Book Review: Where the Crawdads Sing (OT)(North Carolina swamps, girl)

Where the Crawdads* Sing, by Delia Owens (Random  House, Reese's Book Club, $18, 2021, 400pp PB, New York Times Bestselling Author)

Where the Crawdads Sing has probably been on your list to read for a long time: my advice is to read it. Now. Especially if you love, and who doesn't - To Kill a Mockingbird.

This reviewer read the large print version so she could read it better in bed at night, in low light. It was still a long book but a short read in that this book simply grasps you and doesn't let go yet, at the same time, it is smooth.

Kya, the March Girl, is left to fend for herself in the swamps at a young age and manages somehow to not only survive but, though terribly shy, to thrive. Author Delia Owens must have either grown up near the North Carolina swamps or perhaps she is an environmentalist, for she gets things right: the bird feathers, the grasses, navigating the coastline and interconnected islands, the shells. How she manages to also make Kya's story so captivating that we want to meet her shows her true skill as a first-time novelist.

The Plot

Kya raises herself, teaches herself to cook (mostly grits), which birds to befriend, which mushrooms to eat, as she spends her days collecting shells and oftentimes, before dawn, gathering mussels to sell to the black man in town. People know about Kya - the kids her age who taunt her for not knowing how to read, and a few adults who take her under their wing, and a couple of boys. One teaches her how to read and shares nature while the other merely takes. And then Kya is recognized for being a naturalist but one of 'her' boys is found dead and so, a trial ensues. 

The Magic of the Writing Style

Owens manages to modify the conversations according to who is speaking and, for Kya, her grasp of English grammar is mirrored as she reads biology textbooks for the more she educates herself, the better her speech becomes. 

*crawfish, crayfish, freshwater crustaceans

And one of the biology books she mentions was written by a professor where I did my undergraduate work!