Where the Crawdads Sing

4.9/5

Where the Crawdads Sing

Delia Owens

Perhaps one of the best books that I’ve ever read, Where the Crawdads Sing, tells the story of the Marsh Girl, who grows up entirely wild and isolated in the marshes of North Carolina, encountering love and death in her maturation.

The first part of the book describes a tumultuous family situation. Kya’s mother begins the story by leaving her husband and abandoning her children to be raised by a drunkard. Slowly, her four older siblings tick off the list, as they leave the home for various reasons. Kya is left alone with her father, experiencing the woes and hopes of alcoholism at the hands of her father. The tense relationship abates sometimes when she begins a romantic relationship with a boy named Tate, until he leaves for college.

Ostracized by her society, Kya enters into a relationship with Chase Andres, the local quarterback and golden child until she finds out of his engagement. Tate returns to once more confess his love to Kya, which complicates matters when Kya is confronted by Chase. After attempting to rape her, Chase comes to an untimely end.

The following story is one of the best written mysteries and revelations I’ve read. Chase is murdered. The town begins a wild witch hunt searching for his killer. While immediately, all fingers point to the Marsh Girl, as an easy scapegoat, Kya is arrested, but did she really kill Chase? Could a young, misunderstood girl be capable of such a cold blooded crime?

We just needed to find out. The twists and turns in the last fifty pages of the story are akin to Tate’s boat speeding across the marshes. They made me wish that my eyes read faster. To date, this is one of the best twists I’ve encountered so far.