Where the Crawdads Sing
 | |
| Author | Delia Owens |
|---|---|
| Language | American English |
| Genre | Literary fiction |
| Publisher | G. P. Putnam's Sons |
Publication date | August 14, 2018[1] |
| Pages | 368 |
| ISBN | 0735219117 |
Where the Crawdads Sing is a 2018 coming-of-age[2][3][4] murder mystery[3] novel by American author Delia Owens.[5] The story follows two timelines that slowly intertwine. The first timeline describes the life and adventures of a young girl named Kya as she grows up isolated in the marshes of North Carolina. The second timeline follows an investigation into the apparent murder of Chase Andrews, a local celebrity of Barkley Cove, in a fictional coastal town of North Carolina.[1][5][6]
By July 2022, the book had sold over 15 million copies. A film adaptation was released in July 2022.
Plot[edit]
Part I – The Marsh[edit]
In 1952, six-year-old Catherine Danielle Clark (nicknamed "Kya") watches her mother abandon her and her family due to violent abuse from her husband, Kya's father. While Kya waits in vain for her mother's return, she witnesses her older siblings, Missy, Murph, Mandy, and Jodie, all leave as well, due to their father's drinking and physical abuse.
Alone with her father—who temporarily stops drinking—Kya learns to fish. Her father gives her his knapsack to hold her collections of shells and feathers. The illiterate Kya paints these shells and feathers, as well as the marsh's creatures and shorelines, with watercolors her mother left behind.
One day, Kya finds a letter in the mailbox. Her father snatches the letter from her hands as she ran from the mailbox squealing with delight that they had finally received a letter from her mother. After reading the letter he becomes infuriated and burns the letter along with most of her mother's wardrobe and canvases. He returns to drinking and takes long, frequent trips away to gamble. Eventually, he does not return at all, and Kya assumes he is dead, making him the last of the family to leave her alone in the marsh. Without money and family, she survives by gardening and trading fresh mussels and smoked fish for money and gas from Jumpin', a Black man who owns a gasoline station at the boat dock. Jumpin' and his wife Mabel become lifelong friends to Kya, and Mabel collects donated clothing for her.
As Kya grows up, she faces prejudice from the townspeople of Barkley Cove, North Carolina, who nickname her "The Marsh Girl". She is laughed at by the schoolchildren the only day she goes to school and is called "nasty" and "filthy" by the pastor's wife. However, she becomes friendly with Tate Walker, an old friend of Jodie's who sometimes fishes in the marsh. When Kya loses her bearings one day, Tate leads her home in his boat. Years later, he leaves her feathers from rare birds, then teaches her how to read and write. The two form a romantic relationship until Tate leaves for college at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He promises to return, yet later realizes Kya cannot live in his more civilized world because of how wild and independent she is, and leaves her without saying goodbye.
Part II – The Swamp[edit]
In 1965, Kya is 19. Chase Andrews, Barkley Cove's star quarterback and playboy, invites her to a picnic, during which he tries to have sex with her. He later apologizes, but the two form a romantic relationship. He shows her an abandoned fire tower, and she gives him a necklace of a shell he found during their picnic, strung on a rawhide string. Despite her suspicions, she believes Chase's promises of marriage and consummates their relationship in a cheap motel room in Asheville, North Carolina. She’s leaving the grocery store one day and runs into Chase and his fiancée and realizes his promises of marriage were a ruse for sex. She then ends their relationship.
Tate, having graduated from college, visits Kya and attempts to apologize for having left her and confesses his love for her. Still hurt from his betrayal, she rejects him. Despite this, she allows him inside her shack, and he is impressed by her expanded collection of seashells. He urges her to publish a reference book on seashells, and she does so as well as on seabirds. With the extra money, she renovates her home. The same year, Jodie, now in the Army, also returns to Kya's life, expressing regret he left her alone and breaking the news their mother had suffered from mental illness and died of leukemia two years previously. Kya forgives her mother for leaving but still cannot understand why she never returned. After advising Kya to give Tate a second chance, Jodie sets off for Georgia, leaving Kya a note with his phone number and address.
Some time later, while relaxing in a cove, Kya is confronted by Chase. After an argument ensues, Chase attacks Kya, beating her and attempting to rape her. She fends him off and loudly threatens to kill him if he doesn't leave her alone. The encounter is witnessed by two fishermen nearby. Back at her shack, Kya fears that reporting the assault would be futile as the town would blame her for "being loose". The next week, she witnesses Chase boating up to her shack and hides until he leaves. Remembering her father's abuse, Kya fears retaliation from Chase, knowing "these men had to have the last punch".
Kya is offered a chance to meet her publisher in Greenville, North Carolina, and takes the bus there to meet him. After she returns home the next day, some boys find Chase dead beneath the fire tower. The sheriff, Ed Jackson, believes it to be a murder on the basis of there being no tracks or fingerprints, including Chase's, around the tower. Ed speaks with sources and receives conflicting statements. He learns the shell necklace Kya gave to Chase was missing when his body was found, even though he wore it the night he died. Kya was seen leaving Barkley Cove before the murder, then returning the day after Chase died. There also were red wool fibers on Chase's jacket that belonged to a hat Tate had given to Kya. Convinced she is the culprit responsible for Chase's murder, Ed arrests Kya near Jumpin's wharf, charges her with first-degree murder, and jails her without bail for two months.
At Kya's trial in 1970, only contradictory and circumstantial evidence is provided. Kya's lawyer, Tom Milton, debunks the prosecutor's arguments as there was no evidence that Kya was at the fire tower on the night of Chase's death. The jury finds her not guilty. She returns home and reconciles with Tate. They live together in her shack until she dies peacefully in her boat at the age of 64. Later, while searching for Kya's will and other documents, Tate finds a hidden box with some of her old possessions and realizes that Kya had written poems under the name of Amanda Hamilton, the poet frequently quoted throughout the book. He also finds a poem that virtually describes the murder of Chase, obviously written from the murderer's point of view. He then finds, underneath the poems, the shell necklace Chase wore until the night he died. There is a clear implication that Kya had killed Chase. Tate then burns the rawhide string and drops the shell onto the beach, choosing to hide Kya's secret forever ensuring her legacy remains untainted.
