Where The Crawdads Sing - Supernormal Reads

384 pages

Published Aug. 14, 2018 by Penguin.

ISBN:: 978-0-7352-1911-3

(1 review)

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, …

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.

4 editions

Sandra reviewed Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

Review of 'Where The Crawdads Sing' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I liked this book. The whole time I was reading it I thought "yeah, it's good... it's not great though". So probably 3 stars. The amount of suspension of disbelief asked of the reader was ALMOST more than I was willing to bear. I mean, come on, truthfully, it was VERY unbelievable that a little girl would be able to live alone in the marshland. It was unbelievable that the town folk, the CHURCHES, the STATE would turn a blind eye to this little girl's well being for year after year. I mean, at least they could have dropped off some food, some supplies, whatever. Then when she learned how to read, draw, paint, author books, boat motor never broke down, house never needed dire repairs etc... was almost laughable to the point of ruining the whole thing.

But

I love nature. When I first went to college I was …

I liked this book. The whole time I was reading it I thought "yeah, it's good... it's not great though". So probably 3 stars. The amount of suspension of disbelief asked of the reader was ALMOST more than I was willing to bear. I mean, come on, truthfully, it was VERY unbelievable that a little girl would be able to live alone in the marshland. It was unbelievable that the town folk, the CHURCHES, the STATE would turn a blind eye to this little girl's well being for year after year. I mean, at least they could have dropped off some food, some supplies, whatever. Then when she learned how to read, draw, paint, author books, boat motor never broke down, house never needed dire repairs etc... was almost laughable to the point of ruining the whole thing.

But

I love nature. When I first went to college I was a biology major because I wanted to work for the national park system as a park naturalist. I love birds and wildlife, the flora and fauna of different regions, ecology, taxonomy all that. I can fully believe, since she had nothing else in here life to draw away her attention, the girl Kya fixating on the natural world and studying it closely. I mean her life depended upon it. So I DID like that part of the book a lot and hence my wanting to rate it 3 stars instead of the 2 that all that suspension of disbelief warranted.

But then again, I really liked the ending. I love the thought of making a life apart from the mainstream, quiet contemplation surrounded by nature. and then the very ending, the poem that explains it all, took me by surprise and was just perfect really so I bumped my rating up to 4 stars.

Now some people who are local to that area in North Carolina have issues with the dialect, the nearby cities and towns, etc. and that IS a legitimate gripe to have. Nothing pulls me out of a story quicker than these kinds of flaws of a thing or place that I am well familiar with. Like, author, do your damn homework! But being that I've never been to North Carolina, I was able to just go with the story without being slammed with the inconsistancies or falsehoods of setting.

So, yeah, I enjoyed it because it appealed to my particular personality and obviously my ignorance too. I can see how people could have trouble with this, but for me it worked.