Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens was magical, heartbreaking, and spellbinding. When her entire family abandons Kya one at a time, she learns to survive on her own in the marsh. The plot intertwines her growing up and survival story with a murder, moving back and forth between past and present.
Kya was a lovely character, all at once wild and free yet constrained by her past hurts. I often wanted to be by her side romping through the marsh and feeding the gulls on the beach. It was distressing and uncomfortable when she ended up in jail and in the middle of a trial. I hated spending time in the courtroom, but then so did she. She was like a caged animal slowly dying without her elements around her, and the story is written so beautifully that you feel this angst along with her.
At the same time, I became thoroughly engrossed in the trial even though it seemed a bit different from the rest of the book. The trial itself was interesting and didn’t drag on unnecessarily. It took up the perfect amount of space in the book.
I was mesmerized over and over by Owens’s descriptions of the marsh and the creatures within it. She managed to magically weave in details without making them sound too scientific or as if we were floating in and out of two different narratives. I also loved how she managed to move from poetry to very distinct dialect. Impressive.
The whole book was impressive and wonderful. I was sad when it ended. Though there was a sort of traditional wrapping up at the end. Sometimes I’m annoyed by perfectly wrapped up endings, but then I would probably be even more annoyed if something was left hanging or it was less conventional. Can’t have it both ways! So I’ll take the wrapped up way.
I’d highly recommend this book to just about anyone. I borrowed it from my library, but I think I’m going to need to add it to my collection!
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