Review: The Crane Wife

The Crane Wife by Patrick Ness
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I’ve read almost every Patrick Ness book – in fact, I only need to read More Than This (which I’ve been saving) along with And the Ocean was Our Sky (which is his most recently release) to be up to date with all his books – and I find my feelings range somewhat with his books. Some I love, others I feel rather indifferent towards. With The Crane Wife, we have a book that falls into the latter category.

The Crane Wife was an easy read, one I was able to finish in no time at all. It was interesting, there were certainly a range of things to enjoy, but I couldn’t connect with the story. I think my biggest issue is that I never came to care about any of the characters. I was curious to see how all the different elements came together, but I had no feelings towards the characters at all.

In many ways, The Crane Wife left me feeling much like Release. It was a story within a story, with separate elements that came together. They came together in a more interesting manner in The Crane Wife than they did in Release, but I still feel as though I would have enjoyed the separate stories more if they were single short stories. As much as I did enjoy the way things tied together, the way the different elements came together, I cared more about certain parts of the story than others.

All in all, The Crane Wife is one of my least favourite books by Patrick Ness. I can see the appeal of The Crane Wife, and there will be many who will enjoy it, but it was not a book that blew my mind.

View all my reviews