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Where the Crawdads Sing,
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Lime
In addition to the other answers, another reason to dislike the ending is that it suddenly makes the depiction of the main character unreliable. Most of this book is written from Kya's point of view, so the ending casts doubt on everything that went before.
IvanOpinion
Well, murder is a sin (and a crime), but her only other real option was to wait for him to find her and, at best, rape and beat her. Probably kill her.
She would not have been believed by the sheriff about the attempted rape. Some people might have left town for ever, but she could not live anywhere except the marsh. I just don't see that she had any viable alternative.
She would not have been believed by the sheriff about the attempted rape. Some people might have left town for ever, but she could not live anywhere except the marsh. I just don't see that she had any viable alternative.
Laurel
In my mind, it was self-defense - not murder. He was never going to leave her alone. He would eventually rape her and/or kill her.
Mary Watson
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George
If, as the ever-ready Wikipedia declares, "Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse," then the killing was not morally or ethically a murder. As the punningly named IvanOpinion explains in their answer here.
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