Where the Crawdads Sing

Where the Crawdads Sing is an intriguing novel about a sly, intelligent, reserved girl, Kya Clark, growing up in Barkley Cove. Based in 1969, this book is told in an episodic manner, jumping between a present day murder mystery and the upbringing of Kya. Kya finds comfort in the nature surrounding her after being abandoned by her family at a young age. This story takes the reader through her journey growing up, finding love, and dealing with the harsh judgements of the townspeople.

I thoroughly enjoyed every page of this book. The story is the most captivating through the details it offers. Kya is described so precisely that it is like you know her. I love how the story is told in episodes, it did a great job of keeping me thinking throughout the whole book.

I feel like this book teaches the reader to be more aware and less quick to judge others. No one knew the difficulties presented to Kya throughout her life, yet still she was the first person to have fingers pointed at in a murder mystery. Throughout her whole life she dealt with heavy judgements, but she did persevere, another lesson implied through the novel. Kya is the definition of a strong, independent girl and the struggles she faced just made her smarter and more resilient. This book is a good example of how to persist through whatever hardships are thrown your way.

My favourite part was by far the ending, which I will not spoil. However, I can say that it was perfect. The book stayed so interesting right until the last page. I would say that the ending was an accurate metaphor for Kya’s life: sneaky, smart, and surprising. Even after the final verdict of the murder case is announced, you would expect the book to come down from the climax; however, it did quite the opposite and introduced another revelation for the reader to comprehend.

In my opinion, I find it difficult to say I had a least favourite part. The only thing I struggled with while reading was that I could not relate to Kya. It was hard to relate to any experience or struggle she was placed through, and for that I am not complaining. I can easily overlook this piece of negativity as the interest I had in Kya made it very easy to want to keep reading. It became easy to empathize for her as you were holding her life story in your hands giving insight into how much she had to put up with growing up and even into adulthood.

Overall, I found tremendous amounts of interest in this story and I would love to read more like it. Delia Owens did a great job of giving the readers a stimulating read through connecting a murder mystery and a fictional biography. I would recommend this book to anyone that wants to sit down with a book and not get back up until it is done.