Ethology[edit]
Ethology, the study of animal behavior, is a topic that is covered in the book. Kya reads about ethology, including an article titled "Sneaky Fuckers", where she learns about female fireflies, who use their coded flashing light signal to lure a male of another species to his death, and about female mantis who lure a male mate and start eating the mate's head and thorax while his abdomen is still copulating with her.[7]
Meaning of title[edit]
Crawdad is an American slang word for crayfish: these crustaceans cannot sing, but when Kya's mother encouraged her to explore the marsh, she would often say: "Go as far as you can -– way out yonder where the crawdads sing." When Tate also used the phrase, she asked him the meaning and he replied: "Just means far in the bush where critters are wild, still behaving like critters." Delia Owens was inspired to use the phrase because her own mother had used it when she was a child.[9]
Reception[edit]
The book was selected for Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine Book Club in September 2018[10] and for Barnes & Noble's Best Books of 2018.[11]
By December 2019, the book had sold over 4.5 million copies, and it sold more print copies in 2019 than any other adult title, fiction or non-fiction.[12] It was also No. 1 for 2019 on Amazon.com's list of Most Sold Books in fiction.[13] It topped The New York Times Fiction Best Sellers of 2019 and The New York Times Fiction Best Sellers of 2020.[14][15]
In late December 2020, The New York Times listed it as the #6 hardcover bestseller that year.[16] In 2022, Publishers Weekly ranked it the 14th bestselling book of 2021, with sales of 625,599 copies,[17] and as of late February 2022, the book had spent 150 weeks on the best seller list.[18] In April 2022, it was reported that the book had sold 12 million copies.[19] By July 2022, the book had sold over 15 million copies,[20] making it one of the best-selling books of all time.[21][22][23][24]
Since "crawdad" is a regional term, it sparked a rise in online queries about the word's meaning.[25]
Controversy[edit]
Aspects of Kya's life and the novel's narrative choices, including its attitude towards its Black characters, are said to be reminiscent of Owens' time in Zambia, where she, her then husband, and his son are still wanted for questioning in the killing of a poacher captured on film in a 1996 report by ABC News. Owens is not a suspect, but is considered a potential witness.[26]
Film adaptation[edit]
Sony Pictures Releasing bought the film rights to the book, and Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine production company produced, with Witherspoon and Lauren Neustadter co-producing. Lucy Alibar adapted the book to film script.[27][28][29] Daisy Edgar-Jones plays Kya,[30] with Taylor John Smith and Harris Dickinson as Tate Walker and Chase Andrews, respectively.[18] Filming took place from mid-April through mid/late-June 2021 in and around New Orleans and Houma, Louisiana.[31] On July 5, 2021, Cosmopolitan reported that filming had wrapped.[32] The film was released on July 15, 2022.
The soundtrack album is by Canadian composer Mychael Danna.[33] Taylor Swift also contributed an original song, "Carolina", to the soundtrack.[34]
References[edit]
- ^ a b Jordan, Tina (March 29, 2019). "The Debut Novel That Rules the Best-Seller List". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on April 2, 2019. Retrieved April 5, 2019.
- ^ Alter, Alexandra (December 21, 2019). "The Long Tail of 'Where the Crawdads Sing'". The New York Times. Retrieved July 21, 2022.
- ^ a b Nicolaou, Elena (May 24, 2022). "The movie version of 'Where the Crawdads Sing' is almost here". TODAY.com. Retrieved July 21, 2022.
- ^ Owens, Delia (November 19, 2019). "Education, Coming of Age, and Adulthood: Theme Analysis". LitCharts. Retrieved July 21, 2022.
- ^ a b Grey, Tobias (November 12, 2018). "With 'Where the Crawdads Sing,' a Debut Novel Goes Big". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Archived from the original on May 9, 2019. Retrieved April 5, 2019.
- ^ "Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens review – in the swamps of North Carolina". The Guardian. April 5, 2019. Archived from the original on April 5, 2019. Retrieved April 5, 2019.
- ^ Lawson, Mark (January 12, 2019). "Fiction | A US bestseller, this debut about a nature-loving girl growing up alone in southern swampland has wide appeal". The Guardian. Archived from the original on January 12, 2019. Retrieved January 13, 2019.
- ^ Owens, Delia (2018). Where the Crawdads Sing. Corsair. pp. 183, 274. ISBN 978-0-7352-1909-0.
- ^ Weston, Christopher (July 19, 2022). "Where the Crawdads Sing honours author's mother's phrase with childhood link". HITC. Retrieved July 21, 2022.
- ^ "Hello Sunshine". Hello Sunshine. Archived from the original on June 20, 2019. Retrieved June 23, 2019.
- ^ "Barnes & Noble's Best Books of 2018, Best Books of the Year 2018, Books". Barnes & Noble. Archived from the original on May 22, 2019. Retrieved June 24, 2019.
- ^ Alter, Alexandra (December 21, 2019). "The Long Tail of 'Where the Crawdads Sing'". The New York Times. Archived from the original on July 15, 2021. Retrieved July 13, 2021.
- ^ Reid, Calvin (December 5, 2019). "'Crawdads,' 'Becoming' Top Amazon 2019 Lists". Publishers Weekly. Archived from the original on December 6, 2019. Retrieved December 7, 2019.
- ^ "Combined Print & E-Book Fiction, Bestsellers". The New York Times. 2019. Archived from the original on March 7, 2016. Retrieved April 29, 2019.
- ^ "Combined Print & E-Book Fiction Books - Best Sellers". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 26, 2019. Retrieved February 2, 2020.
- ^ "The New York Times® Bestsellers — Hardcover Fiction". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 14, 2021. Retrieved December 30, 2020.
- ^ Maher, John. "Dav Pilkey Dominated the 2021 Bestseller List". Publishers Weekly. Archived from the original on July 27, 2022. Retrieved February 8, 2022.
- ^ a b "Combined Print & E-Book Fiction best sellers February 20, 2022". New York Times. February 20, 2022. Archived from the original on February 26, 2022. Retrieved February 20, 2022.
- ^ Moir, Tammy (April 4, 2022). "'Where the Crawdads Sing' is back on the best sellers list". Happy Media. Archived from the original on July 27, 2022. Retrieved May 2, 2022.
