and she would claw her way out of the pit of misfortune she found herself in, no matter how deep in she was. Her irrational decisions and bubbly personality are fun to read during the beginning, but her transition from an innocent young girl to roughened fighter is even more of a treat.
Not only did I get to experience more of Shiori’s brothers than I expected to, but their sibling dynamics made me feel all warm inside after reading their sweet interactions. It’s very clear how much they all care for each other, and the pain they are each willing to endure to ensure another’s safety is nothing short of admirable.
The romance plot threw me for a loop, despite knowing it was coming. (In hindsight, it was on the back of the book.) My expectations weren’t very high because books where the romance is supposed to fall second tend to let it overshadow the main plot to the point where the main plot just disappears all together. I was pleasantly surprised. The romance didn’t completely overshadow the main plot. They coincide with each other and each helped flesh out the other plot more. Additionally, the author managed to pull off the slow-burn romance to the point where I was internally screaming at the two to do something about the obvious tension, but not prolonged so much that I was losing interest. It was a wonderful balance of both.
Now, of course there were several things I was slightly disappointed with, namely the lack of Seryu, a character introduced at the beginning who I’d thought would have a larger role than just appearing with some advice every few hundred pages. However, even that can’t take away from the considerable amount of joy this book brought me over winter break. And if you’re looking for a fun fantasy book to curl up with, this one should be at the top of your list!
Image credit: Barnes & Noble // Cover Art by Tran Nguyen
