YA Review: Six Crimson Cranes
Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim (Knopf, 464p., ages 12-up, 9780593300916)
Magic abounds in this mesmerizing YA fantasy based on East Asian folklore and fairy tales.
When the "troublemaking" youngest child and only daughter of Kiata's emperor, Princess Shiori, jumps into the Sacred Lake, she meets a dragon and misses her own betrothal ceremony. Shiori eventually will have to marry Lord Bushian's son, a "barbarian lord of the third rank," and be banished to his home in the North. This, she believes, will mark "the dismal end of [her] future." As for the dragon... magic is forbidden in Kiata--at the bequest of the humans' gods, the dragons sealed it, along with thousands of demons, inside the Holy Mountains. But Shiori has a talent for magic, and (unbeknownst to the princess) her stepmother does, too. Shiori spies on her stepmother and the powerful sorceress turns Shiori's brothers into cranes, then sends the young woman to a faraway island. If Shiori speaks, her brothers will die. The princess, struggling to free her brothers from their terrible curse, receives help from the dragon Seryu, Kiki, a paper bird she brought to life, and Takkan, the thoughtful and kind "barbarian" to whom she is betrothed.
Elizabeth Lim's richly wrought world, filled with myth and magic, is delightfully complex. Her plotting is suspenseful: many twists and turns come full circle by the end, while others leave room for a sequel. Shiori's ingenuity and escapades should win her many fans--this is one novel lovers of fantasy and fairy tale retellings will not want to miss. --Lynn Becker, reviewer, blogger, and children's book author.
Discover: When Shiori's stepmother transforms her six brothers into cranes and banishes her to a remote northern island, she's determined to break the curse in this entrancing YA novel.
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