Where the Crawdads Sing - Delia Owens

 

Title: Where the Crawdads Sing

Author: Delia Owens

Publisher: Putnam (Penguin), 2018 (Hardcover)

Length: 368 pages

Genre: Adult; Realistic Fiction

Started: April 12, 2022

Finished: April 14, 2022

Summary:

From the inside cover:

For years, rumours 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. 

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 all are subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps. 

Review:

Since this book was so hyped on TikTok this past year, it's been on my TBR list for the past few months. With the movie adaptation coming out in July, my friends at work and I vowed to finally read this so we could compare the versions. I honestly wasn't expecting much from something so lauded and popular (I find anything overly popular can be a mixed bag with my personal tastes), but I was pleasantly surprised by the end. 

Catherine Danielle Clark, otherwise known as Kya, has lived (mostly) alone in her family's shack at the edge of the North Carolina marshland since her mother and older siblings left her with her alcoholic, abusive father at the age of six. When he abandons her at the age of ten, she is left to fend for herself completely. With no formal schooling and the memories of her mother's teachings of how to live off the land to feed herself, Kya manages to survive to adulthood with the help of a childhood friend and the Black community that live in a segregated area away from the town. In 1969 when Kya is in her early 20s, a local man is found dead, and although Chase Andrews was a well-known player who slept with many women and angered many a husband, Kya is the prime suspect. 

The novel is told in alternating time jumps, starting with the early 1950s when Kya is a child and switching every other chapter or so to 1969 at the time of the murder. Kya's backstory is gripping and intriguing from the start, and adding in Chase's murder keeps the reader going, wondering how Kya could possibly be connected enough to Chase for the police to suspect her of murder. 

I personally liked the themes of resiliency and community that run throughout the book. Granted, sometimes Kya's resiliency is a bit too unrealistic to believe completely, especially in the chapters before she turns ten. 

The main detriment of this book, in my opinion, is the amount of dialect in it. Granted there has to be dialect to reflect the authenticity of the premise of the story, but I have the same issue with any book set in the American south; the dialect makes my brain have to work so much harder to understand what's going on. 

Recommendation:

If you like stories that are character-driven with a bit of mystery thrown in, you'll enjoy this. It was an engaging read and I can see why it's so popular, so give it a read before the movie version releases in the summer. 

Thoughts on the cover:

The shot used on the cover is very pretty and fits well with the descriptions in the book.