Where the Crawdads Sing: Reese's Book Club (A Novel)

by Delia Owens

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING PHENOMENON—NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE!
More than 18 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.

• ISBN10: 0735219095
• ISBN13: 9780735219090
• Publish Date: 14 August 2018
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Prentice Hall Press
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 320
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780735219090

Reviews

[Marissa Lupe Author]

It's true, I've stayed up past midnight.. usually with a restless toddler or teething baby. Last night was the first night in over 7 years that I stayed up past midnight on my own volition. It was worth it. I couldn't stop reading, I HAD to know what would happen to the "Marsh Girl". I sobbed deep heavy tears of understanding for this woman. Real as my children in front of me. This book has earned it's many spots on bestseller lists. It will stay with you in all the best ways.

[neddieb]

Great Story

I really enjoyed this book. I could picture the marsh and the characters as if I was watching the story unfolding in front of my eyes. I enjoyed all the characters and the sentiments bestowed by them.

[Eve1972]

Devoured this book in two days. Think that pretty much says it all!

[maggiefan]

I've read like 5% of this book, but I already know that it's not for me.

[merryfaith]

This is getting rave reviews for good reason, the writing is beautifully descriptive and I just really liked Kya. It may be a slower moving mystery, but I still hated putting it down, and while I had suspected the ending, it didn't feel predictable or disappointing. Anyway, I'm not the best at goodreads reviews still but: I personally really liked this, 5 stars.

[clq]

I picked up Where the Crawdads Sing without knowing anything about it at all, other than being aware of it’s dominance of the New York Times bestseller list (29 number-one weeks, and counting, at the time of writing). I had no idea this was a historical novel, and I had no idea the extent to which it’s a romance-story. This review might be an unfair one, as I’m not a huge fan of either genre, but hey: surely a good book is a good book, right? Having read it, the book left me with mixed feelings, to say the least. It is, in part, a coming-of-age story that I really, really, liked. In part a perfectly okay legal drama. And, in part, a romance-story which, despite being technically good, felt very problematic and made me angry.

The story, in short, is about a girl who grows up and comes of age in North Carolina in the 50s. Her family leaves her, and she has to make it alone. She goes through life avoiding interactions with other people whenever possible, a mission she mostly succeeds at. However, her quiet life in the marshes of North Carolina is eventually disturbed by… well, some more or less inconvenient romantic feelings upon which the plot of this book hinges.

I’ll start with what I really didn’t like about the book, as I might as well get that part out of the way. By my reading the romance-parts of the book romanticises the idea of a woman not being able to live a full life without a man being part of it. I’m not saying this is the correct reading, but that’s the tone I felt the book struck. I could have accepted this as a genre-device that just didn’t happen to be my cup of tea, but it became really problematic for me when actions that were obviously bad or malicious in the eyes of the reader were presented in a way which was shrouded in romance, not just for the characters in the book, but also from the readers point of view. I get that characters in the books may, indeed, probably have to, have mixed feelings about what plays out. However, when the reader knows that one character is obviously acting reprehensibly toward another character, the fact that the reprehensible action is presented as romantic, for no apparent reason other than to make some extra hay out of pressing additional emotional buttons, feels seriously misjudged to me. That’s about as far into my problems as I can go without giving anything away, but at a point where I’d already become very annoyed at the book, the following sentence popped up and almost made me lose all faith in whether the book could redeem itself at all:

“He leaned down and kissed her softly at first, and then like a man.”

Whether or not someone would find that sentence problematic is a matter of personal opinion. I guess some might even find it romantic. Personally I find the sentiment that the sentence invokes to be problematic, and I guess a reaction to that sentence might, in and of itself, be a reasonable litmus test as to whether someone would appreciate the romance in this book or not. Anyway, at best this book is using well-known, accepted, tropes which just aren’t familiar to me, and of which I’m not a fan. At worst this book is taking advantage of being set in the past in order to present outdated gender-roles, and the lack of respect for and agency in women, as something that is romantic. I’m sure the truth is somewhere between the two, probably tending toward the former.

Okay, now that I got that out of my system – this book also has some good parts. In fact, it has some very good parts. I really enjoyed the growing-up-and-coming-of-age story in this book a lot. Despite the character being, in theory, about as unrelatable to me as any character could be, I found myself feeling along with her. The telling of the story takes it’s time where it needs to, focusing on things that don’t necessarily drive the story along, but fills in the picture of both the environment the story takes place in, and also a the protagonists state of mind.

And just that, the state of mind of the protagonist, and the way in which it is used as a device, is probably my favourite thing about the book. The reader essentially lives inside of her head, reading her thoughts, yet she is still distant, and it’s impossible to get a hold on what she is feeling and why. This feels like the kind of distance that everyone around her must also feel, a “never quite sure”-ness that the plot of the book comes to rely on. It works brilliantly, and is really well done.

At the start of the book the reader is also made aware of a murder that has been committed, the details and relation to the rest of the story of which is gradually revealed as it progresses. This is done through time-jumps, a device which is also used well. The relatively short legal-drama part of the book was perfectly satisfying, in so much that it held my interest and had me questioning what would happen, but ultimately the crime-branch of this story is a device used to tell the story of the main character – and it never feels like more than that.

Overall I’d say this is probably a fantastic book for the people who like it, it’s really well done, and a satisfying read. I’ll give it some credit for ultimately getting me on board, despite the fact that I’m probably well outside of it’s target audience. As far as star-ratings go, I haven’t been this undecided since The Secret Agent. At one point I was thinking that this was a 2/5, immediately after I finished it I was thinking 3/5, but having digested it a bit I acknowledge that the aspects of this book that bother me are a relatively small part of the whole – and that the other parts of the whole gave me enough enjoyment that I probably shouldn’t let some intense annoyance overshadow it completely. I’ve ended up on a 3.5/5, tending toward 4. I found parts of this book to be unjustifiably problematic, but ultimately it’s a well-told, solid story. Despite my anger at it, this book gave me more enjoyment than I would have thought any historical-fiction-romance book would have been able to give me.

