Where the Crawdads Sing

This book, y’all, this book. Do yourself a favor and read this book.

I’m honestly struggling where to begin because there are so many unique facets to this book that totally captivated me, in a very surprising way. I did not see the outside world when I was reading it. It was just me, the marsh, and the Marsh Girl.

The story takes place in the marshes of North Carolina in 1950s-1970s and centers around Kya, known locally as the Marsh Girl. Kya is abandoned by her family as a young girl and forced to raise herself in the marsh. Half feral/wild child (she reminded me of Nell) and half survivalist, she is the human embodiment of resilience.

As Kya struggles with the hollow loneliness of isolation, two local boys come into her life, serving as conduits to life outside herself. They teach her the value of human connection and the complicated emotions, actions, and consequences, that come with being vulnerable with another person, especially as a teenager. Part coming-of-age story and part Southern mystery, the journey Delia Owens takes the reader on is one that will stay with you for a while.

Where the Crawdads Sing it is a true sensory exploration; I didn’t just read it but I felt it with all of my senses. Owens’ writing is so powerful that her words are not just words on a page, but a passport taking the reader to a new destination. I can visualize and see the marsh, smell the salty air, taste the grits, feel the sand at my feet, and hear the hum of a boat motor and the cry of the gulls. This book captivated all of me in a way I was expecting, transfixing me fully into the narrative.

Owens also captures human emotion brilliantly throughout the book. The themes of loneliness and abandonment are woven throughout in a way that evokes a kinship with Kya, making you feel the loneliness yourself rather than sympathize with her. Love is also a central theme in the story and Owens approaches love from a parallel biological and human perspective. Alone in the marsh, Kya’s introduction to love is purely biological, based on the mating rituals of animals. When confronted with love herself, she bridges what she knows from the animal world with new-found feelings stirring in herself.

Now there’s a lot more to the story that isn’t told on the book jacket, and I think the publishers had the right idea to not detail the full narrative. I’m not going to dive further into the story so you can have the same experience as I did, truly enjoying how the story progresses. Just hurry up and read it before the movie comes out.