A Crane Among Wolves
Summary
A Crane Among Wolves is a historical fiction-romance set during a particularly tumultuous time in Korea’s Joseon Period. Written by Korean-Canadian author June Hur, this story follows Iseul, a teenager who was orphaned years ago as she strives to save her sister from the clutches of an evil tyrant. To do this, she must band together with the king’s half-brother, Prince Daehyun to mount a rescue and save her sister as well as the kingdom, from King Yeonsan.
Assessment
A Crane Among Wolves is a historical fiction-romance based on 16th century Joseon Era Korea. The story is written at more of a YA level, with an easy-to-understand writing style — that takes heavy inspiration from classics such as Pride & Prejudice with old fashion turns of phrase and word usage — and slightly younger protagonists. While the book is definitely in the romantic category, it it roughly split between the romance and a background of murder mysteries, trauma, and court politics. There are plenty of twists, turns, and heartfelt, if slightly tropey, romantic moments.
The book deals with some incredibly intense and heavy themes, including abuse of various kinds. Based off of a real Joseon tyrant who committed these atrocities, the book handles the more difficult subject manner in a way that gets the point across without being graphic or gratuitous. All of the serious abuse occurs “off screen” and time is not spent dwelling on the details or — worse — romanticizing it in any way. The king is an atrocious man and both he and his actions are presented as being evil and unjust. While the story is marketed towards Young Adult, many of its themes are a bit intense for the younger end of that range. Ideally, the book should be marketed more towards 18-24-year-olds (or older).
Light-o-Meter
Writing Style: 4 out of 7 Little Lights
Plot: 5 out of 7 Little Lights
Worldbuilding: 5 out of 7 Little Lights
Characters: 4 out of 7 Little Lights
Theological Message: N/A
Age-Appropriateness: No nudity or sex, however, there are some extremely intense themes surrounding violence against women and plenty of murder.
Overall: 4 out of 7 Little Lights
Talk
This was one of those stories that started out as “Oh, I just want to read that for myself” and ended up in “Ah, wait, I can write a review on that!” It’s always fun when a story does that!
This book caught my eye for all kinds of reasons:
Joseon Era Korea. I’m a little obsessed with Korean storytelling right now (with really good reason; the stories tend to be cleaner in terms of sex and nudity, more moral, and funnier than modern Western stories) and anything set in the Joseon Era has my full attention.
Romance is the “it” genre right now and I wanted to see what some of the fuss is about with a novel I knew for sure was ”spice” free.
June Hur is a professed Christian.
Now, through this book I have discovered that — for myself personally — YA fiction just isn’t it. I think it tends to be a little too angsty for my older and more curmudgeon-y palette, that said, I know exactly which audience this book will appeal to. If you enjoy slightly more angsty romance YA fiction that deals with a lot of intense themes without being graphic, this is the review for you!
On the one hand in this story, we have a sort of “young love in dangerous times” theme with the classic trope of cold-hearted-but-traumatized-boy and fiery-stubborn-and-also-traumatized-girl. There is a lot of pining and a lot of romantic (but not necessarily sexual) tension. Despite how tropey and cliche some of the scenes and situations were, I found the characters were compelling and interesting. Each had a depth to them that is often missing in these kinds of stories. Additionally, while there was angst, it wasn’t immature and naval-staring; the characters had every right to their angst with all of the horrible things that were going on in their lives.
On the other hand, the novel has this super intense court politics and rebellion story. As stated above, King Yeonsan was a real figure in the Joseon Era who committed horrible atrocities, including kidnapping and enslaving over one thousand women for his own pleasure. In my opinion, the book handles this really well. It doesn’t go into graphic detail and nothing is depicted “on screen” and, contrary to a lot of modern romance and “romantasy” stories out and about today, it doesn’t romanticize any of it. The pain of what is happening to these women is not only real, but is a horrific injustice, and that is exactly how the book depicts it. Despite this, there is also determination and hope. Not even for a second (that I can remember) does Iseul give up on rescuing her sister from the evil king and neither does Prince Daehyun waver in his resolve to enact this rebellion.
While this story isn’t outrightly Christian — due in no small part to it’s historical context in the Confucian/Buddhist culture of the time — it does take a look at how to act in the face of horrible injustice, perseverance in the midst of trials, whether or not to exact revenge on an enemy (and the consequences of what happen if you do), etc. More important than the message, however, is the fact that this is a story that leans into a lot of those super popular romantic tropes (such as the main character’s archetypes) without going to far in terms of intimate scenes. This isn’t what I’d call a clean book with everything that goes on, but it is spice-free.
Where to Enjoy
Amazon: Amazon.com: A Crane Among Wolves: 9781250858092: Hur, June: Books
Barnes & Noble: A Crane Among Wolves by June Hur, Paperback | Barnes & Noble®
Books-a-Million: A Crane Among Wolves by June Hur
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