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A review by jl27
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
3.0
This was my book club's choice for January. I liked this book overall, and read it very quickly.
I appreciated the story of survival Owen delivers. I also liked some of the descriptive writing, but parts of the dialogue and descriptions felt forced, superficial, or overdone, as if Owen was just trying too hard to balance too many things at once. The dialect and the descriptions of food or the other things with the intention of capturing the region/setting were too cutesy, at times. I'm from the south, and I am *completely* over the whole "Suth'n" bit. Also, there are some details about the whole murder plot line in this book that seem to be completely missing from the story, and though some of that exclusion was likely on purpose, parts of it seemed poorly pieced together, or perhaps poorly edited.
All of my criticism aside, I still think this read deserves 3.5 stars for achieving what it set out to do: giving us a glimpse into what life may have been like in that beautiful marsh for someone who was just so alone. Some of the imagery Owen creates is truly beautiful, and the information on native creatures and the ways of the marsh and all the life within it is all really interesting.
In a weird way, I look forward to seeing this story as a movie, when I don't have to think of all of the technical nuances that irritated me as I read this book.
I appreciated the story of survival Owen delivers. I also liked some of the descriptive writing, but parts of the dialogue and descriptions felt forced, superficial, or overdone, as if Owen was just trying too hard to balance too many things at once. The dialect and the descriptions of food or the other things with the intention of capturing the region/setting were too cutesy, at times. I'm from the south, and I am *completely* over the whole "Suth'n" bit. Also, there are some details about the whole murder plot line in this book that seem to be completely missing from the story, and though some of that exclusion was likely on purpose, parts of it seemed poorly pieced together, or perhaps poorly edited.
All of my criticism aside, I still think this read deserves 3.5 stars for achieving what it set out to do: giving us a glimpse into what life may have been like in that beautiful marsh for someone who was just so alone. Some of the imagery Owen creates is truly beautiful, and the information on native creatures and the ways of the marsh and all the life within it is all really interesting.
In a weird way, I look forward to seeing this story as a movie, when I don't have to think of all of the technical nuances that irritated me as I read this book.