Where the Crawdads Sing in Pick-a-Shelf

Jan 20, 2020 Tara rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction, book-club, 2020-favorites

Amazing story! Well researched and i could not help but fall in love with the characters and their world.

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Jul 19, 2022 Allison Jenkins rated it did not like it

Shelves: did-not-finish

Good grief, I can't stand this book. I DNF'd - sorry if you liked it, but I don't.
I usually don't feel like I'm qualified to write a review when I DNF, but jeez.

My feelings on Kya:

I have read spoilers/summaries for this book and the plot sounds excellent. Unfortunately, Owens' execution did not work for me. Honestly, the author's own history is much more compelling. I'm a lot more interested in learning how that murder played out.

Alas, not every book is meant for every reader, nor can every auth ...more

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May 14, 2019 Lorna rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction-historical, fiction-literary, fiction-adventure-survival, mysteries

I was absolutely fascinated by this story of an abandoned child in the marshlands of the North Carolina coast. There is a murder mystery, coming of age, nature, and courtroom drama. The heroine is unforgettable. I feel the strength of the book lies in the author's descriptive writing, not only in the vivid portrayal of nature, but also the glimpse we get into the "bits and bones" of Kya's life and her longing for "a shred of a family". In the end though I believe the author goes a bit too far an ...more

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Feb 13, 2019 Katlyn rated it it was amazing

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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This book is an easy 5 stars, and one I will be thinking about for a while! Do you ever read books as an adult that take you back to the memory of reading a specific book you loved as a child? For me, this one called back Island of the Blue Dolphins. I remember reading about Karana surviving on that island alone- thinking that she was so tough and amazing, and I had that exact same feeling reading about Kya in the marsh. .
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I’ll admit, it took a while for me to get into this book. 74 ...more

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Dec 19, 2022 Kristina marked it as did-not-finish

Shelves: fiction, fiction-historical, fiction-mystery, fiction-literary, read-in-2022, eo-overrated, z-did-i-read-the-same-book

I know everyone loved this book, but it wasn't for me. I struggle with books that use dialects, particularly southern dialects. Sometimes I don’t notice it very much, but in some books, like this one, it’s just a huge distraction from what is actually being said. And even if I had persevered, there was something in the general tone that made me dislike it. I don't know, something about it seemed cliché early on, and I couldn't get excited to read it.

P.S.

I just read about the controversy surround ...more

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Mar 24, 2019 Sunflower rated it really liked it

Shelves: e-books, fiction-read-2019

I'm glad I hadn't read any of the hype about this book and came upon it without expectations. The story of survival against almost hopeless odds, a girl abandoned by everyone in her immediate family who learns how to keep going in a world that appears to be against her, is amazing. I appreciated the writing, and the descriptions of the natural environment, but the poetry not so much. A small twist at the end brings a wry smile. ...more

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Jul 06, 2023 Sabrina rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: family-relationships, coming-of-age, realistic-fiction, mystery, mystery-crime, relationships, read-in-2023, 52in52weeks2023, pbtsubdue2023, marsh

I will admit that when I picked up this book to read that I was worried it would not live up to the hype. Well, I was wrong, and it did.

Where the Crawdads Sing is a beautiful story about humanity that touches on the most base and unkind aspects of human nature and the kindest and most thoughtful aspects. It's a book about family, love, loss, abandonment, hope, and healing.

Kya (Catherine Danielle Clark), at age 5 or 6 (she's not really sure how old she is) watches one morning as her mother walks I will admit that when I picked up this book to read that I was worried it would not live up to the hype. Well, I was wrong, and it did.

Where the Crawdads Sing is a beautiful story about humanity that touches on the most base and unkind aspects of human nature and the kindest and most thoughtful aspects. It's a book about family, love, loss, abandonment, hope, and healing.

Kya (Catherine Danielle Clark), at age 5 or 6 (she's not really sure how old she is) watches one morning as her mother walks down the dirt/gravel lane from their shack in her faux alligator pumps. Not once does her mother turn to look or wave goodbye, which Kya finds unusual, and her mother never returns. Eventually, Kya's older siblings abandon her too and she's left with her drunken and abusive father, who has a few moments of kindness for Kya, but then, he too eventually leaves to never return.

Kya is isolated and alone but is a survivor; she fends for herself, hides from those who try to find her to send her to school, and essentially raises herself in the marsh that she probably knows better than anyone else. Because of her behavior and only fleeting sightings of her from those in town, she becomes known as the Marsh Girl and rural legends build up about her.

Interwoven with Kya's story is the story of the death of a local "golden boy", who was the star quarterback in high school. His death appears to have occurred under mysterious circumstances, and the local sheriff begins to investigate the death as something more than a tragic accident. Town prejudices against "swamp trash" like Kya (according to those who live in town) soon lead to more suspicion.

While the story for many seems implausible that a young girl could have raised herself from nearly the age of 6 or 7 (despite her father's presence at that time) without eventually being found and taken into the care of social services, I was partially raised in the South, but not in the swamps or the marshy coastline of the Carolinas. I was raised in the foothills of Appalachia where families live back in the woods on ridges and hollars, and where people can hide out from the more "civilized and modern" world; where people disappear and are hard to find if they don't want to be found. So, the implausibility that many see with this story wasn't all that implausible to me.

The nature writing and the descriptions of swamp life, the birds, and the tides kept me hooked and were truly fascinating. To see the contrast of how Kya and other who lived in those areas see the swamp versus how those who don't have their homes there was one of the most interesting aspects of the book. Kya saw the marsh and the swamp for it's whole beauty, and relied on the living breathing ecosystem of the area as a fundamental part of her life. She was the marsh.

I was also especially pleased with how many of the minor characters, especially those who Kya began to trust and rely on and protect as much as they protected her, were developed throughout the book.

This was a solid 4 star read for me. ...more

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