WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING by Delia Owens

Where the Crawdads Sing is the debut novel of Delia Owens and has been a worldwide smash. Recently made into a film, I saw snippets of the film on a plane recently (I couldn’t hear anything) and it looked like a beautiful film, so I decided to read the

Where the Crawdads Sing is the debut novel of Delia Owens and has been a worldwide smash. Recently made into a film, I saw snippets of the film on a plane recently (I couldn’t hear anything) and it looked like a beautiful film, so I decided to read the book first. I am so glad I did so.

This book is set in North Carolina and follows the story of Kya, known in her town as The Marsh Girl. She lives out there alone and essentially raises herself, with the typical biases and judgments of the townspeople.

It is difficult to review this book in depth without giving away key plot points, but the story takes a dramatic turn when a young man who was the star quarterback at the local high school later turns up dead. Kya faces the prejudices of the community mourning it’s star and looking for a scapegoat.

There has been controversy around Where the Crawdads Sing, in particular in its depiction of black people in America. Some of these criticisms have merit, because this novel rarely deviates from the narrative of white = good and black = trash. That said, I think there is an effort, if not a strong enough one, to make the principal black characters of the novel supportive and kind to Kya. If anything, I’d argue that Owens reminds readers that the stereotypes around black people in the mid 20th century are wrong, even if only in the specific depiction of Jumpin and Mabel, rather than African Americans more broadly.

Notwithstanding the above, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book and the way I rooted for Kya to succeed despite the barriers she faced. I read it across several days while travelling across the world and it made for a terrific travel companion. I’m now looking forward to watching the film and assessing whether it meets to book’s intrigue.

This was a 4.5/5 star read for me - the half mark off in acknowledgement of some of the issues around race. Otherwise a terrific read.