Review: Descendant of the Crane

Descendant of the Crane by Joan He
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

2 stars.

“What is truth? Scholars seek it. Poets write it. Good Kings pay gold to hear it. But in trying times, truth is the first thing we betray.”

TL;DR:
Characters: Complicated but boring
Writing: Slow, overly descriptive, SLOW
Plot: Could have been cool (murder, trial, betrayal, oh my!), but instead put me to sleep

I DNF'd this the first time around and it was pretty torturous to make it all the way through the second time but I did it! Albeit I skimmed a little, but I did it.

I was so excited to read this one but unfortunately it fell short of my expectations. The back end world-building of a kingdom that fears its Sooths to the point of genocide was intriguing. However, the immediate conflict, the murder of Hesina's father and her investigation into it, failed to catch my attention. There were some minor plot twists that did surprise me, but even these couldn't revive the novel for me.

The pros:
-interesting concept
-complicated characters

The cons:
-pacing
-execution of plot
-slow-moving and boring
-iffy world-building
-characters that didn't inspire any feeling

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