Where the Crawdads Sing
Where the Crawdads Sing
By: Delia Owens
“When cornered, desperate, or isolated, man reverts to those instincts that aim straight at survival.”
Everyone and their mom has read this book. Well… except for me (and my mom). So I finally got around to it. Mostly because it’s coming out as a movie. (Book/movie comparison below.)
Sometimes I avoid the most popular books because they always seem too hyped.
It’s possible this one is too hyped. But I still enjoyed it.
Where the Crawdads Sing is mostly a coming-of-age story with a bit of murder mystery, a section of law procedural, and a whole lotta nature.
Kya, aka The Marsh Girl, has endured the departure of family member after family member because of her dad’s abuse. Eventually he leaves too and Kya, at a very young age, is forced to make a living in the wild marshlands of North Carolina in the 1960s.
We follow Kya as she wrestles with the hurt of her mother leaving her.
"Within all the worlds of biology, she searched for an explanation of why a mother would leave her offspring.”
“Whenever she stumbled, it was the land that caught her. Until at last, at some unclaimed moment, the heart-pain seeped away like water into sand. Still there, but deep. Kya laid her hand upon the breathing, wet earth, and the marsh became her mother.”
We follow her to school for one day where she is ridiculed and vows never to return.
We follow her through a friendship with a boy who teaches her to read and keeps her stocked with books.
We follow her through romance and heartache.
And finally we follow her through the town’s accusation of murder. They are convinced she has killed the town’s golden boy because of their rumored relationship and her ‘barbaric’ living.
Can the Marsh Girl prove her innocence? Will the prejudice of the town sentence her to prison? Can the truths of nature free Kya at last?
‘Where the crawdads sing’ is the deep land where the critters are still wild and free. That is a theme of this book. Freedom. What is freedom and how far will one go to get it?
It reminded me a lot of the book A Girl of the Limberlost that I read when I was younger. Probably nobody and nobody’s mom has read it. Maybe someone’s grandma.
Like Where the Crawdads Sing, A Girl of the Limberlost is about a girl who loves the wetlands and swamps. Both protagonists collect specimens from nature. Both are books that highlight the wonders and beauty of the land.
I will say, I would have liked a little more mystery in this one. The Goodreads summary is a bit misleading.
Though the first pages set the crime scene, we don’t come back to it very often. Owens writes alternating chapters between Kya’s growing up and her relationship with the deceased and others in the town, and the future murder investigation done by the sheriff, ending with a chunk of the court proceedings.
If you’re looking for an intense clue finding, mystery solving story, you won’t find it here.
But if you like a somewhat lyrical fiction story with a touch of mystery to keep things interesting, you’ll love it! And if you like nature, you should probably just buy it.
I did like the writing. She captured the setting really well. I admit, I’m not one to appreciate what my mind sees as swamps. I’m anxious to see the portrayal on film and see how it changes my perception. Owens definitely does a good job of describing the beauty and helping you feel like you’re there.
I also enjoyed some of her creative descriptions like this:
“Barkley Cove served its religion hard-boiled and deep-fried.”
I was worried that we weren’t going to get a resolution on the murder which definitely would have made this a frustrating read. But the ending was very satisfying and kicked up my opinion of it.
Book/Movie Comparison
My husband and I finally joined all the book club ladies flocking to the theaters to see the movie. I thought it was really well done.
It followed very closely to the book. Some timeline changes and details different, but the story was the same. The ending was the same.
There were some things missing because some things in books are either harder to include in movies or for the sake of time, which is fine.
Much of Kya’s childhood was cut out so her dad’s abuse and her family leaving was a bit abrupt. We don’t sit in her despair and confusion as much as in the book and lose some of what she’s struggling with.
The aspect of Amanda Hamilton’s poetry is missing so the ending is ‘slightly’ different.
One thing that WASN’T missing was the sex. No nudity was shown but it was still a little more graphic than I was expecting. Although I suppose it showcased how sad it was again that because she grew up alone she had no one teaching her how to protect herself or how relationships should work. All she knew was the abuse of her dad.
I tried to eavesdrop on one of the book club’s pow wows after leaving the theater as they sat to discuss in the lobby. I was curious to see what others thought and remembered from the book.
One thing I was struggling to remember was the portrayal of Chase in the book. I felt like the movie portrayed him very negatively throughout the entire movie but for some reason I remembered thinking I didn’t hate Chase the entire book.
I thought the book showed him as more charming and made the reader feel that he really did fall for Kya and felt like she was the only one he could open up to and be known by since he had been the ‘golden boy’ and pressured with certain expectations by his parents and the community.
Maybe I misunderstood that part of the book? But if I was wrong, I wish they would have done it differently in the movie, because they definitely paint Chase a particular way and you never like him in the movie.
The movie adaptation focuses more on the trial than the book did. As I mentioned, the book is slow in some places and the mystery trial part is less prominent until the end. I understand this change on screen and think it would have been a boring movie without more of the trial/mystery emphasis.
My husband never read the book and he said he enjoyed the movie. But he was confused a little bit about her family leaving her behind and I think because her childhood was so condensed we did miss out on some important details.
Conclusion
I think because this book was all the rage, it skewed my reading a bit. It makes it harder for me to say “I LOVED it.” Maybe I would have thought that if I were one of the first ones to read it.
Part of me wonders if I would have liked the book less or more if I read it before the hype. Do I think it’s beautifully written just because everyone else loves it? I’m thinking my opinion of the book has been influenced by the masses. And I haven’t decided if that matters or not.
Don’t get me wrong, I liked the book. And I would recommend it. It was a fast and mostly interesting read. It just had some slower parts for me that could have used a little more action… and not the ‘coming-of-age-sexual-action’ that was already there…!
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