book review of where the crawdads sing by delia owens

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From a Marsh to a Mountain, Crime Fiction Heads Outdoors

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book review of where the crawdads sing by delia owens

By Marilyn Stasio

Aug. 17, 2018

The wildlife scientist Delia Owens has found her voice in WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING (Putnam, $26), a painfully beautiful first novel that is at once a murder mystery, a coming-of-age narrative and a celebration of nature. The author, with her husband, Mark, of three books about southern Africa, Owens here surveys the desolate marshlands of the North Carolina coast through the eyes of an abandoned child. And in her isolation that child makes us open our own eyes to the secret wonders — and dangers — of her private world.

The narrative begins in 1969, when two boys riding their bikes come upon the body of Chase Andrews half submerged in a swamp. The rest of the story tells us how he got there and why we might wish he had never been found. In alternating chapters, Owens circles back 17 years to when Chase was just a boy tormenting Kya Clark, whose adored mother walked down the lane one day and never returned. “Kya laid her hand upon the breathing, wet earth, and the marsh became her mother.” Left in the care of her drunken father, 6-year-old Kya quickly learns how to placate this violent man, a lesson taught by the minnows in a nearby stream: “Just keep out of the way, don’t let him see you, dart from sunspots to shadows.”

Kya’s real life begins at age 10. Deserted by her father and taunted in school as a “swamp rat,” she retreats from civilization, turning elsewhere for sustenance and survival. “Drifting back to the predictable cycles of tadpoles and the ballet of fireflies, Kya burrowed deeper into the wordless wilderness. Nature seemed the only stone that would not slip midstream.” What follows is a gorgeous study of a life lived among herons and gulls and the occasional human who treats her decently. (The love of her life is a boy named Tate, who brings her books and teaches her to read.)

Over the years, “the marsh girl,” as she comes to be known, develops into a bona fide naturalist, translating her observations into drawings and paintings and recording those observations in carefully detailed journals. “Female fireflies draw in strange males with dishonest signals and eat them. Female insects, Kya thought, know how to deal with their lovers.”

In the end, Owens goes a bit too far as she attempts to make amends for Kya’s lonely childhood and solitary life. But it must be said that Kya has earned it.

A college student named Stephen O’Connor has a vision, described in elegiac and frightful detail by William Kent Krueger in DESOLATION MOUNTAIN (Atria, $26). In this dreamlike revelation, a boy shoots an arrow into the air and brings down a mighty eagle. The next day, a private plane crashes on the Iron Lake Reservation, slamming into a mountain the Indians call “Devil’s Eye” and killing Senator Olympia McCarthy. Cork O’Connor, Stephen’s father and the standup hero in this thriving series set in northern Minnesota, insinuates himself into an inquiry that draws investigators from several government agencies, along with some beefy guys wearing camo and carrying serious weapons.

Krueger dismisses the “zoo of federal agencies” that officially take over the case to concentrate on the O’Connors and their Indian friends, who understand and respect Iron Lake and its legends. That pays off in dynamic action scenes on the mountain as well as manly-man moments in a sweat lodge, around a fire ring and over bison burgers at Sam’s Place.

Marcia Muller was among the first to send a female private detective down the mean streets of modern American crime fiction when Sharon McCone, Muller’s San Francisco sleuth, solved her first case in 1977, doing investigative work for the All Souls Legal Cooperative. More than 30 books into the series, McCone is still on the job, now working for her own firm.

THE BREAKERS (Grand Central, $26) finds her down by Ocean Beach, looking for Michelle (Chelle) Curley, who restores old houses and hasn’t been seen since she entered her latest project, a bedraggled 1903 mansion known as the Breakers. McCone methodically inspects the entire house, hesitating only when she comes upon a pictorial rogues gallery of California serial killers enshrined in the attic. Although this macabre exhibition doesn’t cause McCone to alter her coolly professional narrative voice, it makes her wonder about the note Chelle left behind: “I’ve got a right to disappear.”