- ^ Lonsdale, John (July 15, 2022). "'Where the Crawdads Sing' Soars Back to Top of Bestsellers List Ahead of Box Office Debut". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on August 6, 2022. Retrieved July 27, 2022.
- ^ "Where the Crawdads Sing (Hardcover)". Ampersand Books. Retrieved May 2, 2022.
- ^ "Where the Crawdads Sing". Penguin Random House Canada. A Penguin Random House Company. Retrieved May 2, 2022.
- ^ Where the Crawdads Sing. ISBN 0735219095.
- ^ "Where the Crawdads Sing". Books-A-Million. Retrieved May 2, 2022.
- ^ "Trending" 'crawdad' (2019-03-19)". Miriam-Webster News Trend Watch. Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. Archived from the original on November 17, 2019. Retrieved April 18, 2020.
- ^ "Where the Crawdads Sing Author Wanted for Questioning in Murder" by Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic. July 11, 2022. Accessed July 15, 2022.
- ^ Lin, Jennifer Marie (July 9, 2020). "Where the Crawdads Sing Movie: What We Know". The Bibliofile. Archived from the original on August 11, 2020. Retrieved July 16, 2020.
- ^ Fleming, Mike Jr. (March 11, 2020). "Sony, Elizabeth Gabler & Reese Witherspoon Set Scribe For 'Where The Crawdads Sing': 'Beasts Of The Southern Wild's Lucy Alibar". Deadline. Archived from the original on April 21, 2020. Retrieved May 3, 2020.
- ^ Borys, Kit (July 21, 2020). "'Where the Crawdads Sing' Movie Adaptation Finds Its Director". Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on March 2, 2021. Retrieved December 30, 2020.
- ^ Goldsmith, Annie (October 22, 2020). "Reese Witherspoon Is Turning Where the Crawdads Sing into a Movie". Town and Country Magazine. Archived from the original on January 17, 2021. Retrieved December 30, 2020.
- ^ "MCF". mycastingfile.com. Archived from the original on March 24, 2021. Retrieved March 19, 2021.
- ^ Scott, Daniella (July 5, 2021). "Everything we know about Where the Crawdads Sing film adaptation". Cosmopolitan. Archived from the original on July 10, 2021. Retrieved July 9, 2021.
- ^ "Inside the 'Where The Crawdads Sing' Soundtrack".
- ^ Grantham-Philips, Wyatte; Grantham-Philips, Wyatte (March 22, 2022). "'Where the Crawdads Sing' Trailer Features Daisy Edgar-Jones and New Taylor Swift Song". Variety. Retrieved March 22, 2022.
Further reading[edit]
- Stasio, Marilyn (August 17, 2018). "From a Marsh to a Mountain, Crime Fiction Heads Outdoors". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 5, 2019.
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"I can't even express how much I love this book! I didn't want this story to end!" Reese Witherspoon
"Painfully beautiful." The New York Times Book Review
For years, rumors of the "Marsh Girl" have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life - until the unthinkable happens.
Perfect for fans of Barbara Kingsolver and Celeste Ng, WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING is at once an exquisite ode to the natural world, a heartbreaking coming-of-age story, and a surprising tale of possible murder. Owens reminds us that we are forever shaped by the children we once were, and that we are all subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.
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Review
A painfully beautiful first novel that is at once a murder mystery, a coming-of-age narrative and a celebration of nature . . . Owens here surveys the desolate marshlands of the North Carolina coast through the eyes of an abandoned child. And in her isolation that child makes us open our own eyes to the secret wonders-and dangers-of her private world - New York Times Book Review
An Amazon Best Book of August 2018: This novel has a mystery at its core, but it can be read on a variety of levels. There is great nature writing; there is coming of age; and there is literature. Crawdads is a story lovingly told-one that takes its time in developing its characters and setting, and in developing the story. You'll want to relax and take your time as well, and when you're done you will want to talk about it with another reader. - Chris Schluep, Amazon Book Review
Steeped in the rhythms and shadows of the coastal marshes of North Carolina's Outer Banks, this fierce and hauntingly beautiful novel centers on...Kya's heartbreaking story of learning to trust human connections, intertwine[d] with a gripping murder mystery, revealing savage truths. An astonishing debut. - People
This lush mystery is perfect for fans of Barbara Kingsolver - Bustle
A nature-infused romance with a killer twist - Refinery29
Part murder-mystery, part coming-of-age novel, its evocation of the marshland and its inhabitants is as unforgettable as Kya herself. A story of loneliness, survival and love that's as engrossing as it is moving - Daily Mail
Heart-wrenching...A fresh exploration of isolation and nature from a female perspective along with a compelling love story. - Entertainment Weekly
For a debut the prose is impressively accomplished . . . A Hollywood film seems inevitable. Yet it will be hard to match on screen the delicacy of Owens's exploration of the natural world. Kya and her magical little world are a rare achievement - The Times
Review
A painfully beautiful first novel that is at once a murder mystery, a coming-of-age narrative and a celebration of nature . . . Owens here surveys the desolate marshlands of the North Carolina coast through the eyes of an abandoned child. And in her isolation that child makes us open our own eyes to the secret wonders-and dangers-of her private world - New York Times Book Review
An Amazon Best Book of August 2018: This novel has a mystery at its core, but it can be read on a variety of levels. There is great nature writing; there is coming of age; and there is literature. Crawdads is a story lovingly told-one that takes its time in developing its characters and setting, and in developing the story. You'll want to relax and take your time as well, and when you're done you will want to talk about it with another reader. - Chris Schluep, Amazon Book Review
Steeped in the rhythms and shadows of the coastal marshes of North Carolina's Outer Banks, this fierce and hauntingly beautiful novel centers on...Kya's heartbreaking story of learning to trust human connections, intertwine[d] with a gripping murder mystery, revealing savage truths. An astonishing debut. - People
This lush mystery is perfect for fans of Barbara Kingsolver - Bustle
A nature-infused romance with a killer twist - Refinery29
Part murder-mystery, part coming-of-age novel, its evocation of the marshland and its inhabitants is as unforgettable as Kya herself. A story of loneliness, survival and love that's as engrossing as it is moving - Daily Mail
Heart-wrenching...A fresh exploration of isolation and nature from a female perspective along with a compelling love story. - Entertainment Weekly
For a debut the prose is impressively accomplished . . . A Hollywood film seems inevitable. Yet it will be hard to match on screen the delicacy of Owens's exploration of the natural world. Kya and her magical little world are a rare achievement - The Times
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Product details
Publisher : Corsair; 1st edition (14 January 2020)
Language : English
Paperback : 384 pages
ISBN-10 : 1472154665
ISBN-13 : 978-1472154668
Dimensions : 19.2 x 2.2 x 12.6 cm
Best Sellers Rank: 57 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
17 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction
40 in Coming of Age Fiction (Books)
44 in Murder Thrillers
Customer Reviews: 4.6 out of 5 stars 379,697 ratings
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beautifully written highly recommend crawdads sing delia owens well written main character marsh girl loved this book long time north carolina must read great read love and loss thoroughly enjoyed murder mystery really enjoyed twists and turns page turner best book storyline
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Jeni Robinson aka Jennifer Larmar - Australian Author
5.0 out of 5 stars Definitely in the Top 5 of My Favourite Books
Reviewed in Australia 🇦🇺 on 31 August 2020
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This is a beautiful though heartbreaking novel, packed with exquisite descriptive prose as it tells a shocking story of abandonment, neglect, survival, awakening and finally hope, and all woven around a murder mystery set in marshlands on the outskirts of a North Carolina coastal town during the 1950s and 60s.
