Delia Owens

Where the Crawdads Sing

#1 New York Times Bestseller A Reese Witherspoon x Hello Sunshine Book Club Pick "I can't even express how much I love this book! I didn't want this story to end!"--Reese Witherspoon "Painfully beautiful."--The New York Times Book Review "Perfect for fans of Barbara Kingsolver."--Bustle For years, rumors 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. Perfect for fans of Barbara Kingsolver and Karen Russell, 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 are all subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.

Baylea Fancher

“His dad had told him many times that the definition of a real man is one who cries without shame, reads poetry with his heart, feels opera in his soul, and does what’s necessary to defend a woman.”

“Don’t go thinking poetry’s just for sissies. There’s mushy love poems, for sure, but there’s also funny ones, lots about nature, ware even. Whole point of it — they make ya feel something.” 

Alyssa Weaver

"This little piggy stayed home," she said to the waves.  

i never understood why he never took her with like bro

"I hafta go, Kya. Can't live here no longe." She almost turned to him, but didn't. Wanted to beg him not to

cedar winslow

I must let go now. Let you go. Love is too often The answer for staying. Too seldom the reason For going.

Why should the injured, the still bleeding bear the onus of forgiveness?

How much do you trade to defeat lonesomeness?

Once you can read anything you can learn everything.

It didn't fit that anyone who liked birds would be mean.

Kya didn't stop or they would bolt, a lesson she'd learned from watching wild turkeys: if you act like a predator, they act like prey. Just ignore them, keep going slow. 

Rachel Braithwaite

“In Where the Crawdads Sing, Kya teaches us that we can do more than we think we can. That, yes, we may long to be in a group, but we can find unbelievable strength deep inside to survive, even thrive, when we are alone.”

“The bits and bones of a life. The stones of her stream.”

“She was bonded to her planet and its life in a way few people are.”

“Nature had nurtured, tutored, and protected her when no one else would.”

“Oddly, the sweet, freshly turned earth smelled more like a beginning than an end.”

“Sneaking about, stealing love. Never sharing it. You can’t get hurt when you love someone from the other side of an estuary.”

“Finally, after a lifetime, she admitted it was a chance of seeing Tate, the hope of rounding a creek band and watching him through the reeds, that had pulled her into the marsh every day of her life, since she was seven.”

“Curling into a ball, still crying, she wished she could snuggle with the only one who’d ever accepted her as she was. But the cat was back at the jail.”

“Wished he would be quiet and listen to the wilderness within him. Then he might see.”

“A lesser made need to shout to be noticed.”

“Standing in the most fragile place of her life, she turned to the only net she knew—herself.”

“She feels the pulse of life, he thought, because there are no layers between her and her planet.”

“Female fireflies draw in strange males with dishonest signals and eat them; mantis females devour their own mates. Females insects, Kya thought, know how to deal with their lovers.”

Really mad I saw the movie first because the ending would have been so much better if I didn’t already know it

Emily Lucie

GORGEOUS. i hope that my child will read this

siinsiiin

The author beautifully encapsulated the wonders of mundane and often overlooked wilderness through a young and soft naturalist lens, while drawing on the heavy experiences of abandonment, assault, loneliness and loss 💔 Jumpin’, Mabel & Tate restored my faith in humanity, and Kya’s resilience, independence and situational awareness makes her a great role model for girls of all ages 🩷 On my next walk I shall make a bigger effort to watch and appreciate the birds and insects around me (continuing to admire the cats and dogs ofc). Thanks for the rec 

Jazz j

The author beautifully encapsulated the wonders of mundane and often overlooked wilderness through a young and soft naturalist lens, while drawing on the heavy experiences of abandonment, assault, loneliness and loss 💔 Jumpin’, Mabel & Tate restored my faith in humanity, and Kya’s resilience, independence and situational awareness makes her a great role model for girls of all ages 🩷 On my next walk I shall make a bigger effort to watch and appreciate the birds and insects around me (continuing to admire the cats and dogs ofc). Thanks for the rec @filipparisberg 

maybe don't write a book about your crimes!

especially if you're going to make the self insert so damn obvious! 

Stas

maybe don't write a book about your crimes!
especially if you're going to make the self insert so damn obvious! 

