Reviews with content warning for Racial slurs - Where the Crawdads Sing

Reviews tagging 'Racial slurs'

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

642 reviews

schneidero's review

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

The protagonist and setting draws you in from the very beginning and with short chapters it feels like a quick read. Although the story jumps back and forth between two different time periods it never felt confusing and got more and more suspensful when they started to connect. I had read somewhere that the author is a zoologist which is very apparent as a lot of the book focuses on describing the wildlife and fauna but it wasn't distracting but instead invited you into the point of view of the main character. While the overall pace felt rather slow it definitely picked up towards the end and while I was worried of being left with many questions, the last handful of pages answered a lot of them and left me just sitting in silence for a moment once I had finished the book.

Content Warnings

ed_moore's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

2.75

“A real man is one who cries without shame, reads poetry with his heart, feels opera in his soul, and does what’s necessary to defend a woman”

Owens’ ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’ wasn’t what I thought it was be nor what it was made out to be at all. It has focus on two timelines, Kya as she grows up abandoned on the North Carolina marshes, and this timeline slowly catches up to 1970 and the suspected murder of Chase Andrews out on the marsh. It begins as a story of abandonment and a young girl adapting to survive, arguably with far too much ease; Owens does not include many problems within her plot related to the abandonment that Kya genuinely struggles to overcome nor does it particularly deeply look into the complex emotions that must come with such a character. The mystery is introduced quickly but takes a back seat for the large majority of the novel, not much is added to it in terms of clues or red herrings and it is generally quite poorly written and predictable. I was disappointed by the mystery aspect, especially as the book evolved and begun to focus more on this new identity of becoming a romance.

I am often an advocate of separating art from the artist but for a book written in 2018 to frequently use the ’N’ word to no real plot effect or meaningful, especially given the controversial status of Owens as a person, I feel I have to address this as a huge negative. Yes ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’ is a historical fiction and trying to reflect American race prejudices of the time in its setting, however this is extremely poorly done and the use of certain phrases was unacceptable for the 21st century in the manner that Owens remorselessly used them.

I enjoyed Owens’ descriptions of setting and intimate relationship with the wildlife of the marshes. It was a completely absorbing atmosphere with a focus on love of nature, however that is about all that wasn’t disappointing or problematic with ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’.

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rowan27's review

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challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad slow-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

5.0

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ameliabellward's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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veeples's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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houimk's review

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emotional hopeful informative reflective tense medium-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? Yes

4.5

Worth all the hype it gets. A fantastic read. The writing style is more detail orientated than some, so I wouldn't call this an easy read per say, but it is well worth it.

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sabrinaaa720's review against another edition

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challenging emotional mysterious reflective medium-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

4.0

Tough start to the story but as Kya grows the story deepens and becomes enjoyable and intriguing. Some stressful and sad moments towards the end but a good ending.

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jovanh's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.75

What a lovely book.

Content Warnings

loverunin's review

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challenging emotional hopeful mysterious 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

5.0

i was devastated to finish it, i wanted the book to go on forever

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kghunter's review

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emotional inspiring mysterious relaxing sad medium-paced

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

5.0

This is the first book I’ve ever read that’s based where I grew up (not exact but in the N.C. OBX). It is now one of my favorite books ever, a heartbreaking but marvelous read. The ecological and environmental imagery is magnificent. My only critique as a born and raised local is that if you know the area you know the author, Owens, isn’t from here because she stays talking about Asheville like it’s a day trip. All I have to say to that is—sweet heart, dear darling Delia, I wish you’d of looked at the map just a beat longer when writing this because that kept breaking my immersion lol. But, the Greenville references were a solid addition so the occasional eastern to western N.C. space time continuum jumps were made up for in part.

Update: I’ve gone back and forth on my rating for this, hesitating to give it a full 5 stars bc i felt it didn’t objectively measure up to the quality of the other books I’ve given 5 stars on this app so far. But ya know what, fuck that sound (if you didn’t understand this marsh adjacent pun then you ain’t my people and i need you to stop reading my reviews rn. like actually, i’m being so serious, please collect your belongings and vacate my account immediately thnkugudbye) because I love this book so much I considered buying my own copy to make a custom cover for it (I book bind as a hobby) and mailing to the authors P.o. box just as a thank you for writing it because I’m a massive dweeb.

There were so many times reading this book that I cried, that I smiled until my cheeks hurt, that my pulse quickened in suspense. I love this book so dearly and I hope one day I find the time to make a custom copy for the author.

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