Where the Crawdads Sing

Delia Owens’s Crawdads was a smashing success as both a novel (her first) and a motion picture. ’Buked, beaten, and scorned by her feckless father, abandoned by her mother and older siblings, an illiterate girl of ten lives alone on the marshy coast of North Carolina. Befriended by a boy who teaches her to read with the compelling prose of A Sand County Almanac, Kya comes to see her world through the eyes of its author, Aldo Leopold. Kya and Tate grow up and fall in love, but he goes off to college—and she is again abandoned. She becomes a… show more.

The emotional turmoil Kaya Clark will have to endure during her life is at times a hard read. The author depicts a large and growing family living in a backwater bayou with an abusive father. As the story develops, Kaya’s mother, often battered and bruised, takes flight, then one by one her older siblings leave, but not one turns back to save her. Now all Kaya has is a father that doesn’t know how to bring up and child and relies on her to take care of house. Then, by the time she is around eight years, he disappears leaving… show more.

There was so much to this book! Historical fiction, mystery, coming-of-age, love story, biology, and even poetry. Fantastic book that surprised me in many ways and deeply moved me.

Great characters. Excellent immersion. I was right there for nearly all of it.

A murder mystery and so much more. Set in the marshlands of North Carolina in the United States, it’s an unusual read with the emotional content tugging at my heartstrings. It describes life in the marsh and a child’s heartbreaking struggle to survive.

Nevertheless, I found the author’s description of the natural world in the marshlands brilliant and the haunting tale stayed with me long after I finished reading the book.

What is there not to love about this novel? Let me count the reasons, if I can, that I did love it:

It's unvarnished, simple, elegant prose. The searing vulnerability of not only the central protagonist but many surrounding characters as well. The theme of family failure but also family triumph. Its resonating depiction of life circumstances and survival collides head-on with legal norms and personal choice.

I enjoyed the atmosphere created by the author, a southern coastal swamp, and the depiction of this novel of cultural bigotry. The separation of the classes is not one of race but one of poverty and supposed ignorance, although the protagonist is a deeply intelligent artist.

The story is one of accusation against a young teenage girl and the mystery surrounding the two young men who love her or claim to love her. With the absence of her parents, I found myself strongly pulling for the underdog protagonist, Kya.

Again, this book is set in the fifties and sixties in… show more.

I loved this fiction book based on a young woman who had to become one with her environment to survive. With the backdrop of a crime to solve, this book gripped me from the start. It is a well-crafted story, and I really wanted to know how it ended. Even though I now know, I still have read this book twice, and seen the film which follows the book well. I would recommend reading it before watching the film.

I liked how the book had so much depth, weaving in issues around the characters' cultures, as well as the amazing… show more.

As an outdoorsy person, I love the integral role that nature plays in this book. Owens uses strong imagery to contrast the serenity of the North Carolina marshes with the cruel realities of life and the universal themes of isolation, loneliness, and abandonment.

It is both a coming-of-age tale and a murder mystery driven by a self-reliant heroine for whom I instantly found myself rooting. 

Remember a few years ago when this book was everywhere? I do! And it was deserved—Delia Owens created a memorable heroine in Kya, a loner who lives in the tidal lands of the North Carolina coast.

Owens, a zoologist, calls upon her impressive knowledge of flora and fauna as she sets up a murder mystery, and the novel's finale is both satisfying and memorable. I’ve never read another book quite like this one.