Where the Crawdads Sing

Hi! Welcome to the first episode of The Exploring Reader! This podcast is dedicated to help you save time choosing the next addition to your reading list. Feel free to skip some parts like the summary if you already know what the book is about and you wanna dive right into the review.

On this very first episode, I wanted to do a special book, a book that really had the potential to steer hesitant readers onto the path of becoming a true bookworm! For this reason, I decided to pick Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens published in 2018.

First off, this is Owens’ first fiction novel. She did previously write educational books about the African wildlife such as Secrets of the Savanna. Where the Crawdads Sing spent numerous weeks as a #1 New York Times Bestseller and it brought her the British Book Award, the Best Seller Award in Japan, and Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club pick. The famous actress even turned the novel into the 2022 film starring Daisy Edgar-Jones; the movie was so promising Taylor Swift jumped on board and created her original song “Carolina” specifically for the movie.

I am truly amazed by Owen’s ability to describe the marsh with such vivacity that it makes me want to live there with Kya.

So this is the story of Catherine Danielle Clark, also known as Kya. She gets slowly abandoned by her family as a child and has to teach herself to survive the North Carolina marsh. Consequently, she gets ostracized by her town and gains the name of “Marsh Girl”. As she becomes of age, Kya must fight the town’s prejudices against her when she gets accused of murdering Chase Andrews, the beloved town playboy. With the help of a few caring townsfolk, Miss Clark might just stand a chance at avoiding the death penalty.

Something that I like to know before reading any book is the level of violence and sexuality present. This book has mild levels of both: some physical violence like hitting and some sexual content like nudity.

Well, it’s finally time for the review! As you might have guessed from the intro, I really loved this book. I give it 5 out 5 stars hands down. I am truly amazed by Owen’s ability to describe the marsh with such vivacity that it makes me want to live there with Kya. Her use of metaphors is extraordinary and the setting is truly a character of its own. As for the plot, it didn’t feel dragged on and it was exciting to read even if it wasn’t very big on action and adventure. Kya is very unique and so she has a lot of depth and complexity that everyone can relate to her in some ways even if we don’t live the way she does. However, some characters were a bit stereotypical like Chase Andrews being the Golden boy/ladiesman/star quarterback. In some ways, I guess his stereotype played a role in the murder mystery plot and helped underline some ethnical and social class differences with other characters like Jumpin’, who’s a Black storeowner.

Delia Owen’s expertise of the natural world reflects in her work and makes it infinitely richer.

The murder mystery was very well executed and it didn’t feel forced or boring. Even if I had my assumptions about whether she truly killed Chase or not, I was never 100% sure. I’ll just finish by saying that Delia Owen’s expertise of the natural world reflects in her work and makes it infinitely richer.

Well that’s it! I hope you enjoyed this first episode and are considering Where the Crawdads Sing as your next read. I want to thank you for listening; if you want to join in the fun of the next episode on The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins, you can subscribe to stay informed of future postings.

Until our next literary journey, keep exploring those pages!