Where the Crawdads Sing - Book Review

Thanks to the generosity of Putnam Publishing, I've had a copy of Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens sitting on my shelf since last spring. With all the drama of a move across the country, I didn't read it before it released last August. So it sat quietly neglected on my shelf. But I keep hearing about it. Reese Witherspoon chose it for her book club. The online book world was still a buzz about it even six months after its release so last week I finally read it. "It starts slow," they told me. "But then, it's amazing."

Over the years, one by one, young Kya has been abandoned by members of her family until she is alone in the shack. She knows the marsh better than anyone and can outwit the social workers and school officials who come to check on her well being. The people in town call her the Marsh Girl and she survives only on her own smarts and the charity of the black community.

The Marsh Girl is fascinated by her surroundings--she loves and understands the birds, plants and other wildlife. She is also beautiful and a few young men, honorable and not-so-honorable, are drawn to her. When a man is found dead in the marsh, Kya is the only suspect.

Despite what others told me, I actually enjoyed the beginning of Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. Reading about how Kya used her wits and her swiftness to outfox the town officials and how she struggled to find enough food to eat was fascinating. She was left in a nearly impossible situation and yet she managed to survive and even thrive in her surroundings. Owens is a lyrical writer. Her descriptions of the marshes of North Carolina made the area come alive.

As Kya grew up, the novel focused more on her relationships with the men and then the murder trial. I found it less believable and I didn't care much about the characters. I didn't even really like Kya as an adult. I don't mind not liking characters in books, but I feel like for this particular book to work, the reader needed to be fully engaged and on Kya's side. By the end, I was terribly underwhelmed by the novel. More than anything, Where the Crawdads Sing fell victim to hype. Often, the books that the masses just "love so much", don't impress me to the level that I am expecting (see also anything by Kristin Hannah).

Overall, Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens is a decent novel. Take it to the beach. Read it for book club. See what everyone else is talking about. It didn't knock my socks off.

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens is published by Putnam Books and released in August 2018.