Book Club August 2020- Where the Crawdad Sings

By: Delia Owens
Published Year: 2018
Publisher: G.P Putnam & Sons
Pages: 384

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Summary (Provided by Goodreads): 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.

What I thought

I’m not going to do a summary on this book because, well, if you don’t know what it’s about or haven’t heard about it you’ve probably been living under a rock.

Nobody in our book club had read this book, even with all of the hype. We haven’t had the greatest luck with books that have topped the best seller lists, so I think that made all of us hesitant to pick this one up. Add in the fact that when reading the description it doesn’t exactly sound like something I would be into and I easily passed this one over a few times.

I’m so glad that Meghan finally picked it and forced us to read it. It was funny because one of the book club members had tried to read/listen to it a while ago and couldn’t get into it so she quit. She wasn’t very happy initially about having to re-start it but in the end was thankful that she was forced to give it a second chance because she enjoyed it much more the second time around and was happy to finish it.

Have you ever read a book that you can feel is going to be an immediate classic? There is something about it that reminds me a bit of To Kill a Mockingbird and I can easily pictures this book being taught in schools for years to come.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this story. There were definitely parts that made me angry. For example, Kya being abandoned by all of her family members at the age of 6, in addition to the way she was treated by the townspeople. There was a lot of prejudice and it was interesting to read about how different people dealt with it.

I enjoyed that the book flipped between the past and the “present” (meaning 1969). In the present chapters, the story was a murder mystery. I was intrigued because I love a good mystery and it was also fascinating to see how the past story was going to catch up to present day.

This book was a wonderful book club choice because there were so many points of discussion. One fun thing that I want to point out (thanks Stephanie!) is that there is a map at the beginning of the book. The only book club member that noticed it was Stephanie, so it was really fun to look at when we were all together.

Shockingly, this book does live up to the hype. The writing I beautiful and it is the first book in a very long time that I was unable to put down. I actually stayed up until 11:30 reading this book because I wanted to see how everything turned out. I haven’t had a book that has sucked me in like that in quite a long time. There is nothing that I could pick out from this book that I would complain about.