This was for sure I book I deeply enjoyed and appreciated. The story itself flew nicely and was well-built but, in my opinion, the story itself would’ve probably been a 3 or 3.5 stars, as the strongest point of the book is the prose and the ability of the author to tell a story properly. Her writing style is the thing I liked the most about this book and definitely what elevated it for me.

Diego

I thought it was a little slow to start, but once it picked up it was tough to put down. And not to be dramatic but literally everyone dies so be prepared to cry a little 

soph 

The nature writing in this book was lovely but although the main character's loneliness was stated over and over again I didn't think the writing really allowed you to deeply know her loneliness, or her state of mind and way of being as a "wild" kind of person, you just get told about it. The whole plot was a bit fantastical and melodramatic, and her backstory unbelievable. 

Nina 

Absolutely one of the best novels ever written. One of very few books I would consider to be a worthy comparison of “To Kill a Mockingbird”. 

Jack Lucie

“A lot of times love doesn’t work out. Yet even when it fails, it connects you to others and, in the end, that is all you have, the connections.”

I didn't expect to like this book as much as I did, even from the first couple of chapters I was thinking 'hmm this isn't really for me' but then I was swept away in the story and flew through it, which surprised me. The setting in this book is so incredibly lush that I felt like I had stepped back in time, to another country and culture, and I was rapt. This is a hard book to pin down because it had so many intersecting subgenres woven in, literary/historical fiction, romance, mystery, crime, and it kind of lacks one unifying overarching theme. In my mind, this book is about nurturing nature, being at one with your surroundings, being present in the moment and respecting the way of life carved out by animals and insects native to the land, we can really learn a lot from the way animals accept each other when the other isn't a threat to them - and I really liked this aspect. It's also a story about abject loneliness and how isolation can make a person do the seemingly impossible, or drive people to do terrible things as well.

Kya is a fascinating main character, she's abandoned at only six years old by her entire family aside from her abusive, alcoholic father for a while, and then eventually abandoned by him too, and has to learn how to take care of herself and survive. I had to suspend my disbelief a little bit right from the beginning, and I'm not sure if a child so young was different back in the 1960s, but I really struggled to imagine a six year old being able to do everything she did. Despite that I really enjoyed reading about her as she found ways to live off the land, build tentative connections with people around her and her coming-of-age and exploration into adulthood. It absolutely broke my heart every time someone left her and she felt betrayed. The other characters were interesting too, I love Jumpin' and Mabel - the older Black couple who treated her like their own daughter, and I really liked how Tate got her right from the beginning, although I do have to say the romance made me feel icky - I know it was a different time, but the age difference and how young Kya was when she started her first relationship definitely wasn't my favourite part of this story. But it did serve its purpose as a plot point in driving Kya naively towards someone who didn't have her best interests at heart.

The prose and language in this book was beautiful, conjuring stunning imagery and a really believable world around the storyline, but it was also exhausting and a bit overdone at points. I couldn't really grasp the pacing, mostly it was a good steady build up to the climax of finding out 1. how Chase died and 2. whether Kya would be found guilty for his murder, but then sometimes it felt a bit tedious as the really interesting portions were interspersed with incredibly detailed scientific information about the marsh habitat, a lot of poetry (which made sense a bit at the end, but during was a bit of a sticking point), and moments where Kya recoiled within herself with a lot of inner monologue. This all worked in a way for building up the image of her seclusion and the beauty of her mind, but also sometimes made it hard to read. The way dialogue was written was also difficult for me, it was very Southern and I spent some time trying to translate what words meant. I also didn't love how the accent within the dialogue was used some of the time - Kya went from having a very strong accent to speaking "properly" despite her only interaction with another "proper" speaker being Tate. She was surrounded by others with very strong accents, even in her isolation, I don't think she would've started speaking like that.

I feel like I have said a whole lot of critical things in this review, but really I did enjoy this book overall. It stirred up a lot of emotion within me and I had a good cry at the end, I loved how resourceful Kya was and there was a lot of beauty to the way this story was told. I can definitely see why some people didn't enjoy this book though as it is a difficult one to pin down - I think it's one of those books where it'll either click with you or it won't. Also I think proximity to the location would influence the reader a lot because I don't know this world and culture very well and so it had a certain magical quality to it for me which I could see locals disagreeing with. Other than that, I definitely recommend this book to those who enjoy a good challenge with heavy, flowery prose and language, and who enjoy a book that 

 has the same vibe as the classics in the historical fiction genre.

