From the Bookshelf of Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge…

Where the Crawdads Sing

Delia Owens

Start date: November 1, 2020

Finish date: November 30, 2020

Discussion: 2020 Monthly Reads

Why we're reading this: November 2020 group read choice for "by or about a woman in STEM"…more
[close] November 2020 group read choice for "by or about a woman in STEM"

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2020 Monthly Reads

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What Members Thought

Feb 01, 2019 Piepie | The Napping Bibliophile rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2019, page-and-screen, historical, read-in-2022

Hauntingly beautiful. I'm so glad I read this one. The ending was perfect. ...more

13 likes · Like · see review

Jun 24, 2019 Joanna rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: bookclub-grasslands, audiobooks, 2019-read, rws-2019-summer

Enjoyable, but not worthy of the amount of hype and excitement the book has garnered. The descriptions of the marsh and the love and examination of the marsh flora and fauna were lovely and the book held my attention for that. The murder mystery was simplistic and predictable and the court case ill-formed. I liked the idea of the main character--fearless, resilient, overcoming the odds--but found it hard to suspend disbelief. Often, the way she talked and/or reacted to situations showed a level ...more

5 likes · Like · see review

Aug 11, 2019 Jen Ifer's Inklings rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audio-books, read-in-2019, popsugar-2019-reading-challenge

This book is worth all the hype. It’s a story about love and family and abandonment and survival.

3 likes · Like · see review

May 23, 2020 Beth Given rated it liked it

Shelves: audio

As a child, Kya Clark is abandoned by her mother, her older siblings, and finally her neglectful father, growing up in the marsh in near isolation. She is the very definition of grit and determination, and readers can’t help but root for her. Over time she learns to survive — and even thrive as her friend Tate teaches her to read and study the marsh that she loves.

This coming-of-age story is entwined with a murder mystery. Lots of courtroom drama toward the end.

I put off reading this book becaus ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Oct 15, 2020 Graceann rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: general-fiction, popsugar-2020, reading-women-2020

I can see why this is a marmite sort of book; people who love it *really* love it, and people who don't - yikes. I enjoyed it immensely, though it started off a bit slow for me (thus four stars instead of five), but I thought it was beautifully written and that there was a compelling story there, along with a message or two.

Kya Clark has been abandoned by everyone. First her mother, then one by one, the rest of the relatives. Unable to read, hiding from the authorities who would remove her from I can see why this is a marmite sort of book; people who love it *really* love it, and people who don't - yikes. I enjoyed it immensely, though it started off a bit slow for me (thus four stars instead of five), but I thought it was beautifully written and that there was a compelling story there, along with a message or two.

Kya Clark has been abandoned by everyone. First her mother, then one by one, the rest of the relatives. Unable to read, hiding from the authorities who would remove her from her home and put her in school where she can be bullied in person rather than whispered about from afar, she lives a hand-to-mouth, skittish existence. Since Crawdads is not written in a linear fashion, this portion of Kya's life in the 1950s and 1960s is contrasted with the current day, wherein the local football hero, now a married man and still admired, has just been found dead at the bottom of a water tower.

So we have the juxtaposed bildungsroman of Kya going from girl to young lady to woman, and a murder mystery. It was unclear at first how these two storylines would converge, but when they did, I found that it was worth the wait.

We see the harm that can be caused by "othering" someone because they don't live the same kind of life that you do. It did not go unnoticed by me that the only people who are nice to Kya, initially, are folks who are also treated as "lesser than." We also see how a person can be helped to blossom if we can help them in the way they need to grow, rather than demanding that they grow in only the direction we're willing to guide.

Finally, a word about the atmosphere of Crawdads. Kya is keenly aware of and in tune with the natural environment that surrounds her - the animals, the plants, the tides; they are all made tangible by Delia Owens' writing style. For those who live in coastal North Carolina, where the story is set, I imagine this would be incredibly evocative. As it was, I was consistently reminded of the sights, sounds and scents of the marshes on St. Simons Island in Georgia. It felt a little like a vacation, even if events in the story were sometimes anything but restful. ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Nov 12, 2019 Dana rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: moms-club-book-club

I enjoyed this much more than I expected to. It may not be a literary masterpiece, but it was easy to get through and a great book to curl up with. It stuck with me long after I was done. Kya is a memorable character and the setting on the North Carolina coast acts as a character in the story. The mystery that provides the book its structure has a fairly satisfying resolution.

1 like · Like · see review

Dec 16, 2018 Amy Ellis rated it really liked it

I really enjoyed this story of “the Marsh Girl”. I loved reading the descriptions of the Marsh and the sweet love story contained in it. It is also partly a murder mystery, which I found interesting but kind of overkilled (ha).

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May 03, 2021 Cari rated it liked it

Shelves: kindle-read, book-club, popsugar-2021

This book was engaging, fun, quick read. I really enjoyed the author's prose and all the descriptions of the marsh - made me feel like I could really sink into it. The plot carried me along, but was not inspired. Fiction is about suspending disbelief, but this book really pushed the limits of my "go with it" temperament. I don't want to add spoilers - suffice to say that the main character's progression, along with the society she lived within, throughout the novel was a bit much. And the "surpr ...more

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Sep 03, 2019 Jaz rated it liked it

This is such a beloved book that I hate that it wasn't a 5-star read for me. It's beautifully, lyrically written, and I will definitely read more by this author, but the story didn't capture me, and the characters felt one dimensional. ...more

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