“Life sped by in Vientiane like a Volkswagen van on blocks,” Colin Cotterill drolly informs us in DON’T EAT ME (Soho Crime, $26.95), the latest installment in the curious life of Dr. Siri Paiboun, formerly the national coroner of the People’s Democratic Republic of Laos, but now a quirky amateur sleuth. The discovery of a corpse half devoured by animals leads to a grim story about the illegal trade in wildlife and other living things, caused in part by embargoes imposed by neighboring Thailand.

To take our minds off these horrors, Siri has acquired a movie camera to film his screenplay for a Lao version of “War and Peace.” It’s a worthy project, but not without difficulties since everyone from Comrade Phooi of the Ministry of Culture to the powerful women’s union feels entitled to rewrite his script.

Marilyn Stasio has covered crime fiction for the Book Review since 1988. Her column appears twice a month.

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Reading On A Star

Everything is, everything exists, only because I love.

Book Review – Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

Hello Bookworms, I initially read Where the Crawdads Sing late in 2021 and, surprisingly, went into it as somewhat of a skeptic. I had heard nothing but rave reviews, which actually turned me off from the book for quite a while, and when I finally got around to reading it, I was expecting disappointment. Yet I found myself genuinely astonished. Sometimes you read a book and are just so captivated, and it’s so difficult to pinpoint the exact reason. I look for certain fundamental things in books, a requirement of some sort in the different building blocks of a novel. The writing, plot building, character development, etc., have to be up to a certain par, in which the writing challenges me yet isn’t too challenging to comprehend, and the plot is both manageable but unpredictable.

Right off the bat, I need to say I loved the main character. If I hadn’t, I would not be writing this review; if I were, it would be a much more negative one. Characters make or break a book for me; I don’t care how good the plot, writing or ending is. Suppose a character gets on my nerves one way or another. It’s an adios from me. Even though I am in no way, shape or form similar to Kya, I was able to relate to her, connect with her, and it came to a point where her emotions became mine. NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL GOOD WRITING.

Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery, Contemporary, Romance

Publisher: August 14th, 2018 by G.P. Putman’s Sons

Length: Hardcover, 384 pages

In Where the Crawdads Sing , Owens juxtaposes an exquisite ode to the natural world against a profound coming of age story and haunting mystery. Thought-provoking, wise, and deeply moving, Owens’s debut novel reminds us that we are forever shaped by the child within us, while also subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.

The story asks how isolation influences the behavior of a young woman, who like all of us, has the genetic propensity to belong to a group. The clues to the mystery are brushed into the lush habitat and natural histories of its wild creatures. (Goodreads)

my thoughts:

If I had to narrow it down to one thing that’s kept this book at the top of my list for adult literary fiction, it might have to be both the setting and the main character’s development. And the writing. Impossible to overlook the writing. I was floored by how beautiful(and I genuinely mean it) and descriptive the storytelling was. That’s another reason the movie felt like such a realistic depiction or, better yet, an extension of the book. The novel was already so visually present and a central attribute that was all at once quite at the forefront but also woven into every minuscule detail.

Oh, and that ending. Will I ever process it? Will I ever get. over it? Will my love for this book ever die? No no nooo.

To elaborate on the setting, it’s a stark contrast to the environment I was raised in and am used to, being a city in Canada or just bustling cities focused around the corporate world. Although it’s not exactly what I’ve envisioned for myself, living as she does is so dreamlike and fantasy-like. She lives alone, and of course, the circumstances aren’t ideal. She’s alone as everyone has left her. Yet her surroundings are still romanticized straightforwardly: the birds, nature, and the water. Nothing is elaborated or exaggerated in its fashion or being. The water is described perfectly, in such a genuine way. It was within reach as a reader, yet not at the same time. Maybe that’s another aspect of why I felt so drawn to nature, this background to the novel. It’s something one almost romanticizes when they read it was written so wonderfully. It seems idyllic, almost heavenly.

This might’ve been the book where I could visualize the environment down to the blades of grass in a scene. The writing..of course, played a part in this. I commend the author for adhering to their consistent style and maintaining detailed descriptions throughout the book. It led me, at least, to feel safe. Some reports became familiar near the end but not dull or predictable because it drones on. It was the opposite, where I could have read pages upon pages of these descriptions, never even thinking to stop.

