Where the Crawdads Sing (Movie Tie-In) by Delia Owens on June 28, 2022
Genres: Fiction / Coming of Age, Fiction / Literary, Fiction / Women
Pages: 480
Format: Paperback
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“She knew the years of isolation had altered her behavior until she was different from others, but it wasn’t her fault she’d been alone. Most of what she knew, she’d learned from the wild. Nature had nurtured, tutored, and protected her when no one else would.”
The story follows two timelines that slowly intertwine. The first timeline describes the life and adventures of a young girl named Kya as she grows up isolated in the marshes of North Carolina. Kya Clark, otherwise known to the townspeople of Barkley Cove as the Marsh Girl, is mysterious and wild. The second timeline follows an investigation into the apparent murder of Chase Andrews, a local celebrity of Barkley Cove. When the town hotshot is found dead, and inexplicably linked to Kya, the Marsh Girl is the prime suspect in his murder case.
This isn’t a book of deep psychological insight. You can probably guess from a couple of chapters in how it will end. This book is just a pile of tropes and cliches dressed up in some nice nature writing. The plot is not much of a plot and the mystery makes up only a small section of the book, and much of it ends up being courtroom scenes and not much mystery. It became less interesting the longer I read. Because Kya doesn’t act like a person who has been almost entirely isolated. She just acts like a regular loner. I was frustrated that the book had spent so long telling me how different she was only to have her be just the same as most people.
The more time that passed the more I got annoyed with this book, so it finally fell from 3-stars to a rare 2.5-star review. If you’re going to give me a plot I’ve seen a thousand times, at least wrap it in some keen insight or character development. But sadly, this was a failure for me all around. Hopefully the movie will be better, if I get around to watching it.