Book Review: Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

 

★★★★☆ - Four Stars

I avoided this book for ages.

Not because I thought I wouldn't like it.

Because everybody else seemed to love it.

There comes a point with massively hyped books when I become slightly suspicious. You see them in every bookshop. Everyone in your reading group has read them. Your neighbour has read them. Somebody you haven't spoken to since 2009 suddenly appears on Facebook to announce they've read them.

Eventually, curiosity wins.

So I finally met the Marsh Girl.

And yes.

I understand what all the fuss was about.

Where the Crawdads Sing takes us to the marshlands of North Carolina, where Kya Clark grows up almost entirely alone. One by one, the members of her family leave until the marsh becomes both her home and her teacher. The people in nearby Barkley Cove know about Kya, but they don't really know her. To them, she's simply the strange, barefoot ‘Marsh Girl’ who lives beyond respectable society.

Then, in 1969, local golden boy Chase Andrews is found dead.

And everyone knows exactly who they want to blame.

What surprised me was how slowly this book unfolds.

I had somehow got it into my head that Where the Crawdads Sing was primarily a murder mystery.

It isn't.

There is a murder mystery, and it becomes increasingly important, but much of the novel is Kya's story: a lonely little girl growing into a fiercely independent young woman while surrounded by people who have already decided what sort of person she is.

Some readers have found that pace frustrating, particularly the long passages devoted to the marsh and its wildlife. That's one of the recurring criticisms amongst the otherwise enormously positive reader response.

I can understand it.

There is a lot of nature.

Birds.

Feathers.

Shells.

Insects.

Water.

Mud.

More birds.

If you're waiting impatiently for someone to get on with solving the murder, you may occasionally find yourself wondering why you're learning quite so much about marsh ecology.

But I rather liked it.

The marsh doesn't feel like scenery that's been placed behind the characters. It feels alive. Sometimes beautiful, sometimes dangerous and frequently indifferent to whatever the humans happen to be doing.

It is also the one thing that never abandons Kya.

And Kya is what made the book work for me.

Her childhood is heartbreaking, although there were moments when I had to stretch my belief rather further than I would normally like. A very young child surviving virtually alone for years, earning money, feeding herself and somehow avoiding the authorities requires a fairly generous suspension of disbelief.

I gave it.

Mostly.

Because emotionally, I believed in her.

Every time Kya allows somebody a little closer, you know how much it costs her. She desperately wants human connection but has learnt from childhood that people leave.

So when Tate enters her life and begins teaching her to read, it matters.

When Chase takes an interest in her, that matters too.

And when people hurt her...

Well.

I became rather protective of the Marsh Girl.

The romance elements were actually less interesting to me than Kya herself. What I loved was watching this supposedly uneducated and worthless girl reveal just how intelligent and observant she really is.

Everyone has underestimated her.

Repeatedly.

That was tremendously satisfying.

Then the murder investigation starts tightening around her.

The second half moved much faster for me, particularly once the courtroom scenes began. Suddenly all those quieter chapters about Kya's isolation matter because we understand precisely how the town sees her.

Is she being judged on the evidence?

Or because she is the Marsh Girl?

I had opinions.

Quite loud ones.

The novel has certainly connected with readers. It currently has a Goodreads average of around 4.37 stars from more than 3.7 million ratings, although the reviews also show a sizeable minority who found the story implausible or the descriptive prose too slow.

And I think that's fair.

There are things here that don't bear too much examination. There were coincidences I questioned and moments when Kya's abilities seemed almost too convenient.

But then I'd find myself back in the marsh with her and stop caring quite so much.

And the ending?

I'm saying nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

I will merely say that I closed the book, stared at it for several seconds and then went:

"Oh."

Followed shortly afterwards by:

"OH."

Which is always preferable to finishing a mystery and thinking, Well, that was obvious.

Was Where the Crawdads Sing perfect?

No.

Did I believe every single thing that happened?

Also no.

But did I become completely invested in this strange, lonely girl living amongst the gulls and grasses of the North Carolina marsh?

Absolutely.

Perhaps I should stop avoiding books just because everybody else loves them.

Although I'm making no promises.