Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

Where the Crawdads Sing has become so popular, there’s no way I was going to miss out on this book. Here’s my book review and what I thought of it.

My history with the book

I bought this book over two years ago and let it sit on my TBR shelf for way too long. At over 1.5 million ratings averaging about 4.5 on Goodreads.com, I couldn’t even tell you what I was waiting for. (Not to mention, every book club ever has read this book!) But alas, such is the life of a reader…too many books (except one can never have TOO many books), not enough time. At any rate, once I started reading, I couldn’t put it down and I breezed through the almost 400 pages in about 2 weeks.

Overview of Where the Crawdads Sing

The story opens up as the main character, Kya, who lives in the marsh country of North Carolina, watches her mother walk out on her, her brother, and her dad. Not without reason, of course, since her father was abusive and the life they built together seemed to be a bit of a disappointment, but something about that moment of seeing her mama walk away and leave her there in the shack set the tone for the rest of her life where she would grow up, mostly on her own in that same shack, fending for herself and learning everything there is to know about the natural life of the marsh.

Kya’s coming of age story is coupled with a parallel story of the small town football star who was killed in what authorities have jumped to conclude could only be foul play. When Kya is pegged as the (only) suspect, the story takes a turn to highlight both how this small town mistreated a vulnerable girl her whole life, and perhaps, challenges each of us to think twice when casting judgement on people who are different than we are.

What are the underlying themes in Where the Crawdads sing?

The social issues we see play out between the “townies” and the “swap folk” highlight the book’s themes of survival and independence, prejudice, intolerance, and acceptance and made me question more than once what really is “education”?

Is Where the Crawdads Sing worth reading?

My book review of Where the Crawdads Sing won’t give up the ending because this type of ending is most definitely my favorite of all fiction novels that I read, and if I’m honest, boosts my rating from 4 to 4.5, which I’ve gone ahead and rounded up to 5 for the sake of the beautiful imagery of nature that Owens peppers throughout the book.

Thanks so much for joining me for this book review of Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens.

For this review and many more, plus what I’m reading now, visit me on GoodReads. Thanks so much for checking out the Collective!
– Sarah

If you enjoyed this review, here are a few others that you might like:

• Run Rose Run by Dolly Parton & James Patterson
• The Sweet Life In Paris by David Lebovitz
• Whence Came a Prince by Liz Curtis Higgs