Title: Where the Crawdads Sing
Author: Delia Owens
Release Date: August 14, 2018
Length: 384 pages
Genre: Historical Fiction
***My Review***
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens is a story that tackles a delicate subject, biases, while simultaneously evoking both primal emotions and human impulses. And what are biases if not a primitive impulse that has been subtly woven into the fabric of civilized society? With prejudices, one thinks they are protecting themselves against something that doesn’t even constitute a threat to their lives.
A narrative about survival, about how a little girl feels when she is abandoned by her mother, then by her four brothers.
Even at the age of five, Kya knew why they left: her father’s cruelty, violence, and alcoholism.
What she doesn’t understand is why they abandoned her, and neither do I.
Before your eyes, Kya becomes the girl from the swamp, with her shy mannerisms, animal distrust, and defensive mechanisms determined by the still human and vulnerable in her, the decision of “fight or flight”.
She is mostly alone since her father comes and leaves till he does not return. It was heartbreaking as she sat on the beach with the birds, not wanting them to fly away and abandon her. It’s heartbreaking to see her mistreated and abandoned, recalling the beatings and attempting to find a way to feed.
Kaya unites with the atmosphere and surroundings around her after being rejected and driven away from the civilized world, which she only understands as such because she is not its convenient representation. What surprises await her on the road? Maybe a little happiness, and maybe…..
Delia Owens creates a bond between the wild and the tamed nature. Man is a basic material echo of the environment, with a self-destructive inclination to regress despite evolution.
Atmospheric is an understatement, and I don’t use that word frequently since it feels overused at times, but the marsh pervades almost everything significant in this narrative.
I’m not sure whether any other novel will have the same effect on me as Where the Crawdads Sing. Perhaps because I was enjoying the scenic beauty of North Carolina that was so beautifully portrayed, I heard nature outside my window mixed with the echo of contemporary infrastructure and the rush and bustle of rapid living, which intensified within, between the pages, while they faded outside.
My thoughts merged with the beautifully delivered story of bitter rejection. I wished I could teleport inside the swamp and listen to the symphony of the canopy’s singing from the hundreds of bird species that dwell in it. I wanted to look at a grass flower I’d never seen before via a microscope. Perhaps to join the pulse of flora and animals… after all, man is nature’s most flawed creation. And the author makes an effort to demonstrate this on nearly every page.
Nature, which was formed before man to serve and be his home, craves equilibrium. It offers but wants something in return – a seemingly regular law that man forgets after implanting himself in it and begins to behave domestically as if a dreadful disaster or a new ice age were to strike.
In a reservoir of paradoxes, Owens offers us dry and flippant conclusions. Man is afraid of fire, not anger. Man makes avalanches from downed trees and is terrified of earthquakes. Man, not nature, rejects Kya, although she is his own and his kind, has the same number of bones and has the same genetic composition.
Kaya’s longing to be accepted by society is granted by seagulls and tadpoles, and the swamp serves as her haven when humans cruelly and shamelessly pursue her down like a vicious beast. They are unaware that the beast is being birthed in their immoral thoughts.
Have you ever felt that you didn’t want the book to finish because it was still alive in your thoughts?
I wished I could spend more time with the night herons, scaly crabs, and insects. Listening to the sneaky pelicans and blackbirds, collecting shells and feathers on the moonlit coast, simply staying in the narrative a little longer…
Delia Owens gives us a tribute to a preserved environment that operates properly even with a human soul implanted in its center, using a poetic manner that only highlights the wonder of the book. Though her training as a wildlife biologist surely helps create the scenario, the language is remarkably outstanding for a debut fiction work.
The backdrop of Where the Crawdads Sing is fantastic and bears as much weight as the main character. Beautifully written descriptions.
The author does an excellent job of developing Kya’s character, with nuances that bring her to life on the page. Where the Crawdads Sing would have worked well as a coming-of-age narrative without the murder mystery. Nonetheless, everything was intricately linked.
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens is the perfect story for travelers who love to discover magical landscapes through a book. If you’re searching for a book that includes a little bit of everything, this is the one.
Fantastic plot, a likable main character that tugs at your sympathies, murder mystery, ambiance, drama, coming of age, and romance… everything is wonderfully balanced and mixed into one very great novel.
I’ve wanted to read Where the Crawdads Sing since it came out. Great review, I’m glad you enjoyed this one!
I enjoyed the book very much, in fact I read it twice second time even better, a great well written story . I wish we had more like it.