Sunday 10 March 2019

Review: Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

How long can you protect your heart?

For 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.

Perfect for fans of Barbara Kingsolver and Karen Russell, 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.


Audible Audio, Unabridged , 13 pages
Published August 14th 2018 
Narrator: Cassandra Campbell
 Genre: Historical Fiction
Kristine's Thoughts:

I chose to listen to this book in audio format. I chose it because it was one of the finalists in the historical fiction category for the Goodreads books of 2018 and it was highly rated. When choosing an audio book I like the promise of a book I will love because they are not cheap and they are a pretty big time commitment.

My opinions on this book will not be popular. I am definitely in the minority although not completely alone in how I felt about it. This book was so scattered that it has made my thoughts scatter in the process.

Let me start out by saying that it was probably a good thing that I listened to it in audio format. There were so many times that I found myself thinking that if I were reading it in print I would probably give up on it. The narrator's accent, timing and inflection actually made some pretty terrible writing seem only slightly less terrible. By this I mean every part where there was any kind of dialogue or character interaction. It was all very weak and if I'm being completely honest it was painful. The author did a wonderful job with the descriptive parts and painted a wonderful and vivid portrait of the marsh but that was where it ended. It was like listening to two different stories written by two different people trying to blend into one. It was oil and water.

One of the things that annoyed me the most about this book was every single chapter involving the police leading up to the trial. I can't even begin to explain how horrible and really unnecessary they were. The dialogue was stunted and everything was over explained. The other thing that had me cringing was the constant Kya thought of a poem, was reminded of a poem, recalled a poem and recited a poem. Guess what? We then had to read (listen in my case) every single one of them. I really wish I had counted how many times that happened in the book. It was a lot. We even got all the lyrics to a song as a bonus. They did nothing for the story, even though poetry did play a key part in the book, but create speed bumps in the flow of the story.

I liked the premise of the story. There was great potential and I really did want to know what was going to happen. I just struggled a lot with the execution and some of the plot points to the point that I can't give it a great rating. I am definitely in the minority as it appears that most people enjoyed this book so I encourage you to form your own opinion.




About the Author
Delia Owens is the co-author of three internationally bestselling nonfiction books about her life as a wildlife scientist in Africa—Cry of the Kalahari, The Eye of the Elephant, and Secrets of the Savanna. She has won the John Burroughs Award for Nature Writing and has been published in Nature, The African Journal of Ecology, and International Wildlife, among many others. She currently lives in Idaho, where she continues her support for the people and wildlife of Zambia. Where the Crawdads Sing is her first novel.

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