Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
This story exists in two different eras. Somewhere in a small town of North Carolina, a body was found in 1969 and its suspect is a “Marsh Girl” who is a mystery to the townsfolk. Starting from 1952, it also follows little Kya Clark as she grows up from heartbreak to loneliness, learning to fend for herself when abandoned. The people of Barkley Cove don’t know her and legends spur of the wild child in the swamps, but they don’t see the journey Kya goes through to become the woman she ends up being. Except for two boys, with whom she falls in love.
It’s difficult to understand what it is that you hold in your hands as you start. The blurb in the back teases a story and you keep reading, curiosity starts to rise. Then your heart breaks for the first time and you’re emotionally invested in a book that has only started capturing your heart.
Where the Crawdads Sing was the first book of 2021 for me, a Christmas present from the wild year of 2020. I remember holding it in my hands when I’d only just unwrapped it, encouraged to pick it up when the person who had gifted it hadn’t even finished reading. There something in the way she had said it, recommending an unfinished material. It doesn’t happen too often. Sometimes, I’d hear “I’m reading XY now and it’s good” or “It’s not bad so far”, but I’m not sure I’ve ever heard someone passing it on without reaching the end.
It should have been a sign.
Picking up this book, I’ve always considered myself more of a classics fan. I’ve enjoyed many modern books and I’ve been a Harry Potter fan since my teenage years before the movies even came out. But I can’t say I’ve ever been obsessed with a modern-day novel as I became with Where the Crawdads Sing. This book is a Sunday Times Bestseller and with good reason. It took me a day and a half to read, unable to put it down. At that time, I had abandoned my writing, didn’t register my favorite TV shows in front of me. I was all in with Kya, living and breathing with her. It’s a rare power of an author to truly engulf you that way, my emotions for that little girl ran high through the book.
“I wadn’t aware that words could hold so much. I didn’t know a sentence could be so full.”
Delia Owens, Where the Crawdads sing
Going over it again for this review, the one sad thing about it is that I’ve already been amazed for the first time. It’s something I’ve always felt about the good ones – reading it for the first time and being captured into a world beyond my own, transported in a different time and place, existing through the heart of a little girl growing up while keeping up with the murder mystery that takes place in (their) future.
“Time ensures children never know their parents young.”
Delia Owens, Where the Crawdads Sing
Kya Clark is a remarkable child. Her life is sad but empowering. An abandoned child, fending for herself yet growing up to become her person. You start the wonder about the people in her life as well, as a reminder that every human being is flawed, none of us are perfect. Everyone has a good and a bad side and perhaps at the moment, a single redeeming act can affect life for the better. I’d longed for her not to get her heart broken so many times, but our lives are filled with lessons to learn.
It’s a coming-of-age story most unusually. I can’t imagine how I would take to the “Marsh Girl” in her surroundings, it’s very different to imagine seeing it from her point of view and scorning the townsfolk for their behavior. Kya Clark became her heroine, for not having anyone else to play the part.
The words stand out, and the quotes make you stop and go back. There were a good few of them, and I couldn’t help but read through them again, and let myself get lost in them. Reading a book is a very subjective feeling and you can find the most unexpected moments without the pages that make you stop and think. A story that is written from the point of view of a girl that knew little, to begin with, yet had an extraordinary mind. You want to know Kya Clark in person, have someone like her as a friend as you read who she becomes.
Where the Crawdads Sing taught me a great many things. First of all, it was the modern-day writing style and how beautifully the chapters, even when a page long, flow with each other. End it just when you have to and don’t be worried about the “old rules”. It was a lesson in itself for my writing, where I had worried about the length and how pages one chapter should have, cramping several scenes that truly needed to be on their own.
Tell the story as you see it and the result will be beautiful.
Don’t judge a book by its cover phrase, in this case, is about a girl that has lived a life misunderstood. She experienced life in a way an outsider wouldn’t have thought possible and yet reading it from her point of view throughout the book, you see nothing is truly impossible or unattainable. She had help along the way, but the universe provides and guides. For all her heartbreak, she had let some people in that were truly meant to be there and helped her grow and become exceptional. When you read the book (and you absolutely should), you’ll no doubt in your mind which of the boys were right for her, but for the sake of spoilers, I won’t put down any names here.
“Autumn leaves don’t fall, they fly. They take their time and wander on this their only chance to soar.”
Delia Owens, Where the Crawdads Sing
I end this with a beautiful quote. This whole review has been filled with beautiful sentences from the book, but of so many, only a few made it here. It’s hard to say if I’d rate this 5/5 or 10/10. I don’t think the first one gives it the proper justice; it doesn’t seem to have enough numbers to cover all the qualities of why I enjoyed reading it so much. I don’t think I’d review material I didn’t love reading, it’s not my intent to be mean to anyone else’s work, but this book captured me in a way I couldn’t imagine possible. Not after I’d held my heart to other stories, even when discovering new books.
You can follow Delia Owens on the following links: Instagram | Facebook
And seriously, read the book. It’s worth every minute of your time.
Love, L.V.
L.V. Luca 