A review by namzuru
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective relaxing sad slow-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

4.25

Wow I’m writing this just after finishing this book and all I can think of is wow. I really enjoyed this book. At the beginning I was thinking this really isn’t my style but as I read more and more I was entranced with the life kya was living. I wanted to know what happened to her and pray things would turn for the better for her. 

About kya and chase:
Very quickly into their relationship I knew this wasn’t gonna go well. not for a second did i think this relationship was gonna work. at times it did seem as if he actually cared for her and others clearly he did not. god it broke my heart for her when she would say how she wanted to meet his parents and friends and go to the town festivities with him and he completely shuts her down saying its boring, he's tired of it, she wouldn't like it. like god he can't acknowledge at all that she actually wants to go. this man had so many red flags. when he talked about building them a house and getting married and living right in the marsh i just couldn't fully believe it. OMG WHEN HE TOOK HER ON THE ROAD TRIP. HE DID IT JUST SO SHE WOULD BE FORCED INTO THE SITUATION WHERE SHE WOULD AGREE TO HAVE SEX WITH HIM. god i just really hated this man and was not surprised when she found in the paper he got engaged to another woman. but i was so sad for her, another heartbreak. and then a few years later and he almost rapes her on the beach?? its a little weird and creepy he still wears the shell necklace she made for him when they were dating. god the whole SA scene made me very uncomfy but i felt so good when she got the better of him and fucking kicked him in the balls, still sad for her, but so proud too.


About kya and tate:
Before he went off to college, i didn't like their relationship. it made me really uncomfortable that he was 18 while she was 14/15. throughout their relationship at that point he pointed out that she was just a child and that they were different. If you didn't focus on the age gap, i didn't really mind their relationship and how they interacted (except that part where he pushed her against a tree). I thought it was cute how they exchanged feathers and the sort and it slowly evolved into him teaching her how to read. it seemed like a great friendship that turned into a relationship. After he goes to college is when it gets better - i guess. First of all he is such a fucking dick for just leaving her and just not saying anything. Bro i was so mad that it happened as she was experiencing more heartbreak but i was also mad at myself for not seeing it coming. For a majority for the rest of the book i really just was not trusting him. After he comes back we see from his pov that he really regrets what he did and is sorry but i still didnt believe it. With everything with chase i was worried he was going to but in and say she should be with him and instead im glad he warned her about chase and the things he was doing. and after how they slowly became closer as friends and with him being there the whole court case. it wasnt until the court part was where i actually started to trust him that he wouldnt leave her again. When her brother visited and said that stuff about tate and how she should give him another chance, i really thought this was setting it up for it to be bad, but it didnt and im glad. in the end, they were together and even kept her dark secret


the author of this book was very much well versed in biology and you could tell. I absolutely loved how the author described the scenery and the environment and how she related her life events to the events of life in nature. Her writing about nature was my absolute favourite part of the book and is a big reason I enjoyed this book so much. It just made kya as a character so enjoyable as she would talk about the nature andi would learn about the local ecosystem. 

two things i didnt quite like about this book is i could easily predict several plot point, not fully so maybe i didnt? 
  i knew tate would come back, i knew chase was gonna be scum, 
just several things that just happened and were predictable but despite this i enjoyed it so much as the writing kept it cool and interesting. the other thing is the court room chapters, although necessary, really just killed my interest in this book, one of the reasons i was entranced by this book was the nature and that was completely gone. I think that was the point as it was from kyas pov and she missed the creak so much. but i just wasnt into the whole courtroom speaking with them saying evidence etc.

 
I absolutely love how she started a whole book career, i was so happy for her as she was finally not living paycheck to paycheck and actually had enough to renovate the shack. She was recognized by many official institutes for her accomplishments and all of this with only going to school one day in her life. She learned so much with just her pure will and curiosity
 

Absolutely love how jumpin and mable became her friends but also parental figures to her, they helped her out of the goodness of their hearts. 
when he put her book in the window of his shop it warmed my heart so much. 
They were so good and kind to each other and them interacting were some of my favourite parts of the book.

chapter 33 has to be my favourite chapter in this book its so heartwarming and yet heart breaking.
  Jodie coming back was something i didn't expect, i just thought she would see none of her family again. and when he brought out the paintings i stared tearing up, she was seeing her moms work while also seeing her family again.
 

ending:
 
wow that fucking ending. i had suspected that she killed him but by the end it and completely gotten rid of that thought as their were less and less pages and assumed we would just never know the killer and that was the point. but it wasnt until halfway throught the poem did i realize, i quickly reread the poem now knowing and omg i just didnt see it coming. tbh some part in the book i though chase did it bc of the hat but like it wasnt making sense. but just that was a perfect reveal. i loved it. and omg the way he just burnt everything anf kept her fucking secret, he dedicated his time to helping her with the case because he thought ofcourse she was innocent and they were just pinning her bc they didnt like her. but omg she really did kill him wow. i also loved that she was the poet. didnt realize till then how similar the poems were to her life. when i stopped believing her to be the killer, i thought they were gonna pin her for a murder she never committed and would have to bear the consequences for it. i jsut assumed this book would not give me a happy/satisfying ending but i was wrong, i love it.
 


favourite quotes:
“please don’t talk to me about isolation. no one has to tell me how it changes a person. I have lived it. I am isolation.”
"Female fireflies draw in strange males with dishonest signals and eat them; mantis females devour their own mates. Female insects, Kya thought, know how to deal with their lovers."
"I wasn't aware that words could hold so much. I didn't know a sentence could be so full.” 

taylor swift songs that embody this book:
- carolina (obviously 🙄)
- i bet you think about me
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