Genevieve 

“A lot of times love doesn’t work out. Yet even when it fails, it connects you to others and, in the end, that is all you have, the connections.”

4.25 ⭐

I didn't expect to like this book as much as I did, even from the first couple of chapters I was thinking 'hmm this isn't really for me' but then I was swept away in the story and flew through it, which surprised me. The setting in this book is so incredibly lush that I felt like I had stepped back in time, to another country and culture, and I was rapt. This is a hard book to pin down because it had so many intersecting subgenres woven in, literary/historical fiction, romance, mystery, crime, and it kind of lacks one unifying overarching theme. In my mind, this book is about nurturing nature, being at one with your surroundings, being present in the moment and respecting the way of life carved out by animals and insects native to the land, we can really learn a lot from the way animals accept each other when the other isn't a threat to them - and I really liked this aspect. It's also a story about abject loneliness and how isolation can make a person do the seemingly impossible, or drive people to do terrible things as well.

Kya is a fascinating main character, she's abandoned at only six years old by her entire family aside from her abusive, alcoholic father for a while, and then eventually abandoned by him too, and has to learn how to take care of herself and survive. I had to suspend my disbelief a little bit right from the beginning, and I'm not sure if a child so young was different back in the 1960s, but I really struggled to imagine a six year old being able to do everything she did. Despite that I really enjoyed reading about her as she found ways to live off the land, build tentative connections with people around her and her coming-of-age and exploration into adulthood. It absolutely broke my heart every time someone left her and she felt betrayed. The other characters were interesting too, I love Jumpin' and Mabel - the older Black couple who treated her like their own daughter, and I really liked how Tate got her right from the beginning, although I do have to say the romance made me feel icky - I know it was a different time, but the age difference and how young Kya was when she started her first relationship definitely wasn't my favourite part of this story. But it did serve its purpose as a plot point in driving Kya naively towards someone who didn't have her best interests at heart.

The prose and language in this book was beautiful, conjuring stunning imagery and a really believable world around the storyline, but it was also exhausting and a bit overdone at points. I couldn't really grasp the pacing, mostly it was a good steady build up to the climax of finding out 1. how Chase died and 2. whether Kya would be found guilty for his murder, but then sometimes it felt a bit tedious as the really interesting portions were interspersed with incredibly detailed scientific information about the marsh habitat, a lot of poetry (which made sense a bit at the end, but during was a bit of a sticking point), and moments where Kya recoiled within herself with a lot of inner monologue. This all worked in a way for building up the image of her seclusion and the beauty of her mind, but also sometimes made it hard to read. The way dialogue was written was also difficult for me, it was very Southern and I spent some time trying to translate what words meant. I also didn't love how the accent within the dialogue was used some of the time - Kya went from having a very strong accent to speaking "properly" despite her only interaction with another "proper" speaker being Tate. She was surrounded by others with very strong accents, even in her isolation, I don't think she would've started speaking like that.

I feel like I have said a whole lot of critical things in this review, but really I did enjoy this book overall. It stirred up a lot of emotion within me and I had a good cry at the end, I loved how resourceful Kya was and there was a lot of beauty to the way this story was told. I can definitely see why some people didn't enjoy this book though as it is a difficult one to pin down - I think it's one of those books where it'll either click with you or it won't. Also I think proximity to the location would influence the reader a lot because I don't know this world and culture very well and so it had a certain magical quality to it for me which I could see locals disagreeing with. Other than that, I definitely recommend this book to those who enjoy a good challenge with heavy, flowery prose and language, and who enjoy a book that almost has the same vibe as the classics in the historical fiction genre.

Very well written. Plenty of detailed observations of people and the natural environment. Thoroughly enjoyed it. 

Steve Collins

*The multi-million copy bestseller* Soon to be a major film A Number One New York Times Bestseller 'Painfully beautiful' New York Times 'Unforgettable . . . as engrossing as it is moving' Daily Mail 'A rare achievement' The Times 'I can't even express how much I love this book!' Reese Witherspoon ------------------------------------------------- For years, rumors 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. ------------------------------------------------- '[It] will reach a huge audience though the writer's old-fashioned talents for compelling character, plotting and landscape description' The Guardian 'For sheer escapism pick up Where The Crawdads Sing . . . there is writing that takes your breath away' The Times 'All is not as it seems in this heartbreaking coming-of-age bestseller' The i newspaper

Svetlana 

** spoiler alert **
           So inspiring to read about how she was on her own for most of her life and yet she managed to survive. In my mind i’d like to think her other siblings survived and got their happy endings but i doubt that. If they did i’m sure they’d do everything in their power to find her like Jodie did. It’s those small somewhat unimportant details that bug me after i finish books.

