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A review by sreddous
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
I LOVE when a location is a "character" as much as the characters are, and, boy, this is an easy setting to get lost in. The descriptions are lovely and the pacing, especially in the first half, really shows what it's like to live in these kinds of rural communities. There's some emotional, heart-wrenching stuff in here -- it's really well done, the way Kya has social issues and doesn't know how to interact with people. Her connection with nature is truly believable and beautiful. The connections with the people she does have feel well-built-up, and I adored the friendships with Kya and Jumpin' and his family and Tate.
I think what didn't work for me quite as well are some of the details and then the overall pacing -- I actually sort of found myself wishing that there wasn't a murder accusation, that this was just a slice-of-life story about how a little girl survived in the marsh. The murder trial stuff felt a bit too rushed in the end -- without spoiling too much, I don't think there was enough buildup to show why Kya would make the choices she did. The framing seems to be that "this is the first time she had to actually live in fear, worrying someone was going to come find her" but... that's pretty much expressed in one scene, when there should have been a lot more nuance to that given how the rest of her life has played out.
Also, the "Rural North Carolina" accents.... abruptly stop about halfway through. It seems that once Kya learned to read and write, she totally and completely stopped talking like a rural "country" person -- I don't buy it. It's too extreme. I'm picky about accents being written literally out in books overall, but because for the first half of the book it was consistent, I found it immersive. But we have a character going from: "What d'ya mean? It ain't just that. I wadn't aware..." to : "Jodie, maybe I'm just tired right now. In fact, I'm exhausted." and I don't think that's realistic. Just learning to read and replacing some words such as "ain't" wouldn't stop a person who is otherwise really isolated from the diverse ways different people speak from changing their accent THAT much, I feel like even people who travel internationally and immigrate don't have their accents change THAT much. So it bugged me, it almost felt like the message was: "if you're an uneducated country bumpkin you talk with an accent, and if you can read, you don't" or something? Which I think is judgmental and unfair.
Still, accepting this for what it is, this was an "easy read" in the sense that it was indeed pretty easy to get swept away in the swamp and marsh landscapes and stormy hot weather here. Immersive stuff!
I think what didn't work for me quite as well are some of the details and then the overall pacing -- I actually sort of found myself wishing that there wasn't a murder accusation, that this was just a slice-of-life story about how a little girl survived in the marsh. The murder trial stuff felt a bit too rushed in the end -- without spoiling too much, I don't think there was enough buildup to show why Kya would make the choices she did. The framing seems to be that "this is the first time she had to actually live in fear, worrying someone was going to come find her" but... that's pretty much expressed in one scene, when there should have been a lot more nuance to that given how the rest of her life has played out.
Also, the "Rural North Carolina" accents.... abruptly stop about halfway through. It seems that once Kya learned to read and write, she totally and completely stopped talking like a rural "country" person -- I don't buy it. It's too extreme. I'm picky about accents being written literally out in books overall, but because for the first half of the book it was consistent, I found it immersive. But we have a character going from: "What d'ya mean? It ain't just that. I wadn't aware..." to : "Jodie, maybe I'm just tired right now. In fact, I'm exhausted." and I don't think that's realistic. Just learning to read and replacing some words such as "ain't" wouldn't stop a person who is otherwise really isolated from the diverse ways different people speak from changing their accent THAT much, I feel like even people who travel internationally and immigrate don't have their accents change THAT much. So it bugged me, it almost felt like the message was: "if you're an uneducated country bumpkin you talk with an accent, and if you can read, you don't" or something? Which I think is judgmental and unfair.
Still, accepting this for what it is, this was an "easy read" in the sense that it was indeed pretty easy to get swept away in the swamp and marsh landscapes and stormy hot weather here. Immersive stuff!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs
Moderate: Sexual violence