Kya is a shy, skinny six year-old when her mother suddenly up and leaves home - a tiny shack housing a handful of kids, a drunken husband and not much else. Within a few short months, all of Kya’s siblings have deserted her too, until it’s only this innocent little mite and her cold-hearted pa left - and even he’s only there intermittently when alcohol isn’t addling his brain and makin’ him ornery.
For several years, Kya has to fight to survive on grits, a few mussels and not much else as she ekes out a living from the swamp she calls home.
The novel’s pages are riddled with racial tensions and those age-old discrimations simmering between the rich and affluent and that ‘poor white trash’, while bringing to life a story about a young child surviving on next to nothing while harbouring an endless expectation that things will someday get better.
Delia Owens’ characters were all rich and diverse, and each one made me either angry or grateful depending on their role in Kya’s unique and meagre life. Jumpin’ and Mabel brought a glimpse of hope and care into her sad, bleak existence, so much so, I wanted to climb inside the pages to offer them my thanks for seeing a need and doing their best to meet it.
Then there was Tate - I fell in love with this young man right from his first entrance into Kya’s lonely world, despite his choice once he went away to college. A young man who was such a warm light in her personal darkness, and showed a kind and generous heart towards a neglected though resilient young child. Somehow he saw beyond this scruffy waif with nature as her only company - one who knew it’s intricacies better than most - and yet, as a teenager, still had no inkling as to what came after the number twenty-nine. Tate was a true example of being raised by caring parents who taught him to practice kindness, and most especially in one particular portion when Kya was coming of age. I wanted to give him a hug for his sensitivity and concern. He was the kind of friend everyone needs, especially a lonely young outcast.
This was a book I didn’t want to end, although many times my heart ached for this precious little child/young woman alone in that desolate place. It is a heart-wrenching story, yet it’s also peppered with uplifting little nuggets just when you feel your heart breaking into tiny fragments from another of life’s bitter blows falling upon Kya’s scrawny shoulders.
The author’s word pictures were exquisite and my soul eagerly gathered up all of those vivid images she made, like this one....
“She laughed for his sake, something she had never done. Giving away another piece of herself just to have someone else.“
And then there was this longer more poignant piece that had me wishing I was there to eavesdrop and watch everything from inside the shadowy overhang of a weeping willow...
“Kya leaned closer to him, not enough to touch. But she felt a sensation – almost like the space between their shoulders had shifted. She wondered if [he] felt it. She wanted to lean in closer, just enough so their arms would gently brush together. To touch. And wondered if [he] would notice.
And just at that second, the wind picked up, and thousands upon thousands of yellow sycamore leaves broke from their life-support and strained across the sky. Autumn leaves don’t fall; they fly. They take their time and wander on this, their only chance to soar. Reflecting sunlight, they swirled and sailed and fluttered on the wind drafts ... and the two of them leapt and skipped through curtains of falling leaves, reaching their arms wide, snatching them before they fell to the earth...
As she ran back through them, they caught like gold in her hair ... the leaves rained and danced around them as silently as snow … He lifted a leaf gently from her hair and dropped it to the ground. Her heart beat wildly. Of all the ragged loves she’s known from wayward family, none had felt like this…
And for the first time in her life, her heart was full.” (There are more magnificent word pictures nestled in between those ellipses, but I didn’t want to give everything away from this poignant piece of prose ... hopefully, this little skerrick will make you want to read it all for yourself!)
Another portion that grabbed my heart was, “His eyes were the same as they had been. Faces change with life’s toll, but eyes remain a window to what was, and she could see him there.”
The novel’s title sums up Kya’s raw way of life perfectly as the meaning behind the expression ‘Where the crawdads sing’ is ‘...far in the bush where critters are wild, still behaving like critters.’
I take my hat off to the author for writing this both tragic yet moving piece of perfection, and highly recommend it to everyone. Definitely a 10/10 from this awe-filled lover of words, and most assuredly one I’ll read over and over as long as I have breath to do so. It actually took far longer than expected to finish, but only because I wanted to savour every morsel - and some portions were read again and again to grasp every hidden facet purely for the gold found in each one.
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Jess Colacino
5.0 out of 5 stars Great read.
Reviewed in Australia 🇦🇺 on 6 January 2023
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Great book. Loved the ending.
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Lollylegs
5.0 out of 5 stars captivated ,
Reviewed in Australia 🇦🇺 on 20 December 2022
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I could hardly put the book down, I too fell in love with The Marsh Girl. An excellent first novel.
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Emily
5.0 out of 5 stars Just as good as the movies
Reviewed in Australia 🇦🇺 on 1 December 2022
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This book is amazing so hard to put down
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Packer
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book
Reviewed in Australia 🇦🇺 on 23 November 2022
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Perfect to keep both my husband and I enthralled while travelling from NSW to Adelaide South Australia.