Like many other readers, although I tried not to be biased as I opened up this book with such high praise and millions of reviews and ratings, I did have somewhat of a high expectation.

One thing I love in a book is when it surprises me. No, I’m not talking about a thriller novel with an incredibly shocking revelation. But precisely in this book, how the writing and story evolved allowed me to connect with it more profoundly.

The book takes several various directions and merges them to form one beautiful product. The overall portrayal of the main character and her growth is just something I have never seen depicted so perfectly. She’s so multi-faceted, almost unimaginably real. She almost can’t be fake; that’s how much I believe in her. Her intelligence, her loneliness, discomfort. All things that could be described plainly, with one or two words, were portrayed as exquisite, as art in their own right. Never said outright, but made so evident to the reader. Additionally, her affinity for nature was terrific to read. She would subconsciously draw connections between her experience with nature since birth and her current and past relationships. Her deep affinity, the never-ending love for the earth, and the comfort it gave her.

Her growth progressed, as did the plot, and the pacing, which was slower than my typical “need for speed” pace desire; the calm writing aided in the natural progression. Reading such a wild turn of events and portraying our loss was heartbreaking. Oh, human innocence, trust and sense of abandonment that we have all felt at varying degrees.

It’s something we’ve come to both accept and normalize. The destruction of childlike naivety is inevitable. As we mature, it gets real. It gets scary, and that’s life. Right? Why do these things have to occur? On whose agenda are we truly living, if not our own?

Although it was out of her control, Kya’s dissociation from society led to her challenging certain societal norms and values. Revealing questions surrounding the games we play and the costumes we genuinely put on for others.

Her deep severance was ultimately that she was different. They are so similar, yet so different. I suppose being distinguishable and unique is something we all desperately both fear and desire. Perhaps it’s the need to stray from the pack, denote ourselves, and feel important. To be important. But external pressures remain, and those are demanding. Comparisons are complicated, and humans are notoriously exceptionally hard on themselves. The need to assimilate and force others into a life you have most likely been manipulated into believing is the right one is so interesting—quite a study on human behaviour.

Further, this book reinforced the importance of reading out of your comfort zone; who doesn’t love safe books, but the worst that could happen with a new type of read is a dislike. So put it down. It’s that simple. And on the other end is discovering something so brilliant that might teach you something about yourself too. This book was much slower than I would reach for, a very foreign setting and a genre out of my comfort zone. Yet here we are, having found a new lifelong favourite.

The film…

Now to talk about the film adaptation. Something that probably confirmed in my mind is my love for the book, which is VERY surprising. As we know, the book-to-film adaptation journey is usually filled with disappointment upon disappointment. At its’ best, just being a wrong portrayal of the book you first loved, and at its worst, destroying that love to its core, even changing your perception of the novel. This is why my mind instantly rejected these adaptations, but I was intrigued by all the commotion surrounding its release and the actors playing in the film. And the pretty movie cover…who am I to resist such a thing…

The movie. P H E N O M E N A L. truly.

The actress had me in a chokehold with her performance. I would never have cast her (clearly, I’m a film critic??), and that’s precisely why nobody has made me a director because I would have missed out. She was incredible. In portraying the character, she was her. I don’t even know how to describe it. Nobody could have played the main character better; the way she played it well and her meshing with the environment to the general setting was gorgeous.

This book, to me, was less about what it was “actually” about and more about how it came to be, how the novel was formed and executed. How every little part. What goes into writing a novel was elevated and highlighted. Nothing went unnoticed by the author; nothing was left unwritten. It’s a book I can see myself re-reading for years because it goes beyond the murder mystery plot. It was never about that. It was about one girl. Marsh girl. Who she is, why she’s the way she is, and just a beautifully crafted tale about human connection, innocence, and its ultimate collapse.

