Descendant of the Crane / Joan He

Title / Descendant of the Crane

Author /  Joan He

Publication Date / April 2019

Genre / Fantasy

Page no. / 416

Overall Rating / ★★

This is a YA Chinese inspired fantasy standalone. In this book we follow a young girl called Hesina, who becomes Queen after her father’s unexpected death. This is the author’s debut book. 

 

Unfortunately, this one just didn’t work for me. My main issue with this book was the characters. I did not care about the protagonist and found her to be quite frustrating at times – she is reckless and immature. I didn’t feel that I was given any reason to root for her and I didn’t really understand her motives at times. The rest of the characters also lacked depth and there was very little development throughout the book.  Due to this, I felt disconnected from the story and I had to push myself to finish it

 

At the beginning of this book, you are dropped straight into the story with little explanation or background. The plot felt convoluted at times and so it was a little hard to follow, although this may also be due to my lack of investment.  Some of the twists were quite well done but overall the pacing was too slow and it dragged throughout the 416 pages. I will say that some of the political intrigue was enjoyable to read, however the world as a whole could have done with more depth. I wanted to know more about the world and it’s history. 

 

Overall this one just didn’t work for me, but if you are a big reader of YA fantasy then I would still recommend checking this one out. I’ve seen a lot of good reviews of it on Goodreads, so I think I’m in the minority here. Have you read this book? I’d love to know what you thought. I hope you are all having a wonderful day and I will see you next time. 

 

Pippa