[bookishzelda]

Where the Crawdads Sing was an enjoyable book. I really enjoyed Kya and although I found it a little too descriptive. I did like Delia Owens writing. I tried not to be too spoilery with my review but I might have been by accident.

I kind of felt like the first half of the book was a little over descriptive and I didn’t really need a large sum of it for the ending of the book. It’s almost like we have two books in one. The first half is Kya growing up and even though it was interesting to see her character develop. I’m just not sure I needed so much to get me to the climax of the story. Yes I get she loves the Marsh and hides from people.

In the grand scheme of things I do really like Kya! She’s a survivor and so smart and intuitive. She figures out her own ways to survive when nobody else is going to help her. I liked her relationship with some of the characters as well.

I felt Chase was undeveloped. For as big a role he plays in the second part of the book. I didn’t really see his obsession. Especially because, unless I’m remembering incorrectly, there was a time span where he doesn’t have anything to do with Kya for a couple years. No indication he’s watching her or trying to talk to her. Also the incident that occurs only happens because he sees her by chance. Unless I was supposed to get that impression from the one incident?? I just felt like I needed to know more about him with other people. Not even just Kya. I felt like I had a better grasp on Tate.

The setting is great. The Marsh lands of the South. I was actually just recently in both Asheville and Greenville so that was kind of cool connection. The area is still really beautiful. With all the description it was really easy to picture.

I wish the ending would have been more open ended. It wasn’t like oh my gosh when I got to it. I do actually enjoy having some questions unanswered depending on what they are.

An enjoyable book but I sometimes think I no longer have patience when I read.

[ibeforem]

I thought this was a solid read that was maybe a bit over-hyped. Also, if you have difficulty reading about abused children, this may not be for you.

The story starts out in 1952 with 6-year-old Kya watching her mother walk away, never to return. Before long, the rest of her siblings follow, escaping the wrath of their ne'er-do-well drunkard father. Kya is abandoned by both her family and society, left to find her own way in a world where nature is much nicer to her than the humans are.

The rest of the book alternates between Kya's life and the murder of the town's golden boy, Chase Andrews, when Kya is in her 20s. I thought the story was woven together well, and I enjoyed the author's description of the marsh and how important it was in Kya's life. But there were some aspects of the book I really didn't enjoy.

I largely felt the dialect was unnecessary and annoying to read. I think there are ways to depict that aspect of a character without using that crutch. I also thought the bit with the poet at the end was an unneeded twist. And maybe I didn't actually need to know what happened to Kya's mother?

But overall, I enjoyed the story and read it quite quickly over my Christmas break. It is easy to become invested in Kya's survival.

[Leigha]

Kya Clarke grows up on her own in a marsh in this beautifully written historical mystery.

My book club pick for August! I was a little nervous reading this book with all the hype surrounding it, but it turned out to be an engrossing page turner. The heart and soul of this book is nature – it’s beauty, it’s cruelty, and it’s cleverness. The author is a wildlife scientist, and her prose of nature, habitats, and animals shines. I’d be interested in reading her nonfiction novels just to see if they are as beautifully written.

The story focuses on Kya, a young girl abandoned by her family at an early age in the coastal area of North Carolina. Kya’s ability to overcome her circumstances, to learn to survive off the land, is admirable. She’s a survivor – of neglect, of abuse, of the system, of society. It’s hard not to like her. Her relationships with others, particularly Tate and Jumpin, are endearing and sweet. I was pleasantly surprised at how much romance plays a role in the novel.

The narrative is split between Kya growing up and a current murder in the town. While the murder mystery was interesting, it was Kya’s development from child to adolescent to woman that kept me reading. I will say I had mixed feelings about the ending. It does wrap up everything, but it’s too spot on to make it truly memorable.

tl;dr Well-written prose and a memorable protagonist make this book club darling truly memorable.

[kimbacaffeinate]

The story that unfolds is told in two-parts meandering back and forth between the two. The author cleverly weaved the murder-investigation throughout the story of Kya’s upbringing letting the reader/listener wonder how and when these two threads would converge.

Kya Clark, dubbed the “marsh girl” by the locals lives in a shack setback in the marshes off the coastal shoreline of North Carolina. This first part of the story begins in 1952 when Kya is just six-years-old. She was born in the marsh and lived with her family until one by one they all left. She raised herself among the gulls and shells. Her connection to the marsh and her story is told with breathtaking prose. This character driven novel had me stopping and sitting as I listened to the narrations of Cassandra Campbell who beautifully captured Kya’s drawl.

The second part of the story occurs in 1969 when the town’s former football hero, Chase Andrews, is found dead beneath the local watch tower. Before too long, Kya is arrested for his murder.

The two threads eventually merge and honestly one held no weight over the other. I felt comfortable and riveted by both threads. While one is suspenseful, it had a southern feel to it and unfolded slowly and built as evidence and accusations were made.

Every once in a while a book comes along that sticks with you and changes you in subtle ways; Where the Crawdads Sing is one of the those books. If you enjoy audiobooks, this book was made to be listened to and Campbell does a fantastic job bringing Owens beautiful prose and characters to life.

While I listened, I ended up buying a hardcover copy to add to my bookshelf so that I could pull it down and read memorable passages again and again. There is a beauty and richness to Owens’ words I will always treasure. This review was originally posted at Caffeinated Reviewer