Delia Owens

A swamp and a marsh are very different environments. A marsh is a thriving and nurturing place, and it’s there, along the North Carolina coast, that Kya lived and survived after being abandoned by her family as a young girl. Kya spent her days alone, observing the surrounding natural world, and it served her well.

Though she loved her marsh dearly, sometimes the loneliness was too much, especially as she grew into a young women. But after being abandoned by everyone she loved and shunned by show more the locals, who could she trust with her heart?

I don’t want to ramble on too much about the plot. This stirring, character-driven novel is part coming of age story, part mystery, and part love story — between Kya and two young men who she allows in her hidden world, but most of all, between Kya and her treasured marsh.

WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING is a gorgeously written and haunting novel with an unforgettable heroine, the Marsh Girl. What a bittersweet ending!! Tears, tears, tears. Just lovely.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book through Penguin’s First to Read Program in exchange for an honest review. show less

Where the Crawdads Sing is my favourite read of 2024 so far and Kya, The Marsh Girl, is one of my favourite fictional female characters of all time. Haunting and endearing, artistic and intelligent, resilient and resourceful, bewitching and vulnerable, she’s one of a kind.

Kya’s story is told across different timelines, starting in 1952 when she is just 6 years old, flipping forwards to 1969 when the body of handsome, athletic and popular Chase Andrews is found beneath the rickety old show more fire tower in the marshes and then to and fro, following her life in stages leading up to his mysterious death and beyond.

I love that Where the Crawdads Sing is so many different things.
It’s a beautifully lyrical, highly descriptive study of the natural world, the flora and fauna of the North Carolina coastline, Kya’s home
It’s a murder mystery set in a small, close-knit community where everybody knows everybody else’s business and folks of colour and marsh dwellers are alienated, accused and discriminated against.
It’s Kya’s coming-of-age story, a story of loss and abandonment, abuse and neglect, strength and survival, loneliness and longing. A feral, hand-to-mouth existence, a symbiotic relationship with nature, evading the authorities and trusting nobody.
It’s a moving love story.

Where the Crawdads Sing has left me with a lasting, kaleidoscopic image of Kya, spinning around, arms outstretched with flocks of gulls flapping and eddying around her, creating a feathered forcefield to protect her from the outside world. With a lump in my throat, I was rooting for Kya every step of the way, welling up at the acts of kindness from Jumpin’, Mabel and Tate. Kya, the bogs, swamps and marshes, the grits, pokes and crawdads will stay with me for a very long time. I cannot rate this book highly enough. show less

The journey of reading this book was a difficult one for me. I started reading the book in September of 2021, but I had to stop reading 40 pages in because I personally was too depressed to read the book. I decided to pick it up again after seeing the movie trailer for the book. This book ended up living up to the hype for me. I adored it.

Probably my favorite part of this book was the beautiful language the author used in their writing. Each sentence felt like it was chosen with care. I also show more loved all the things you could read in between the lines. There were a lot of deep meanings in this book that made Kya relatable to different kinds of people even though we all may have never experienced everything she does in the book. I love how the book managed to span her entire life even though it wasn't entirely explained in detail.

The characters were another well-written part of this story. Kya was a very likeable character. The book is in her perspective mostly, and by the time the reader gets to the murder trial, you can't help but be on Kya's side because you've seen all her troubles unlike the townspeople who ignored her for years. The author also expertly writes all the other characters, so that you hate the ones you're supposed to hate and the love the ones you're supposed to love. My other favorite characters, besides Kya, were Jumpin' and Tate. Jumpin' and Tate always loved Kya no matter what (even though Tate had doubts and kind of abandoned her for a little while). Chase is a stuck up prick, and I'm glad he was murdered. And I know it's not essential to the story, but I kind of wish we would have found out what happened to her dad.

Overall, I'd say this book is all ready one of my favorites of the year. It is touching, deep, and heartbreaking. The ending especially had me crying. show less

In Where the Crawdads Sing, Owens juxtaposes an exquisite ode to the natural world against a heartbreaking coming of age story and a surprising murder investigation. Thought-provoking, wise, and deeply moving, Owens's debut novel 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.