Where the Crawdads Sing
By Deliah Owens
Published Year: 2018
Page Count: 368 pages
Medium Used: Paperback
Genre : Coming Of Age, Mystery, Murder Investigation, Court Room Drama, Animal Behavior, Romance, 2024-read.
Rating : 5/5 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Disclaimer : Some Spoilers from the book mentioned here!
This is a fantastic story. Very riveting. A mashup of multiple, different genres that have churned out a totally engrossing and worthy read. Like the lagoon and the rivers which the main character Kya navigates through .. everyday of her life in the marshes, this story and the prose have a sweet, smooth flowing quality to them. The book was unputdownable. I liked the parallels the author was able to draw between the different mating strategies, romantic behaviors of animals and the different lovers of Kya. The characters are well developed and got me very invested in their fate. The author tied up all the loose ends into a tight knot, leaving no lingering questions.
Kya, the marsh girl, lives alone in her shack on the marsh land. She is distanced by everyone in the town and has few acquaintances. She has been dumped and left behind by all the people she has ever loved and those who loved her. She accepts it as a norm of her life and lives a very guarded existence, fending for herself. She makes a living selling mussels and roasted fish at the nearby gas station. One day, she meets and befriends her brother's friend Tate who becomes her first and innocent lover. They share a mutual love for boating through the marsh lagoons and rivers, exploring the hidden and deserted lands around the lagoon. He teaches her how to read and encourages in her a passion to collect feathers, shells and other marsh animal artifacts. She also learns painting and eventually her life takes a turn when she publishes books on the marsh land shells, animals and grasses.
When Tate separates from her, heartbroken and utterly lonely, she becomes arm candy to a rich bloke in town, Chase Andrews. Later on, she becomes embroiled in his murder and becomes the sole accused. The court room back and forth between the prosecution and defense is tense and suspenseful. So what eventually happens to Kya? Did she commit the gruesome murder of her once lover ? Will she reunite with her soul mate and one true lover Tate? What does fate have in store for a girl that has been denied everything since her childhood?
The narrative alternates between multiple timelines. One thread runs along with her coming of age story which paints a picture of how her life from childhood to adolescence has been. The other thread has the local sherrifs investigating the murder of Chase Andrews who fatally fell to his death from the fire tower. Was he pushed by Kya or was it an accident? There were no foot prints or finger prints of any kind making this a potential murder case. When the two threads near a colluding point, the narrative got very interesting. Not revealing anything substantial until the very end, the author kept me on my toes, with a question mark on my face and a couple of questions on my lips. If not Kya, did some one else kill Chase or was it really an accident?
Very poignant and intense read. I have come to love the animals and birds in the story. I have come to appreciate and accept the life choice of Kya to not move away from the marshes. She had built a thriving and teeming life there and should remain so!
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