A review by singletarya
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

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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