Book Review: "Six Crimson Cranes" by Elizabeth Lim

Fairytales and Folklore have become some of the most famous aspects of literature, especially when it comes to writing fantasy. I have read so many books about fairytales and honestly, I can say that there are increasing amounts of great books written on other worlds, other times and tales of old from other places. Recently, I read “For the Wolf” by Hannah Whitten and I have also read novels such as Coraline by Neil Gaiman and others in the far past. To be perfectly honest, everyone thinks that they have grown out of fairytales until they read a book based on a fairytale that immediately takes them to another world entirely. And that is the most modern thing to do with fairytales - to build an entirely new world with them. Escapism is possibly the most common reason for reading such fantastical tales in your older years and so, authors want to make sure that you are as far away as physically possible from yourself. “Six Crimson Cranes” by Elizabeth Lim definitely takes you some place weird and magical, away from the mundane and everyday lives we lead. The creation of the worlds in this novel is one of its biggest strengths and yet, there are so many more things to celebrate about it.

Shiori is the princess of a kingdom. She has been promised to a man and yet, when she arrives back home from almost drowning, the man is sent away - ashamed. Shiori is punished after saying that she saw a dragon. Her father states that a dragon could have been impossible as none had been seen in the realm for a long while. Shiori’s punishment is toe work on sewing with her stepmother. As you can imagine, in fairytales, stepmothers are the personification of evil. However, this stepmother seems okay at first, even better than okay to be honest - she is called the world’s most beautiful woman by Shiori. Sooner or later, Shiori finds herself exiled to a far away land with an immovable object on her head and a curse upon her mouth. Her brothers are gone and she must work out who put her here, what happened and where she must go next. She also wants to relocate that mysterious dragon.

Written beautifully and in a style that is so very suited to a modern day fairytale and fantasy novel, this book is the literal meaning of escapism that you are seeking. The novel expands into these strange lands and the different descriptions of weird characters we come across seems to solidify our theories that Shiori is a long, long way away from home. Elizabeth Lim manages to make something beautiful out of one of Grimm’s most beloved and also most forgotten fairytales. I do not think I have read a retelling of this particular fairytale before and honestly, if I am correct I will be very impressed with myself. (Though I won’t state it here as that will be giving away spoilers).

All in all, “Six Crimson Cranes” is a beautiful book about a princess who dared to speak her mind and not do as she was told, a king who is strangely captive in his own kingdom, a group of brothers who have vanished and a curse so obscure that you will think to yourself, ‘Well, I wonder how Elizabeth Lim is going to write this into the rest of the story then…” It is truly something fascinating and more than often, dark. The book contains worlds you could have never imagined and elements of fairytales that we love to see revived and revisited. It is truly captivating.