"For years, rumors of the "Marsh Girl" have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. She's barefoot and wild; unfit for polite society. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark. But Kya is not what they say. Abandoned at age ten, she has survived on her own in the marsh that she calls home. A born naturalist with just one day of school, she takes life lessons from the land, learning from the false signals of …
"For years, rumors of the "Marsh Girl" have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. She's barefoot and wild; unfit for polite society. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark. But Kya is not what they say. Abandoned at age ten, she has survived on her own in the marsh that she calls home. A born naturalist with just one day of school, she takes life lessons from the land, learning from the false signals of fireflies the real way of this world. But while she could have lived in solitude forever, the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. Drawn to two young men from town, who are each intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new and startling world--until the unthinkable happens. In Where the Crawdads Sing, Owens juxtaposes an exquisite ode to the natural world against a heartbreaking coming of age story and a surprising murder investigation."--
A friend of mine recommended the book to me. Not a story I'd have picked by myself. It was on my shelf for almost a year before I started to read it.
I should have started it way earlier. This is a book that made me happy.
The story is captivating. A coming of age story, a love story, a thriller, a way of life unimaginable for the most of us. I got pulled in the story and couldn't put it away.
I admired how sensitive the story is being told by the author. The thrill, the heartbeat, the rooting for the woman.
Won't include anything that could give away the story line. Just let me say that at no point I could have guessed the outcome.
After some time has passed I will watch the movie. So far, I heard good things about it.
Review of 'Where The Crawdads Sing' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
I liked this book. The whole time I was reading it I thought "yeah, it's good... it's not great though". So probably 3 stars. The amount of suspension of disbelief asked of the reader was ALMOST more than I was willing to bear. I mean, come on, truthfully, it was VERY unbelievable that a little girl would be able to live alone in the marshland. It was unbelievable that the town folk, the CHURCHES, the STATE would turn a blind eye to this little girl's well being for year after year. I mean, at least they could have dropped off some food, some supplies, whatever. Then when she learned how to read, draw, paint, author books, boat motor never broke down, house never needed dire repairs etc... was almost laughable to the point of ruining the whole thing.
But
I love nature. When I first went to college I was …
I liked this book. The whole time I was reading it I thought "yeah, it's good... it's not great though". So probably 3 stars. The amount of suspension of disbelief asked of the reader was ALMOST more than I was willing to bear. I mean, come on, truthfully, it was VERY unbelievable that a little girl would be able to live alone in the marshland. It was unbelievable that the town folk, the CHURCHES, the STATE would turn a blind eye to this little girl's well being for year after year. I mean, at least they could have dropped off some food, some supplies, whatever. Then when she learned how to read, draw, paint, author books, boat motor never broke down, house never needed dire repairs etc... was almost laughable to the point of ruining the whole thing.
But
I love nature. When I first went to college I was a biology major because I wanted to work for the national park system as a park naturalist. I love birds and wildlife, the flora and fauna of different regions, ecology, taxonomy all that. I can fully believe, since she had nothing else in here life to draw away her attention, the girl Kya fixating on the natural world and studying it closely. I mean her life depended upon it. So I DID like that part of the book a lot and hence my wanting to rate it 3 stars instead of the 2 that all that suspension of disbelief warranted.
But then again, I really liked the ending. I love the thought of making a life apart from the mainstream, quiet contemplation surrounded by nature. and then the very ending, the poem that explains it all, took me by surprise and was just perfect really so I bumped my rating up to 4 stars.
Now some people who are local to that area in North Carolina have issues with the dialect, the nearby cities and towns, etc. and that IS a legitimate gripe to have. Nothing pulls me out of a story quicker than these kinds of flaws of a thing or place that I am well familiar with. Like, author, do your damn homework! But being that I've never been to North Carolina, I was able to just go with the story without being slammed with the inconsistancies or falsehoods of setting.
So, yeah, I enjoyed it because it appealed to my particular personality and obviously my ignorance too. I can see how people could have trouble with this, but for me it worked.
This isn't the type of book I would normally read. My book club selected it. I almost abandoned it at several points early on. It finally engaged me slightly about a third of the way in. It's very well written. I admired that the entire time I was reading it. But it was SLOW!
The book tells the story of Kya, the "Marsh Girl". Her family lives in a shack in a North Carolina marsh. At age 6, her mother and most of her family abandon her. By age 7, her father abandons her too. The book follows her as she fends for herself and grows to adulthood. There are some relationships along the way, if you like that sort of thing. There's even an incident that may or may not be a crime. The latter part of the book revolves around that.
Overall, I don't regret reading …
This isn't the type of book I would normally read. My book club selected it. I almost abandoned it at several points early on. It finally engaged me slightly about a third of the way in. It's very well written. I admired that the entire time I was reading it. But it was SLOW!
The book tells the story of Kya, the "Marsh Girl". Her family lives in a shack in a North Carolina marsh. At age 6, her mother and most of her family abandon her. By age 7, her father abandons her too. The book follows her as she fends for herself and grows to adulthood. There are some relationships along the way, if you like that sort of thing. There's even an incident that may or may not be a crime. The latter part of the book revolves around that.
Overall, I don't regret reading it. I would have much preferred spending that time with a different book.
