Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens Published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons on August 14, 2018
Genres: Fiction / Coming of Age, Fiction / Historical / General, Fiction / Romance / Historical / 20th Century, Mystery
Pages: 384
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For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet fishing village. Kya Clark is barefoot and wild; unfit for polite society. So in late 1969, when the popular Chase Andrews is found dead, locals immediately suspect her.
But Kya is not what they say. A born naturalist with just one day of school, she takes life's lessons from the land, learning the real ways of the world from the dishonest signals of fireflies. But while she has the skills to live in solitude forever, the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. Drawn to two young men from town, who are each intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new and startling world—until the unthinkable happens.
In Where the Crawdads Sing, Owens juxtaposes an exquisite ode to the natural world against a profound coming of age story and haunting mystery. Thought-provoking, wise, and deeply moving, Owens’s debut novel reminds us that we are forever shaped by the child within us, while also subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.
The story asks how isolation influences the behavior of a young woman, who like all of us, has the genetic propensity to belong to a group. The clues to the mystery are brushed into the lush habitat and natural histories of its wild creatures.
I just don’t get the hype. It felt a bit like a smidge of The Blue Lagoon meets a heaping serving of Nell and a cuppa Good Will Hunting. This isn’t one of those situations where I didn’t get the hype and don’t like the book. It’s a good book, a solid story really, and I enjoyed it, but the hype . . . yup, just don’t get it. I do plan to watch the movie, so hoping maybe that will hit for the hype. They rarely do, but ya know it doesn’t hurt to do it.
Kya. She reminds me of all the movies I listed in subtle ways. One day of education in the school, but with the support of Tate learns to read and with her own natural curiosity and interest becomes a scientist of her lagoon. Abandoned young by her mother, then her siblings, over time, she’s still just a teen when she is all alone in the marsh, when her dad never comes home as well. (Nell vibes) She learns about life from the marsh. She learns about love from Tate and Chase, both the good and the bad (Blue Lagoon vibes). As prickly as she is, Kya is likable. Sorta. You want to cheer for her, but she makes it so difficult. Reserved, thorny, and isolated, her innocence is sometimes frustrating as it doesn’t match her intelligence. But honestly, I get it, and that makes me like her.
I struggled a bit with the dual storyline, maybe because I was listening instead of reading, but it felt disjointed and was small glimpses interspersed until it all really came together. The ending was completely unexpected, at least for me, but it just solidified that Kya was likable. I wanted her to win throughout the book. I wanted her to feel seen and understood, even if that’s the opposite of what she actually wanted. Overall, while I didn’t get the hype for this book, I did enjoy the journey with Kya. There were times I was frustrated, there were times it felt slow, it was heartbreaking and hopeful in the same breath. Don’t read it for the hype, read it for the journey.
About Delia Owens
Delia Owens is the co-author of three internationally bestselling nonfiction books about her life as a wildlife scientist in Africa including Cry of the Kalahari.
She has won the John Burroughs Award for Nature Writing and has been published in Nature, The African Journal of Ecology, and many others.
She currently lives in North Carolina. Where the Crawdads Sing is her first novel.
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