I keep having to remind myself that it is also a debut novel. How?? The literary work leads me to believe it may be her first published piece, but far from the lack of depth a new author typically starts with. Owens has a way with words that is rarely seen, especially in a debut novel. It is worth the read, especially since the live-action movie is now in theatres. I thoroughly enjoyed Kya’s story and looked forward to seeing it come to life. As everyone knows, the book is always better, so I would suggest reading the book before seeing the movie. “Where the Crawdads Sing” is suspenseful and unique and keeps you hooked until the last page.

about the author

Delia Owens is the co-author of three internationally bestselling nonfiction books about her life as a wildlife scientist in Africa— Cry of the Kalahari, The Eye of the Elephant , and Secrets of the Savanna . She has won the John Burroughs Award for Nature Writing and has been published in Nature, The African Journal of Ecology , and International Wildlife , among many others. She currently lives in Idaho, where she continues her support for the people and wildlife of Zambia. Where the Crawdads Sing is her first novel.

I am a massive fan of Delia, my love for her is similar to that I hold for Margaret Atwood—such a strong, versatile, intelligent woman. Something so powerful about the whole lives they live, the way their writing is immensely impactful, it’s so inspiring to me. I aim to live as they do.

Lot of times love doesn’t work out. Yet even when it fails, it connects you to others and, in the end, that is all you have, the connections. Delia Owens

Thanks for reading!

11 responses to “Book Review – Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens”

[…] Reading On A Star […]

[…] book review – where the crawdads sing by delia owens by Erin from reading on a star […]

this is one of my favourite books :))

Like Liked by 2 people

This is such a great review! I love a vivid and visual book, so this one sounds great!

you are so sweet!

Brilliant review, I didn’t have much interest in reading this until your review definitely going to consider it now 😊

Like Liked by 1 person

thank you, ahhh that’s so so kind.

I loved this book, although I understand your initial resistance/skepticism. I’m often that way with books that have so much hype. Thanks for your review!

it’s always a little off putting right!! and thank you so much for the great comment!!

I’ve never read the book, but I very much enjoyed the movie. Great story and acting, and the environment was such a neat part of it.

such a great movie

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Heartspoken

How to strengthen connection in a digital world...at home and at work

Book Review: Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens is the perfect pick for a delicious summer reading experience. Here’s my Heartspoken book review.

Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

Reviewed by elizabeth h. cottrell 5 stars out of 5.

This amazing book checked all the boxes of top-quality fiction for me:

exquisite writing
vivid, well-drawn characters
a fast-paced story with exciting elements of mystery and danger
the satisfying emotions of love, hope, and redemption

Right off the bat, the author’s lyrical and rich descriptions of the coastal marsh are the kind readers crave and to which writers aspire:

“…slow-moving creeks wander, carrying the orb of the sun with them to the sea, and long-legged birds lift with unexpected grace—as though not built to fly—against the roar of a thousand snow geese.”

Don’t you just feel like you’re there, experiencing that incredible scene? The marsh is almost a character itself, wild and mysterious and powerfully beautiful.

Kya is a dubbed the Marsh Girl by her unkind tormenters. Born in an isolated cabin in the coastal marsh of North Carolina, she escapes into the wild to get away from her father’s abusive rages caused by PTSD and fueled by alcohol. Her mother flees, seemingly abandoning 5-year-old Kya and her four older siblings. One by one the siblings escape too, leaving Kya utterly alone to deal with her father and his demons.

The story alternates between that time in 1952 when her mother left and the year 1969 when the body of Chase Andrews is discovered at the base of an old fire tower in the swamp. As the book progresses, the reader discovers how these two lives—Kya’s and Chase’s—intersect. We also learn how Kya, who was taught to read by Tate, was able to combine her love of words with her meticulous study of swamp wildlife to become a true authority, albeit without formal education. She and Tate become fierce protectors of their beloved ecosystem.

Besides the author’s remarkable descriptive skill, she shows a depth of knowledge about the spectrum of human emotion in her characters’ behavior and dialogue. It all rings true.

“But loneliness has a compass of its own…”

“Biology sees right and wrong as the same color in different light.”

In expressing the impact of reading poetry for the first time, Kya says to Tate (in her swamp dialect, “I wadn’t aware that words could hold so much. I didn’t know a sentence could be so full.”

My heart was full when I finished this book. What better endorsement for a book to enrich the #HeartspokenLife.