❝ "𝑭𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒏 𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒆," 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒖𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒂𝒚. "𝑯𝒐𝒍𝒅 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒊𝒕, 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒂𝒓𝒌 𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖. 𝑵𝒐𝒕 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒘𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒃𝒍𝒐𝒘 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒍𝒂𝒎𝒆." ❞
- Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim
Genre: YA high fantasy
Overall rating: 4/5 stars
# books in series: 2
Tropes: love triangle, arranged marriage
Song: "invisible string" by Taylor Swift
Synopsis: Shiori, the only princess of Kiata, has a secret. Forbidden magic runs through her veins. Normally she conceals it well, but on the morning of her betrothal ceremony, Shiori loses control. At first, her mistake seems like a stroke of luck, forestalling the wedding she never wanted, but it also catches the attention of Raikama, her stepmother
Raikama has dark magic of her own, and she banishes the young princess, turning her brothers into cranes, and warning Shiori that she must speak of it to no one: for with every word that escapes her lips, one of her brothers will die.
Penniless, voiceless, and alone, Shiori searches for her brothers, and, on her journey, uncovers a conspiracy to overtake the throne—a conspiracy more twisted and deceitful, more cunning and complex, than even Raikama's betrayal. Only Shiori can set the kingdom to rights, but to do so she must place her trust in the very boy she fought so hard not to marry. And she must embrace the magic she's been taught all her life to contain—no matter what it costs her
My Review:
Six Crimson Cranes is a retelling of the fairy tale "The Wild Swans" based on East Asian mythology, with some Cinderella elements. I read the Spin the Dawn duology by the same author last summer and loved it, and SCC did not disappoint. Elizabeth Lim is one of those authors where you can read anything in their backlist and say oh, yeah, this is definitely this author. She has such a unique voice that shines through the characters and world. Her specialty thing seems to be combining retelling elements into mythology-based YA high fantasy series? Spin the Dawn is like Mulan x Project Runway, while Six Crimson Cranes is The Wild Swans x Cinderella?
Anyways, on to the individual books:
Six Crimson Cranes was undoubtedly the stronger one of the duology. It's one of those books that doesn't take long to get into, intriguing you from the first chapter. Shiori made my list of favorite main characters. She kind of has a not-like-the-other-girls vibe but not in a bad way; mainly because she's a bit of a lovable disaster child and not really your typical heroic protagonist, but amazing and strong and iconic anyway. Her vibrant personality makes her easy to root for from beginning to end. The arranged marriage trope isn't usually one I love, but SCC uses it well enough that I genuinely enjoyed it. While Shiori and Takkan's romance doesn't really bring anything new to the table, I loved them with all my heart anyway. I'm a sucker for when the girl has the guy absolutely wrapped around her pinky, and also the girl being an older sibling figure to the guy's younger sister, both which are true of Shiori and Takkan.
The thing that really set this story apart from other fantasy series for me was the big plot twist (I won't refer to it explicitly to avoid spoilers, but if you've read the book, you know what I mean). It was the perfect balance between being surprisingly unexpected and also there being clues interspersed throughout the narrative. It took the stereotypical preconceived notions of how a fantasy story arc happens and kicked them in the face. It was refreshing and delightful.
Next in the series comes The Dragon's Promise, and sadly, I cannot give such a glowing review for this installment. The first 30% of the book, when Shiori is in Ai'long and navigates the complicated politics and relationships with Seryu and Kiki? Amazing start. I genuinely thought it was going to be a great story. We also get introduced to a new character, Gen, who is witty and interesting and honestly had so much wasted potential. I think the world-building and whimsical magic are an extremely important element to this duology, and part of why the second half of this book failed so much is that it kind of got sidelined in favor of a boring, Disney-esque plotline that's been used a million and one times. The villain is nowhere near as compelling as the one(s?) in SCC, but a basic, cartoonish fallback. Shiori's brothers play a much less important role, which is sad because they were each written so well as individuals in SCC. And the climax/resolution is far too convenient and easy. I was never at any point really scared for any of the characters' safety.
And don't get me started on the "love triangle". I'm not the kind of person that hates on them because I think they're annoying. I think if written well, love triangles can be lovely (see: The Selection, The Infernal Devices, Bloodmarked, etc) but in TDP, it's like Lim wanted to tease at one without actually having one. Firstly, if you're going to write a love triangle, at least commit to it fully. But honestly, I don't think it was needed here. I think Seryu is possibly the most interesting character in this series, and a strong platonic bond between him and Shiori would have been deeply satisfying. But no. Speaking of which, I wish Qinnia and Shiori's relationship had been explored more. I think there was a lot of potential there for Shiori to have at least one constant female friend, but it felt like Lim started to set them up and then kind of let it slide to the background.
I didn't really like the general plot of this book, either, with the whole return-the-pearl thing (minus the cool underwater magical dragon city part). It feels like Lim's publisher was the one that pushed for a sequel when there wasn't really the place for one. The pacing was kind of slow, and it felt like we kind of fell into a pattern of Shiori gets imprisoned, freed, attacked, imprisoned, freed, and so on in a repetitive cycle, almost like Lim was just...coming up with ideas on the spot to fill the word count. The captivating, fresh, magical intrigue of SCC was replaced with periodic basic action sequences.
Overall, I think Six Crimson Cranes would have worked better as a standalone. It wouldn't have been difficult to make minor modifications to wrap up some loose ends, rather than dragging it out over the entire 500 pages of The Dragon's Promise. Honestly, I wouldn't have minded SCC being an extra hundred or so pages longer and kind of combining it with the Ai'long part of TDP. Long high fantasy books can get tedious, but Lim is a good enough writer that the prose and pacing flow smoothly. Also, I didn't really understand what was up with the UK cover and title of TDP when the dragons literally disappear forever from the story at 30% of the way in? I don't know. I think the cover is stunning, by the way, I just don't understand why it only relates to a non-fundamental part of the story. Shiori isn't even holding the pearl, like in the US one.
TL;DR Six Crimson Cranes was a beautifully crafted, spellbinding story with wonderful characters absolutely worth reading, but The Dragon's Promise was a disappointing and unsatisfying sequel.
Add Six Crimson Cranes to your Goodreads TBR here (also The Dragon's Promise).
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