#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING PHENOMENONMore than 6 million copies soldA Reese Witherspoon x Hello Sunshine Book Club PickA Business Insider Defining Book of the Decade “I can’t even express how much I love this book! I didn’t want this story to end!”–Reese Witherspoon“Painfully beautiful.”–The New York Times Book ReviewFor years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet … years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life–until the unthinkable happens.
Where the Crawdads Sing is at once an exquisite ode to the natural world, a heartbreaking coming-of-age story, and a surprising tale of possible murder. Owens reminds us that we are forever shaped by the children we once were, and that we are all subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.
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Exceptional writing and a brilliant story. I felt Kya’s isolation – I felt her longing to be included – I felt her passion for nature – I felt her loves and I felt her pain. Written with such detail as to capture each stage of her life – this is an exquisite book about the Marsh Girl.
I will probably read it all over again.
I finally found the time to read this book, and I’m glad I did. Owens brings nature to life using beautiful lyrical language in this haunting tale. And Kya’s story is one that latches on and doesn’t let go. The historical details are woven into the story very well. One of the best aspects of the novel to me was experiencing nature through Kya’s eyes. The other characters who come into the story are believable, and as you read, you feel both the beauty and the tragedy of Kya’s life.
Just a sample of the language you’ll fall in love with: “The shack sat back from the palmettos, which sprawled across sand flats to the necklace of green lagoons and, in the distance, all the marsh beyond. Miles of blade-grass so tough it grew in saltwater, interrupted by trees so bent they wore the shape of the wind. Oak forests bunched around the other sides of the shack and sheltered the closest lagoon, its surface so rich in life it churned. Salt air and gull-song drifted through the trees from the sea.”
I rated the book four stars because the premise, in which a girl has lived alone for years and no one intervenes, is rather implausible. But once you start reading, you probably won’t care. In addition, some slips about nature, even what environment crawdads live in, might give you pause, but the writing will nevertheless keep you reading.
I know I am late to read this book but I finally found the time and am so glad that I did. This is a beautifully written coming of age story set in the swamps at the NC coast. The author’s writing about daily life in the swamps and the animals and birds that live there is exquisite to the point that the reader feels that they are there with the characters.
Kya and her family live in a small home in the marsh cut off from the town and civilization in general. When she was 6, her mom walked away and never came back. Several years later, her dad also left and never came back so she was left on her own. She only went to school one day and was harassed so much that she never went back. A local boy, Tate, met her when they were fishing and taught her how to read. When he went away to college, she was alone again – yearning for connection with people but afraid to go out into society. This the story of Kya’s life with all of the joy and sorrow involved.
This was a beautiful book and I highly recommend it. It’s a debut novel by Delia Owens and I look forward to her future novels.
Where the Crawdads Sing is a story of strength and survival and the human longing for connection. The book combines a unique coming of age story with a murder mystery that provides a truly satisfying twist. However, the point of the tale isn’t the detecting, it’s the connecting.
The book takes place in the marshlands of North Carolina and moves back and forth in time from the 1950s to the 1970s. Kya, the lead character, is a six-year-old girl whose mother, for reasons not immediately made clear, has left the family. Soon after, Kya’s much older siblings also depart the primitive shack where they live deep in the marsh, forced away by the brutal behavior of their alcoholic father.
For a time, unreliable and cruel though he is, he grudgingly—and sporadically—provides food for Kya but little else. Eventually, he too abandons her. Kya, armed only with her father’s boat, and her own knowledge of the marsh—its waterways, its weather, its creatures and its spirit—finds ways to survive. The marsh and the birds and animals who inhabit it are to her a surrogate family. But she longs for human connection as well. Reaching out to find it in the nearby village of Barkley Cove, she is rebuffed and reviled by all but a few—Jumpin’ and his wife Mabel, residents of Colored Town, and Tate, a kindhearted boy a little older than her. Kya might remind you a little of Scout in To Kill A Mockingbird—if Scout’s family had abandoned her, and people alternately ignored and tormented her because she was one of the “marsh people,” unworthy of respect or dignity
As the book progresses, the reader sees Kya mature from a child to a young woman of twenty-four. The writing that carries us on the journey is lovely and evocative. For example: “Months passed, winter easing gently into place, as southern winters do. The sun, warm as a blanket, wrapped Kya’s shoulders …” “Pushing against the sea’s strong body, she is grasped, held. Not alone.”
I love a book that puts me firmly in a place I’ve never been, that evokes a way of life I’ve never known, that gives me new ways to think about old ideas of love and family and friendship. The murder that occurs in the story is a mystery worth solving, but unlike the situation in a traditional murder mystery the killing is not the cause of the story. Rather it’s the seemingly inevitable outgrowth of it.
Where the Crawdads sing is a wonderful book, well worth a reader’s time.
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The story in this book is really good – a young girl abandoned in the marsh of North Carolina mid-century. It’s a Reese Witherspoon bookclub selection, so you know it’s good! But a caution: the book is written with a heavy dialect.