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Sharon Whitfield
5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it!
Reviewed in Australia 🇦🇺 on 30 July 2022
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I never really wanted to read this book and only did so because it's everywhere and ecause of the movie. I was weary because I've heard lots of negative and positive reviews and didn't know where I'd sit. I started it and it was slow. I was so sad for the little girl abandoned by everyone one by one. I was weary when her dad started being nice to her and crushed but knew it was coming when her dad started drinking again. I never fully trusted Tate thinking he'd hurt her and was so sad when he did. When Jodie came back I didn't even trust him not to hurt her again. I saw the chase abuse coming a mile away. My heart just absolutely broke for her. Her trail kept me on the edge of the seat and I found myself really invested and shouting out confusing my husband. The end of the book definitely picked up and I will treasure this book.
I wasn't really interested in this book and only chose to read it because its everywhere
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ronnie b
5.0 out of 5 stars captivating from beginning to end.
Reviewed in Australia 🇦🇺 on 29 September 2022
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It’s nice to read a book like this. It’s not like any other, that rarely happens in literature. It’s a story I will hold in my heart for ever ( like to kill a mockingbird.). It is full of interesting things.
Well written, spell bound, I made time to read it in quick time. Captivating characters, events. A look at people, nature and nurture.
Small town living. I loved the poetry in it. I almost wish we had drawings of the insects, birds and plant life.
So many things have touched my heart from this wonderful book.
I am almost scared to see the movie.
An extremely beautiful story, beautifully written.
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Jules
5.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable
Reviewed in Australia 🇦🇺 on 14 October 2022
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I truely enjoyed reading this book. The author’s use of language revenant to the individual characters gave an authentic feel and atmosphere of the time and place to which the story is based. Prejudice reigns among people who see someone different to themselves and feel that this is a good reason to reject that person. Thank goodness for the characters of Jumpin, Mabel and Tate. I loved the poetry.
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countrygirl
1.0 out of 5 stars Total claptrap
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 13 April 2020
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What a ridiculous book The only redeeming feature was the descriptions of the marshlands - all the rest was unreadable rubbish. Absurd plot, dreadful dialogue, terrible sex scenes - absolutely nothing to recommend this over-acclaimed novel. The notion of an illiterate marsh girl self-educating to the level of an academic research scientist beggars belief. Then the appalling poetry! I wish I had given it up long before I struggled to finish it. I couldn’t be bothered in the end - and I hate to abandon a novel.
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docholden
1.0 out of 5 stars Too unrealistic to enjoy
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 29 October 2018
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I was very disappointed in this book after reading all the hype about it. While the reading is good, the story is so nonsensical- a 6 year old left alone in a shack raises herself, living in the same shack, using the same boat, and no one lifts a hand to help her? In more than 20 years, the boat never breaks down, the house doesn't need repairs and she's able to wear the same clothes for many years....she's got long hair that she says is ratty and tangled but description s of it has it down her back, luxurious...she's gorgeous but bathing is optional until in her 20s...she has sex with a philanderer but never gets a vd and not once apparently does she get sick. No flu, cold, nothing....she never got shots and apparently has the immune system of a super hero because she stepped on a nail and never got tetanus....I kept reading so I'd finish and the ending is unexpected but it's generally a boring book where day after day, she's alone in the marsh....
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Lou
1.0 out of 5 stars Most irritating book I've read in a long time!
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 28 January 2019
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I was sure I would like this book..and actually finished it. I grew more irritated with each page by the last half. I grew up in coastal North Carolina and was born in the 40s, so would be the same age as the main characters. It was clear that the author did not do her research about the area and about what would be plausible at the time of the story. When she mentioned real towns, she should have known Asheville would not be the destination city from the coast, especially in the 60s. Ma's old cardboard suitcase that had been in the closet in the marsh for 19 years would be covered in mildew, Fireflies would have been called lightening bugs. No boy in a small town in NC would have been named either Tate or Chase in 40s, more recent popular names. I could go on and on. The inconsistencies in the dialect was grating, and many parts of the story were just not believable to me. I am amazed that so many people loved the book and the poetry.
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chocolateg
2.0 out of 5 stars Huge disappointment.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 4 February 2019
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After all the rave reviews I was expecting something exceptional but was completely underwhelmed. I felt the the characters were underdeveloped and the plot rushed and implausible. Wish I’d saved my money and waited until i could pick up a cheaper secondhand copy.
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Viking
1.0 out of 5 stars Pathetic Verse and Worse
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 24 January 2020
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“Where the Crawdads Sing” has an enticing title. Unfortunately, it’s the best thing about the book. The natural science - of which there is too much - may be accurate; I cannot tell. The rest of the book is bad beyond belief. The plot is rickety; the characters are barely one-dimensional; the prose is sugary and sickening. As for the dialogue...most “sound” like cartoon characters. The nadir, though, are the truly dire poems, dropped haphazardly into the text. How this waste of space came to be published escapes me totally. Perhaps one can fool most of the people all the time. This is said to be the author’s first novel. On the evidence of this trash, she would be well advised not to think about a second.
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Brandy Painter
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June 15, 2019
Wow.
Like so many people, I read this book because my book club chose it. Unlike so many people, I am not impressed. Not even a little bit. A lot of times when a book is rated this high, I tend to think it's me and not the book. But nope. This time I fully believe it's the book.
This will be ranty and in the order in which things made me want to rant. No apologies.
I should've known things weren't going to go well from the title alone. Crayfish are all over the place, but they don't sing in any of those places.*
I definitely knew this wasn't the book for me on the very first page. I absolutely abhor overwrought prose that reads like the author sat down with the intention of writing the next Great American Novel and therefore had a certain number of adjectives and metaphors to fit on each page to prove their work was worth the accolades it was sure to get with sentences like:
"Swamp water is still and dark, having swallowed the light inits muddy throat. Even night crawlers are diurnal in this lair. There are sounds, of course, but compared to the marsh, the swamp is quiet because decomposition is cellular work. Life decays and reeks and returns to the rotted duff; a poignant wallow of death begetting life."
There is beautiful imagery, and then there is pretentious cobbling together of SAT words and figurative language so it seems deep but really isn't. For me, this was the latter. And so much of the book is just that overly flowery language barfed over every page for no reason, saying nothing or not making a lick of sense with what it does say. But it sounds pretty! So! Art!