** spoiler alert **
           yo wtf the poem!! Im crying and screaming this book is so good!!

Eva Ströberg

What a beautiful book. Only few books have captivated me from start til end like this book does. Beautifully written and exciting.

Majd

** spoiler alert **
           I thought she was gonna get pregnant

Ainsley Jeffery

This book has been highly recommended to me but honestly I felt a little letdown after reading it. I found it to be fairly predictable, and I didn't love the storytelling process of the book. Overall the story was good with a strong message, and I enjoyed the relationships and dynamics between characters. "I have never and will never forget you, Kya" (pp. 291) But, it wasn't an overwhelming 5 stars that it seems to have gained a narrative of.

Patrick Book

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING PHENOMENON More than 10 million copies sold worldwide A Reese’s Book Club Pick A Business Insider Defining Book of the Decade "I can't even express how much I love this book! I didn't want this story to end!"--Reese Witherspoon "Painfully beautiful."--The New York Times Book Review For years, rumors 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 are all subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.

Gelaine Trinidad

Sohini Roy

I really loved this book. It takes a lot for me to come across a book that is hard to put down- once you got past the initial introduction to the story, the plot was gripping almost immediately. I thought the descriptions and emotions portrayed were beautiful and there were so many characters to hate, but also so many characters to love. The last 100 pages truly had me on the edge of my seat and I was prepared to be disappointed or frustrated by the ending, but I was not at all, I thought it was done perfectly. A perfect demonstration of being able to see beauty in things past a first glance of judgement and of giving everyone a chance.

Abbie Duggan

How do you describe a book so beautiful? This story is exquisite. The writing is like poetry and the characters have such depth, you’re drawn into their lives with a kind of heartwarming eagerness. For a story pegged around abandonment and murder, it reads more like a watercolor painting. At times gentle and tender and at times rough and heartbreaking, I will definitely be putting this down as one of my favorites.

Louisa

Ok -- I think this is definitely an overhyped book, largely because although the idea, the characters and the story are refreshingly heartwarming through the love of nature and how well it blends with the protagonist, everything else is underwhelming. The language (took me 70 pages to get into it, so flowery, so pretentious, so overdone, until you get used to it and stop minding), the issues that have been raised with the dialect and geographical inconsistencies (did she barely research it? did she purposefully resort to old tropes of good vs bad = non dialect vs dialect? who knows), and then there were many weak plot developments that were too convenient to be true (the tie plot points in a bow and call it a day type of scenario). 

Overall I gave it 4 stars because I still was absorbed by the story, emotionally convinced of it, and cared about the characters to feel the melancholy of finishing the last page, but that's because I know nothing about North Carolina or dialects, and because I persevered through the sluggish parts. 

What I would recommend instead of this: Why Fish Don't Exist by Lulu Miller. EXCELLENT

armoni mayes

** spoiler alert **
           I had been in a reading slump for most of this year, even considering a global pandemic that kept me in my house with nothing to do. This book helped guide me out of my reading slump and I finished the book in about a week, reading the last 150 pages in about two hours. So for that, I gave it four stars, even though it truly deserves about 3.5 stars. 

There are two reasons this book should (actually) receive 3.5 stars, the first being the unnatural fast-forwarding that the author did at the end of the book. Kya receives a not guilty verdict, Tate's dad passes away, Kya and Tate get married, Jumpin' dies, and then Kya dies all within 20 pages at the end of the novel. I understand that an author has a duty to tie up loose ends at the completion of the narrative but it seemed extremely rushed and unappealing. 

The second reason, and this may be me simply being petty, but I am in my senior year of undergrad majoring in biology. The explanation of Tate's undergrad studies was so unnecessary and juvenile. I know this is just me knit-picking but every time Owens described DNA in this story bothered me because there was no need for it haha.

Where the Crawdads Sing

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