Is "Where The Crawdads Sing" Worth The Hype? (spoiler free)
Updated: Aug 17, 2022
Hello readers and bibliophiles! Today is a very exciting post, I will be talking about Where The Crawdads Sing By Delia Owens. I recently read this, and had a lot of thoughts about it, and I decided to share, especially because this is such a popular book (almost 2 million ratings on Goodreads!!) and a lot of people may be on the fence about reading it! So, is Where The Crawdads Sing worth the hype? Let's talk about it.
What's It Even About Anyways? (Click arrow to open and close section)
For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet fishing village. Kya Clark is barefoot and wild; unfit for polite society. So in late 1969, when the popular Chase Andrews is found dead, locals immediately suspect her.
But Kya is not what they say. A born naturalist with just one day of school, she takes life's lessons from the land, learning the real ways of the world from the dishonest signals of fireflies. But while she has the skills to live in solitude forever, the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. Drawn to two young men from town, who are each intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new and startling world—until the unthinkable happens.
In Where the Crawdads Sing, Owens juxtaposes an exquisite ode to the natural world against a profound coming of age story and haunting mystery. Thought-provoking, wise, and deeply moving, Owens’s debut novel reminds us that we are forever shaped by the child within us, while also subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.
The story asks how isolation influences the behavior of a young woman, who like all of us, has the genetic propensity to belong to a group. The clues to the mystery are brushed into the lush habitat and natural histories of its wild creatures.
This book has gained a lot of hype for being "painfully beautiful" "haunting" "heartbreaking, gripping" and "lyrical" in multiple reviews. It also has a movie adaptation that just released! I've also seen it in multiple book recommendation videos for tropes such as "books I wish I could read for the first time again" and "books with the most beautiful writing" and so many more. Then, finally, one fateful random Sunday, I picked it up at Kroger!
I also secured the audiobook of it, because I had heard that the beginning was a bit slow, which was a lovely experience.
Overall
The whole thing was a 5 star for me! All those reviews that I mentioned a few paragraphs ago took the words right out of my mouth. It was such a beautiful story and the subplot of murder and the mystery was fascinating. Plus, the writing was amazing, Delia Owens could literally write her grocery list and I would eat that stuff up.
Plot
So, overall, this was a very character driven book, following Kya and her many adventures. As a result, the plot was very minimal, but still stunning. I honestly wouldn't be able to tell you what the plot is if you asked me, because the book alternated between two time periods, so there was kind of two plots going on? I'm not sure how to explain it, but I loved it.
I think it is appropriate to talk about the plot twist in this section. No spoilers, don't worry! The plot twist didn't come till towards the very very end. Like the last last last chapter. I was shook. Delia Owens knows how to shock the reader...oh my wow.
Characters
These characters!!!!!! Oh my goodness, they were so developed and rich in personality traits, flaws, moods, literally everything that makes fantastic characters. I hated the antagonist of this story so much. I loved Kya, like adored her. I was holding my breath during the whole book it felt like, hoping she didn't get even more hurt than she already has. These characters just had so much depth and I loved it.
So, Is It Worth The Hype?
Well, if you can't tell from my raving review, this book is worth the hype and more. That's all I have to say.
All right everyone! Thank you so very much for reading my little rant of this book. If you haven't read this book all the info is at the bottom of this post! If you have read this book. what did you think of it? Do you think it's worth the hype? I'd love to know!
Xoxo,
Opal
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