Source: Purchased
Audible, 12+ hrs.
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Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, narrated by Cassandra Campbell, is my 9th book for the 12 books recommended by 12 friends. Kya Clark is a young girl living in the marshland of North Carolina in the 1950s and 1960s, but her home life is far from calm and loving. Many of her family abandon the marsh and her father, leaving her alone with a man who drinks too much, has a mercurial personality, and can be abusive. She grows up wild like the birds and fish around her, learning about the marsh from the marsh and learns how to fish and find muscles on her own, as she struggles to earn money to live after even her father abandons her.
As you might guess, this marsh girl is shunned by her school peers, forcing her to live in the marsh and evade truant officers. She shies away from town, except for Jumpin’s marina gas station and shop where she strikes deals for gas for the boat and other supplies, mostly grits. He and his wife care from her at a distance, as close as she will let them. Kya is an independent woman who fears everything outside the marsh. And rightly so.
The death of former football star Chase Andrews, however, thrusts Kya into the spotlight and at the center of a murder case, with her life hanging in the balance. I loved all of the poetry in the book. I love that Kya finds solace in poetry and uses it to get through some of her most trying times in this novel. Cassandra Campbell is an excellent narrator, as she dramatized each of the characters well and made them easy to differentiate.
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens is a sweeping tale, and I fell into it and out of it like the tides. Some of the longer descriptive sessions dragged on too long. But overall, I enjoyed the story and Kya’s coming of age story with the backdrop of the marsh and the predator-prey dynamic.
RATING: Quatrain
About the Author:
Delia Owens is an American author, zoologist, and conservationist. She is best known for her 2018 novel Where the Crawdads Sing. Owens was born and raised in Southern Georgia, where she spent most of her life in or near true wilderness.