Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

1179 reviews

akliatese's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Racial slurs, and Racism

Minor: Sexual assault and Sexual violence

singletarya's review

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I love how Owens weaved Kya’s character into the ecology of the marsh so lyrically and profoundly through comparing her to marsh creatures and illuminating patterns of her life with ecological processes. I loved reading most about Kya’s character development from her interactions with the marsh. I could tell this book was written by an ecologist/naturalist with a very artistic and wise voice. However, the mystery aspect of the plot fell flat to me. It wasn’t terribly compelling or well developed; I found a few confusing plot holes. The red hat being the main one; Chase had given her the hat shortly before the murders, so at trial, wouldn’t he have known that the fibers had to have come from Kya recently and she could have been responsible for his death? If so, why was he surprised to find out after Kya’s death that she had in fact killed Chase? This plot hole weighs down my rating of the book. I understand that Kya needed to murder Chase in order to protect herself and bring the story arc of abuse (and the parallels of female marsh fauna doing what needs to be done to survive) full circle. I just wish I had been done better. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse and Abandonment

Moderate: Sexual assault

Minor: Racism

ertrunnell's review against another edition

adventurous inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

Some misgivings about the inaccuracies in dialect and geography and the requirements of suspending belief for a lot of the happenings, but easy to read and kept me interested.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment

Moderate: Addiction, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Death of parent

Minor: Racism

kemia's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Infertility, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual assault, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, and Alcohol

book_hang_o_ver's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This book will break your heart and mend it again. I’m honestly not sure why I put off reading this book for so long! I really enjoyed the faster pace, the characters and their development, the tension, and I truly wish I could visit this exact Marsh with Kya as my guide. The author’s expertise as a wildlife scientist also shines through the passages on the marsh beautifully.

Kya is such a resilient, thoughtful, and brilliant character… of course the descriptions about how beautiful she is vs the swamp trash were at times distracting but necessary to building further tension between the men, the town, and her. 

I didn’t know this was a murder mystery coming in to the book (I know, I know- how?! But I avoided all the hype and didn’t watch the movie adaptation 😅), and I genuinely enjoyed this plot line as a means to move the story forward. 

Personally- I loved the ending. It felt VERY appropriate looking back at some of the foreshadowing and earlier reflections from Kya. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Racism, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Moderate: Infidelity, Grief, and Gaslighting

Minor: Infertility

hlledfor's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Racism, Rape, Murder, and Classism

Moderate: Child abuse and Domestic abuse

Minor: Alcoholism

johnsongracea's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Murder, and Abandonment

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Grief

Minor: Rape and Death of parent

ccescas's review

adventurous emotional mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse

emilyarice's review

adventurous emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This was so good. Kya is such an emotionally deep character with a powerful mind but has been judged her entire life, and her prospects of love, daring and fun, and her very-real mistakes, truly made her embody a real human spirit. The novel was able to be informative and teach the reader about things that they would never learn on their own (specifically about the marsh) while also tugging at our heartstrings, making us love Tate but despise Chase. The one critique I have is that the last 2 chapters of the book could have been 6.

I understand that the end of the book was not the premise of the story but was rather giving the readers fulfillment with an end to the story. It just felt very rushed compared to the rest of the story, but it also makes sense because the rest of her life was lived in peace, while the intense parts that the book is actually about required more detail. 

Anyways, I loved the book! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, and Abandonment

Moderate: Physical abuse, Rape, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

lindsaywalsvick's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Classism

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Grief, and Murder

Minor: Infidelity, Racial slurs, Self harm, Terminal illness, and Injury/Injury detail