Then there was the massive eye-brow raising I did when I discovered this was taking place in North Carolina. The dialect. AGHHHHH!!!! This is why authors shouldn't use dialect when they write. You have to know a place so well in order to do that. Southern hick does not equal southern hick does not equal southern hick. There are (at the very least) five different dialects spoken in North Carolina. I attended Appalachian State University in Boone. The majority of my professors could tell which region each NC native was from by a couple sentences. I had a few who could get within two counties of where they were born after hearing them speak. Yeah. Kya's father's dialect would be exceedingly different from everyone else in their community as he is from the mountains and they are in the Outer Banks. Those are so distinctive and nothing alike. No one else in the world speaks like the Pamlico Sound people of NC. And it is rather hard to capture its cadence and brogue on page so just don't try. You will fail. (Owens totally failed.)
Is that nit-picky? Maybe. But I'm more concerned with how the dialect was used. Every "good" person in the book overcame their dialect to learn to speak "proper" (ugh I hate even typing that word) English. Are you telling me Kya, who didn't have TV or radio as influence, lost her dialect with no practice and no outside influence because she was just...smart??? Good???? Same with Tate. But Chase kept his so we knew he was bad and a threat. There's some classist nonsense imbedded deep in that, and I am not here for it in any way. It's particularly annoying as it reads the way I imagine people pretend to speak when they're speaking "southern hick" to be mockingly superior but have never actually heard a real human in the south speak.**
Then I reached the part on p57 where Kya's dad says of his family:
"They had land, rich land, raised tobacco and cotton and such. Over near Asheville. Yo' gramma on my side wore bonnets big as wagon wheels and long skirts. We lived in a house wif a verandder that went a'the way around two stories high. It was fine, mighty fine."
I actually took a screenshot and sent it to my husband who was born and lived his entire life "near Asheville". His response, "What in the world?" What in the world indeed.
A. No one from western NC talks like this. And Kya's father didn't move to the OBX until he was an adult, so he would still have his home dialect. Any student of language knows you don't shed and switch an accent easily once you're in adulthood. It takes practice. And even then the results are dodgy. Also this is not how Pamlico people speak anyway. See my rant about dialect above.
B. Does Owens know Asheville is in the mountains??? (Tobacco was grown in the mountains though not nearly as much or as successfully as in the Piedmont. Cotton is waaaayyy harder. It gets too cold and rains too much. Also there's just not enough flat, arable land to make it worth the effort. I know there was a cotton mill in Asheville at the time, but I've never heard about people growing the cotton around there. If they were, it had to have failed more than half the time and not because of weevils. It's just not hot enough long enough. And no one was getting rich off agriculture and building plantation style houses there with slaves as was mentioned later in the book. Western NC was not like the Deep South. Because it is MOUNTAINS. Anyone who has ever driven to Asheville from the Piedmont knows exactly how mountainous. It's like flat flat flat whoa we're going UP. There's not enough flat land for plantations.)
Then there was the part where Tate's mom went to ASHEVILLE for a bike because they didn't have it at the local store. Like WHAT??? She didn't try Wilmington? She drove past Greenville, Raleigh (the capitol), Durham, Chapel Hill, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, missed exits to CHARLOTTE (the largest city), to drive up a mountain for a bike? Literally no other city in NC had it? it takes SIX HOURS to drive from the Pamlico Sound to Asheville on a good traffic day in the year of our Lord 2019. Do you know how long it would've been in the 50s???
Good Grief, what is this woman's obsession with Asheville? And does she believe it is somewhere near the coast rather than on the complete opposite end of a rather long state?
Which is how I knew no matter how smart she sounded or how much she might know about science and wildlife, Delia Owens didn't bother to research squat about North Carolina. Or she did and then disregarded it for whatever reason. Maybe she thought the Outer Banks and Asheville as NC's top tourist destinations were the names she needed to drop to make her book sound authentic??? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Huge parts of the novel are a giant snooze fest of nature this nature that and here's some more nature. And also grits. Because this is SOUTHERN y'all. In case it hasn't been hammered in yet.
There were some freakin' awkward sexual scenes.
Then there were the long drawn out court scenes that were just so tedious.
I gathered from these scenes Owens is also unclear about travel times from the Greenville to the OBX. (Also I’m not sure if there ever was a Piedmont Hotel in Greenville, which is in the coastal plain and not the Piedmont. However, there IS one in Waynesville, which is also not in the Piedmont. Waynesville is in the mountains near.....guess where....Asheville.) Someone buy the woman a freakin’ map since she clearly doesn’t know what Google is.
The working of the town vs Kya also bothered me. It's like Owens knows that the OBX people are a difficult community to become a part of without truly understanding the whys and hows of it all.
Kya's character development was just so frustrating overall. And some of the stuff she accomplishes requires a tremendous suspension of disbelief. Owens definitely wanted the reader to see her a certain way. She is a manic pixie dream girl in a marsh until suddenly she isn't... I was SO MAD about that. Because I hate when men write manic pixie dream girls. But when women do it? I'm enraged. Way to take it to your own gender. Then it turns out Kya should have a shirt that reads, NOT YOUR MANIC PIXIE DREAM GIRL in fluorescent letters. When I got to the end, I was so angry. Because the Kya we got a glimpse of those last couple of pages, WHER THE HECK WAS SHE THE ENTIRE BOOK? I want to read a book about that complicated, brilliant girl and recognize her as such through the whole thing. Ugh. Give me the Kya who can cold-bloodedly commit a well thought out murder, convince a jury she didn't, make a good portion of the community feel guilty for even suspecting her in the first place, and live a happily contented life forever after. It would have been way more interesting than what came up to that point. I FEEL SO CHEATED. And you know it's just because Owens wanted the element of surprise. But it wasn't really THAT surprising. Why wasn't I allowed to appreciate Kya for the vengeful goddess she was in planning that and executing it beautifully. Don't give me this knowledge with no insight AFTER SHE'S DEAD. Let me SEE ALL OF THAT.