Had to love the main character.
Lyrical and hypnotic. Owens is a dream weaver.
Not finished yet, but loving this read!
What an adventure that was. The narration was so good I easily got lost in this audiobook’s world. The story was so simple and yet so complex. The characters were amazing, by the end of the book I felt like. they were family. Seriously how many books leave you feeling that way ?
We follow a young girl, a swamp girl who from a very young age is abandoned by her parents to live alone in the swamp. She suffers, but never quits, at 7 she figures out how to get the basics. The adults in town thing she’s a dirty marsh thing and want nothing to do with her. She spends one horrible day at school before running back to the swamp where noting hates her. Years pass, she’s alone except for one boy and an older couple outcasts in a different way. The boy teaches her to read and sets her life on fire. She takes that lesson and feeds it. Her life and her love of the swamp are such bitterly beautiful. I loved this story, and don’t think I’ll ever forget the Marsh girl. There was so much pain, love, suffering, happiness, and beauty.
You’re immediately drawn in to the story by the intriguing characters and how their lives are intertwined. Fast read because I couldn’t put it down.
This book came highly recommended and did not disappoint. The writing was just beautiful and the setting one in which I found myself immersed. You will fall in love with the Marsh Girl as she falls in and out of love and sets off on a journey that will change her and those around her forever.
This lovely and beautifully written book touched my heart and warmed my spirit. It brings out the basic emotions in all of us. I will never forget Kya.
I’m a sucker for smooth writing and strong settings, so I was taken by the lush prose and the creative use of real knowledge of the Carolina marshes. A lovely debut with artful storytelling.
Beautifully written and a excellent read for a debut novel. I listened to this one on audio and enjoyed the narration. Fell in love with the marsh and Kyras journey and really liked the ending!
Author Delia Owens is a wildlife scientist and an award-winning nature writer. Although Where the Crawdads Sing is her debut novel in fiction, the world of writing is not foreign to her and it shows. Her experience in both nature and the written word swims through the pages of this novel and pulls the reader into a wild North Carolina marshland where isolation makes way for an entire new world. Kya Clark (aka The Marsh Girl) was left to fend for herself at a young age. She survived but not without considerable consequence. Who needs people when you have an entire ecosystem humming with life at your front door. Alone and neglected, Kya has developed into an urban legend of sorts, a ghostly rumor, a challenge for young men, and ultimately a woman of impressive strength and quiet vulnerability who has come to prefer her life in the marsh. It is her home. That is until an alleged murder points straight to her. Wide open spaces are exchanged for a jail cell, and we all know how wild things fare in a cage. Her freedom lay in the hands of a small town that has helped and harmed. What will they decide?
Where the Crawdads Sing is a story about abandonment, loss, love, trust, hope, betrayal, and second chances. But ultimately, it’s about the survival of the fittest. Following Kya’s character was an amazing experience and I loved every second. Likewise, Mother Earth was also a living, nurturing, and incredibly palpable character in this story, and I loved her equally, if not a little more. With beautiful writing, well-organized time frames, a gorgeous setting, and lessons about life that only nature can give, Where the Crawdads Sing is a must-read. Seriously, check it out.
Fantastic read!
Still weeping at the beauty of the human heart. Cried through the book, drained. Found and felt the intense loneliness and longing in my own soul.
This book involves a young girl who is abandoned in the marshes by everyone she loved. Here pain wrapped around my heart and took my breath away. So lonely, isolated, rejected, abused, and made an outcast, she says away from everyone. No spoilers! Comes out in 2019. Read this!
An incredible, coming-of-age story set in the marshes of North Carolina that reads like poetry and haunts the reader long after the last page is read.
Oh man, this is right up there with not only one of my most cherished books of the year. It’ll also have a place in my heart and memory as one of my favorite books ever. Entertaining, profoundly moving, achingly beautiful prose that skirts poetry at times, unique, flawed, and all-too-human characters, and a mesmerizing sense of place all add up to literary gold. Highly recommended!
In 6 year old Kya’s experience, everyone leaves. Her siblings fled, leaving her with deeply troubled parents. Her abused mother walked away, stumbling a bit on the crocodile skin heels she favored, until she was swallowed by the shadows at the end of the lane outside their ramshackle cabin. Left in a marsh situated along a North Carolina coast, eventually even her drunken father abandoned her. Yet somehow, Kya survived in the wetland she loved, among the birds and the insects with whom she felt kinship and took lessons. From the folk of the nearby town, she endures prejudice and experiences kindness. But when the one-time star football player is found dead, a murder investigation embroils Kya, the shy “Marsh Girl” in suspicion.
Delia Owens’ novel “Where the Crawdads Sing” provides a rich, almost tactile coming of age tale told as a mystery and a fantastic survival story. It touches on classism, racism, and sexism. Owens weaves biology lessons into the lush prose, tips in a sprinkling of poetry, and stirs it with a tear-jerking courtroom drama that leaves readers longing to see if Barkley Cove, NC is a real place.