Fiction

Where The Crawdads Sing

Author: Delia Owens

Average Rating: 3.63 / 5

Trigger Warnings:

Barefoot, wild, and strange. The people of Barkley Cove keep their distance from the “Marsh Girl”. She’s dirty and unsocialized. Not fit for their decent little town. So it stands to follow that when Chase Andrews, the local golden boy, is found dead on the edges of the marsh, the Marsh Girl is an obvious suspect.

Lonely, intelligent, and abandoned. Kya Clark has had a hard life. Left by her family to raise herself, she does the best she can. Using her formidable observation skills and knowledge of the marsh, she draws life lessons from the nature that surrounds her. The marsh she trusts. People, however, are another matter entirely.

But no one can survive alone, and Kya cautiously builds connections with a few select people. She may belong to the marsh, but it’s human nature to desire affection and contact with another person. She finds herself drawn to two young men, each of whom have lessons to teach her. They are drawn in by her wild beauty, but which will be able to handle the tentative tendril of trust that she’s extended? 

Where the Crawdads Sing will take you deep into a beautiful and untamed world that few ever see. Thought-provoking, Owens will explore the lasting effect that complete isolation will take on the soul. 

Corinna : 4/5 

Overall I enjoyed this story, with a few things I didn’t like. The beginning was a little slow and wordy for me. Painting a pretty picture can be done without sounding pretentious. I found Owen’s attempt at the use of a North Carolina dialect to be inconsistent and confusing. Kya and Tate had no accent, but Chase did? 

The dichotomy of the two male love interests was well crafted. The alpha male, Chase, with all his showy characteristics and need to be with as many women as possible, and the more evolved male, Tate, who is kind, intelligent and caring even though he makes mistakes. It was refreshing to have a male character that embraced all of Kya and saw how smart and capable she was. The comparisons between the marsh biology and human interactions were a fantastic commentary on the evolution of humans as a species and how our tendencies are still so similar in a lot of ways, and yet have important differences.

I really liked what Kya says about her solitude “That’s what nobody understands about me. I never hated people. They hated me. They laughed at me. They left me. They harassed me. They attacked me.” (pg 350). It brilliantly shows the power that our words and actions have on other people. Jumpin’ and Mabel looked out for her, how different would her life have been if the whole town had looked after her?

The added layer of a murder investigation and court proceedings rounded out the story nicely. I liked that it gave the townspeople an opportunity to reflect on their prejudices of The Marsh Girl, and how awful they were to a mere child for all those years. I thought I had the ending figured out but I was surprised, in a good way. 

Lydia : 4/5 

The beginning of this book (I’d say a good 15 percent) was very drawn out and made me not want to continue. The rest of the book however, was completely worth it and is why I’m rating this a 4. 

I didn’t know what to expect out of this book – it had so many genres! You get your mystery, romance and fiction all rolled into one. I was impressed that the storyline didn’t get lost amongst all of those themes and the characters flowed nicely within their stories. 

I usually despise books that contain deep dialects. While I know it’s necessary at times, I felt that this particular book did it too much for my liking. I did understand why it was needed in this story so I didn’t dock it a point, but if it had a little less of the dialect, I would have adored the writing.

The more I read, the more I fell in love with Tate and with Kya, our Marsh Girl. 

Megan : 2.5/5 

I didn’t really have a desire to read this book; it was for the blog and nothing more. After reading it, I can appreciate why so many people love this book (and I even increased my rating by the end), but it just wasn’t for me. I found the first third of the book to be quite slow. The jumping back and forth felt jarring at times and it took a while to get used to it. The book did get better as she got older, but my blood was boiling almost the entirety of her childhood. How could the majority of the adults in that town just abandon her like that?! She was just a child?! So knowing that Chase came from a town that called her “The Marsh Girl” and did nothing to help her, I wasn’t at all upset about his death. 

Witnessing how she was able to adapt and learn how to survive with not much was quite incredible. I was so proud of how she used her knowledge of the marshes. I did like that Tate constantly encouraged and supported her in making that knowledge public. There were other characters that I appreciated, as they went out of their way to care for her in small ways. 

The ending was satisfying, but not at all surprising (although I will admit that there was one small detail that I didn’t expect). I had suspected the conclusion from the beginning and maybe that’s what the author had wanted. There’s no denying that Owens is talented, but this is not a book I’m likely to read again.

Sharaya : 4/5 

I am always skeptical of popular fiction books that are all over social media.  Which is stupid, I know, because lots of you have really good taste! Anyway, all that to say I would have never picked up this book if it wasn’t in order to review it, and now I’m so glad I did.

The book definitely starts off rather slowly with Kya’s unusual childhood. I thought that Owens’ decision to throw in chapters every so often that followed the murder investigation and trial was a great way to keep me engaged, because I knew that we were going somewhere interesting. I was also getting strong Educated (by Tara Westover) vibes during Kya’s early years. Her lack of education, medical care, abusive father, how she had to take control of her own education, etc. 

One character choice I really appreciated is that Kya never truly lost her awkwardness.  She was forever changed by her upbringing and the intense solitude she experienced. I often find that characters in books or TV shows who are super awkward generally become more and more normal when the awkwardness interferes with – or limits – the storytelling. But Owens stayed true to Kya’s deep-rooted loneliness and the resulting emotional and mental scars.

Overall, I’d say that it was a great read and you should definitely give it a shot. There were some really wonderful characters – I adored Jumpin’ and Tate – and I admired Kya’s intelligence and character arc. The murder mystery side of the story was very interesting and I did not see the end coming.  I can’t wait to watch the movie to see how their adaptation compares. 

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