And finally rant-wise, Owens doesn't seem to know quite what she wants this book to be. Is it an ode to nature? Is it a crime novel? Is it literary fiction? It's kind of like she wanted to write the crime novel but genre writing is too plebeian, so here comes the overwrought language and navel gazing. Because ART. The nature part was her falling back on what she was comfortable with I think.
*Crayfish do, I learned from my research, make a noise but we don't often hear it as they can make it underwater as well as out of water. It sounds like tap dancing. No singing even remotely flirted with. Where the Crawdads Tap Dance doesn't have the same ring I guess. And also doesn't narrow things down geographically. I did wonder why it wasn't called Where the Cicadas Sing. Because those sing. And are on a 17 year cycle. Which would have fit PERFECTLY with the timeline of the book. So color me confused. I know NC can be overrun with cicadas, but I'm not sure if the Pamlico region has them or not. Still would have made more sense than the actual title. (Again, it sounds flowery and important. Doesn't mean it has depth or meaning.)
**My husband decided at age 13 to get rid of his accent. He worked long and hard at it. He did it by listening to network TV anchors and copying their speech patterns. It took years of concentrated effort. It's still not completely gone though he can pass for not being southern in other parts of the country. And when he's home? It comes back full force with all its dialectic eccentricities. I've lived the majority of my life in the Southern Appalachian mountains. Everyone here still knows I'm an outsider the second I open my mouth despite the fact my midwestern relatives swear up and down I have an accent now. And people here in eastern Tennessee are uncertain about my husband because he sounds kind of like them but not quite. (He's let his accent come back more since settling here because it helps with the not being considered an outsider. That's as important in southern Appalachia as it is in the OBX if you want to be embraced by the community.) But a single gorge changed the dialect between eastern TN Appalachian and western NC Appalachian just enough natives here recognize his accent as being not quite theirs. BY THE WAY my husband was just as smart after training out his accent as he was when he had it at its thickest. He knew he needed it gone to be a journalist, so he got rid of it. He was literally asked to "speak southern" by people in Michigan when we lived there briefly more than once so they could laugh about it. Which is f***ed up. Southerners speak the way they do for cultural and geographical reasons and it has nothing to do with the amount of intelligence or righteousness they have.
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Betsy Robinson
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January 19, 2021
9/8/20 note:
Dear Goodreaders,
If you loved this book, I'm very happy for you. As a reader and also somebody who works in the publishing industry, I want all readers to like or love as many books as possible, so the fact that you love this book is, in my opinion, a good thing. If reading a review that does not agree with your opinion enrages you, don't read this review. I do not believe there are spoilers in my opinion, but a couple of commenters think there are. So if you have not yet read this book, you may not want to read my review. I read it quite a while ago and have moved on to many more books that I'm more interested in. So I won't be joining conversation in the comments. If you disliked this book, you may enjoy having some company in your opinion. --Betsy Robinson
The Review (November 18, 2018)
Normally I would not finish let alone review a book I disliked as much as I did this one, but since I bought the book and am reading it for my book club, I’ve decided to say what I think:
I found the writing of this romance/murder mystery to be painfully split—almost as if there were two different authors: an experienced one for the vivid narrative and an amateur for dialogue and character development (which in fact may be the case, since the author’s an experienced nature writer and this is her first novel).
The story is told in two time periods: Young Kya, left alone in the marsh to fend for herself, starts the story in 1952; and police investigate a murder in 1969. The opening lyrical descriptions of the swampland and inner thoughts of the swamp kids had soul—I loved, felt, and smelled the land, sea, air, and dense plants. But when people started talking, the writing became stilted, overwritten, and unbelievable. This happened in the earlier time period with Kya and a boy and the boy and his dad, and same thing with the 1969 police dialogue. The kids’ scenes had an after-school TV special sound and the police scenes sounded canned, like a marshlands-of-North Carolina version of Law and Order, where exposition is awkwardly inserted to move the story forward or there is overwriting that takes away from what could have sounded more authentic to the region. For example, a deputy says to his sheriff:
“I’m hungry. Let’s go by the diner on the way out there.”
“Well, get ready for an ambush. Everybody in town’s pretty riled up. Chase Andrew’s murder’s the biggest thing’s happened ’round here, maybe ever. Gossip’s goin’ up like smoke signals.”
“Well, keep an ear out. We might pick up a tidbit or two. Most ne’er-do-wells can’t keep their mouths shut.”(61)
Why not just, “I’m hungry,” and cut to the wonderful description of the Barkley Cove Diner and the scene of people gossiping about the crime?
In real life, people do not say everything they’re thinking or narrate everything that’s happening or is going to happen. In fact, most of us lie about what we really think—if we are even self-aware enough to know our subconscious thoughts. Leaving out thoughts, leaving gaps in truth, and trusting the characters a writer has created allows subtext and real character to drive things forward. There is none of that here.
I found the character development absurd: Simply put, there are no authentic, complex characters. Kya starts as a believable swamp rat, which is inconsistent with what we learn about the derivation of her parents. Her voice is unbelievably inconsistent throughout the book. Then there are the two one-dimensional romances, one of which allows her to learn to read at age 14 and grow into an educated, sophisticated, poetry-reciting biologist, knowing lyrics to songs she never would have heard, etc., and the other, a sexual relationship where she doesn’t even think about getting pregnant although she seems to have learned all her biology from the esoteric scientific texts she reads.
I finished this book by skimming large sections, starting at page 164 when the entire plot became apparent, sans an end-of-book twist which was intellectually fun, but just as unbelievable as the manipulations of Kya’s character.
Sorry, friends who adore this book, I’m an outlier on this one, I guess.
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Susan Stuber
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October 28, 2018
Seeing as to how I skipped most of the second half of the book, I have no choice but to give it one star.
There are so many things wrong with it, I hardly know where to start. The only thing it really had going for it was the plot, which was definitely a good one, and it is too bad that it got wrecked.
I am at a loss to put this book into any kind of genre. Romance? YA? Courtroom drama? Murder mystery? I rather suspect that the author had the idea, first and foremost, to weave a story around how human behavior imitates that of wildlife, was fascinated by the marsh area of NC and fashioned a story around this. As a result the book neither flies nor swims. We might, on one page, get a lot of scientific information about insects, birds and plants, then we are back to the romance style of “her cheeks burned,” “her groin throbbed as if all her blood had surged there.” “her long hair trailing in the wind” and “he reached out and ran his fingers across her firm breasts.” Did I mention that she had black hair and red lips? And that she spontaneously recites poetry out loud on the beach?
