Review: The Last Paper Crane by Kerry Drewery

The Last Paper Crane, by Kerry Drewery

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Well… this was such a mind blowing read that left me heart-rendered. Having not known anything about the bombing of Hiroshima, this book certainly opened my eyes to what the citizens of the city went through on that fateful day. I spent most of the time reading it with a big lump in my throat, and that was mainly due to the vividly written prose, which conveyed the dreadful events in such a powerful and emotional way that had you feeling empathy for all characters involved.

The story itself is told in three parts and this is told through verse, prose and also haikus, which in my opinion really brought out its uniqueness and was really fitting to the location of the plot. We hear the story through Ichiro and Mizuki, and I loved getting under the skin of these two very complex characters. We go back in time with Ichiro and get all the harrowing details of the Hiroshima disaster, and with Mizuki we get to see how she so desperately wants to help her grandfather in the present day.

Every single part of the story is written so beautifully and I can honestly say the author has such a poetic style and voice. Because of this, I found the book really hard to put down and I was just in awe of it, if I’m being truly honest.

Every character within The Last Paper Crane made me feel some sort of empathy towards them and I really love when I can feel this for every character within a book. Ichiro, was obviously the character that I felt the most empathy for. You can really feel his pain and his guilt over what happened and how hiding it for seventy years has taken its toll on him both physically and mentally.

Mizuki, I found to be a real caring character who just wanted to help her grandfather and bring him a little bit of happiness. The way she went around to support him, was just admirable and did bring a tear to my eye. She, was the envision of hope in this tale.

The Last Paper Crane was an evocative, simply stunning tale about a harrowing event in history, that captivated me. It’s alluring prose and the empathetic feeling it gives you will last forever.

This review is by Amy Rush Da Silva.