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Loading... Where the Crawdads Sing (edition 2021)by Delia Owens (Author)
Work InformationWhere the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens (Author)
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This book had me hooked at the prologue—no buried lead here. Coming straight out of a different book that took several weeks because it was SO slow to get into, this was especially refreshing. This. Book. Though. The prose is pure poetry (but then as an added bonus, there’s also *actual* poetry). I got lost (in the best immersive way, not in a confused way) amid the vivid descriptions of the setting. I found myself reacting out loud to the power of the words at activating my senses. Seriously, when a book makes you go, “Mmm!” out loud and it’s not describing delicious food, that’s just plain good writing. And then the way the story unfolded between timelines, closing in on itself as more was revealed—just brilliantly done. I didn’t want to put it down. This is one of those stories that sticks with you for a while after finishing it, echoing through your mind like memories of something you experienced firsthand. I hope to find many more books that have the same effect. 1952 The morning burned so August-hot, the marsh's moist breath hung the oaks and pines with fog. The palmetto patches stood unusually quiet except for the low, flap of the heron's wings lifting from the lagoon. And then, Kya, only six at the time, heard the screen door slap. Standing on the stool, she stopped scrubbing grits from the pot and lowered it into the basin of worn out suds. No sounds now but her own breathing. Who had left the shack? Not Ma. She never let the door slam. I picked this book up on a whim and I was so pleasantly surprised. If the beautiful descriptions of the marsh landscapes don't draw you in then the courtroom drama definitely will. It is an inspiring coming-of-age story intertwined with a nail-biting murder mystery. The heavy themes of loving nature made this an even more fun read as it felt like I was exploring the marsh with Kya.
Steeped in the rhythms and shadows of the coastal marshes of North Carolina’s Outer Banks, this fierce and hauntingly beautiful novel centers on...Kya’s heartbreaking story of learning to trust human connections, intertwine[d] with a gripping murder mystery, revealing savage truths. An astonishing debut. A painfully beautiful first novel that is at once a murder mystery, a coming-of-age narrative and a celebration of nature....Owens here surveys the desolate marshlands of the North Carolina coast through the eyes of an abandoned child. And in her isolation that child makes us open our own eyes to the secret wonders—and dangers—of her private world. Is contained inHas the adaptationAwardsDistinctionsNotable Lists
For years, rumors of the "Marsh Girl" have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. She's barefoot and wild; unfit for polite society. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark. But Kya is not what they say. Abandoned at age ten, she has survived on her own in the marsh that she calls home. A born naturalist with just one day of school, she takes life lessons from the land, learning from the false signals of fireflies the real way of this world. But while she could have lived in solitude forever, the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. Drawn to two young men from town, who are each intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new and startling world -- until the unthinkable happens. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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This is a book about Kya herself, and about the community where she grew up in the 1950s and 60s, with its racial divisions (Colored Town is on the outskirts). None of the other characters ever moves as centre stage as Kya herself, but Tate and Chase, who at different times date her, as well as her protector, storekeeper Jumpin' and his wife are convincingly portrayed.
Over a seventeen year period, the book alternates between Kya's early childhood and her young adulthood. As a child she has to contend with her absent mother's disappearance, a drunken inadequate father, and learn how to fend for herself. As an adult she learns that friends, lovers - and she has few enough - can't always be trusted. The mystery, unveiled in the book's prologue, unfolds only in the latter part of the book, but is satisfyingly absorbing edge-of-the-seat stuff.
Perhaps the last pages were just a little too neat, and resolved just a little bit too easily so many of Kya's difficulties of trust and relating to fellow-humans. But surely she deserved to live happily-ever-after?
This book seems to demand to be made into a film: it's a highly pictorial book whose scenes I found easy to visualise. An unusual and convincing story, beautifully written. ( )