Title: Six Crimson Cranes (Six Crimson Cranes #1)
Author: Elizabeth Lim
Rating: ★★★

ARC provided by Random House Children’s through NetGalley.

Elizabeth Lim has written another whimsical story. As with Spin the Dawn, her talented writing brings a dreamy quality to this fairytale retelling. Six Crimson Cranes is an Asian-inspired retelling of The Wild Swans and I was very impressed how the author was able to create something wholly unique while still staying to the bones of the original story.

While I was interested in the overall story, there was a lot going on in Six Crimson Cranes. There are multiple different plot threads and storylines that were all happening simultaneously and, unfortunately, the book seemed to suffer for it. The many different elements and plots made it hard for the story to feel coherent or seamless.

This is actually the first book of a duology. I honestly feel like Six Crimson Cranes would have been better suited as a standalone. Most (although not all) of the plotlines were tied up by the end of the book. I’m not totally against a sequel, it just felt like conflict was fabricated to allow the story to continue when there was a perfect opportunity to wrap the entire story up nicely.