Some books have unlikely coincidences, some have downright contrived ones and others have those that are highly unlikely and therefore plain unbelievable. In the first and second cases, a book can still make it if the characterisations, settings and plot are well done. In the third case, unless you are talking about a fairy tale, you have to be either really romantically minded or you just go along with whatever for the sake of entertainment. “Crawdads” falls into the third category.
It is rather unbelievable that, even with an abusive and alcoholic father, the rest of the family would simply abandon their six-year old daughter and sister, unless they were totally depraved, which the author portrays them as not. It is unbelievable that not one single adult in the nearby town would know that the girl was in the marsh by herself and thus make some effort to help her. I will put the rest of the “unbelievables” at the bottom in a spoiler alert. Aside from them, there are the errors and other annoying facets.
Such as the author’s use of the vernacular, but only for the bad folks. The good folks all speak proper English. Such as the author’s fascination with southern food, especially grits, black-eyed peas and turnip greens, which are mentioned ad-nauseum.
Spoiler alert: Unbelievable that the girl, who did not learn to read until age 14, would then go on to become a self-educated scientist and artist and even write several books, all while being entirely on her own in the wilds. It is unbelievable, since she wasn’t that far from town, that she would never seek out any contact with anyone besides her two suitors and an old black couple. Especially since she was a “looker” and wore white cut-off jeans (really??) when she went to town to buy groceries. How could everyone be so mean to her unless she was plain weird (which we are assured she was not). No, it was that all the town’s people were just narrow-minded and mean…except for of course the one golden boy with the golden locks.
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Debra
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September 27, 2018
All the Stars!!!!!
Can I just say that I loved everything about this book and leave it at that!?!
Where the Crawdads Sing is a story of resiliency, survival, hope, love, loss, loneliness, desperation, prejudice, determination and strength. This book goes back and forth in time to tell the story of Kya Clark a.k.a. the Marsh girl. She lives on the outskirts of town, in the Marsh, and the locals look down their noses at her, she is judged, ridiculed and bullied. But there are those who show her kindness, friendship, and show her love. Oh, how I loved this book!
Kya was a young girl when her Mother walked away without looking back. Soon, all her siblings followed suit, leaving Kya alone with her often absent, drunk, and abusive father. She is left to care for their home, to cook, clean and take care of both of their needs. How her situation pulled on my heartstrings. She had to learn to shop, to cook and to provide food for herself in her father's absence. All while dealing with loneliness, feelings of abandonment and loss. Always wondering when and if her Mother will ever return. She was a smart and clever girl who knew the marsh and found ways to make money and provide for her basic needs. Soon 'Jumpin and his wife, Mable, show her kindness, generosity and love. I dare you not to adore this couple!
As Kya grows and learns more about life through her interactions with the creatures of the Marsh, two young men enter her life. One is her brother's older friend, Tate, who teaches her to read and shows her acceptance and happiness. Another brings her hope of a future but won’t introduce her to his friends and family. Could one be her chance at happiness? A chance at belonging? A chance at being accepted? A chance at being loved? A Chance for growth? Or will history repeat itself?
In 1969, local football legend, Chase Andrews is found dead. Rumors swirl as to motive and possible suspects. Rumors have been circulating for years about Chase and his involvement with the Marsh girl. Could she be his killer? What motive could she have?
This book had a little bit of everything that I love: a likeable main character who pulls at your heartstrings, murder mystery, atmosphere, drama, coming of age, and romance. There are several characters who give and show kindness including, Tate, the cashier who gives back too much change and the couple who make sure Kya has what she needs. What is the saying? Those that have the least to give, give the most! There is a police investigation and court room drama and some twists and turns I did not see coming.
This book is beautifully written and contains poetry and vivid descriptions of the Marsh. I highly recommend this book! It's thoughtful, evokes emotion, and transports the reader back in time to the Marsh. I loved every page.
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Kristin (KC)
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July 3, 2022
*5 Stars, easily!*
WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING is a gentle yet symbolic depiction of the valiant survival of Kya Clark—a reclusive young girl who has been abandoned by her parents, siblings, school system, the entire town surrounding her, and what ultimately feels like life itself.
Mother Nature has quite literally become Kya’s caretaker, and deep in a lonely Marsh along the North Carolina coast is where Kya will not only hide, but blossom into a primal independent being, coaxed inside the embrace of an indiscriminate wilderness as she embodies its uninhibited spirit.
Until a boy from “yonder” befriends Kya, and her lonely existence is shaken straight to its solemn core. Add to that the curious unsolved murder of the town’s local “Golden Boy”, and all that’s left to say is game-on.
Although this story delivers one hell of a powerful punch, it is sculpted with a humble hand; a delicate wind that keeps building and building until it ends up emphatically blowing your mind.
The writing. Is. Beautiful. Prose so unique and so breathtaking that a single description of a firefly suddenly grows so intimate and probing, and I might have gotten something in my eye—*sniff*.
Here you’ll find sentences that read like poetry, with a lyrical rhythm that sways the reader like the gentle rocking of a boat. Yet it is not showy nor over-the-top --- but pretty perfect.
Owens doesn't tell us what to think, but alludes to each message through writing so alive you can almost hear it breathing. She carries us through her dense, atmospheric tone and persuades us to seek and find; discover and examine, all on our own.
She allows her striking imagery to guide us as the marsh has guided Kya, and I felt as though I could smell the sea and taste the sweetness of new love.
Kya’s journey spans years, the reader present from her childhood into maturity. I love this story’s ode to wilderness and Mother Earth with her instinctual need to nurture and protect. I love each character’s flawed nature as well as those redeemed. I love the heart and soul that saturates every inch of this story, and more than anything, I LOVE that spectacularly bold ending!
To the reader who appreciates nature’s effortless beauty honored in fiction; to those who seek a love story every bit true as it is tender; to the one who needs a tantalizing murder/mystery to spice things up, and for those who tend to root for the underdog in hopes she’ll someday sparkle like the gem she is—this one’s for you.
*Traveling Friends Read*
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