Published Date: August 14, 2018
Publishing Co.: G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Pages: 384
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Where the Crawdads Sing is undoubtedly, beautifully written. The descriptions of the land, wildlife, and ecosystems bring the narrative to life, both entertaining and educating you in one finely weaved tapestry of the environment.
Kya’s family is what the town calls Swamp Trash. They’re not treated as part of the community, but like strangers to be whispered about behind their backs. One by one, as family members slowly disappear, young Kya is left in a small shack in the marshlands of North Carolina. No one in the community tries to help her. None of them care, they just grab their children and walk in the other direction. Everyone except two boys, one the son of a ship’s captain, the other the town’s star quarterback and the black man who runs the dock where people in the swamp gas their boats. Why is it important that I mention that he’s black? This is set in the 1950’s and the racism was flagrant back then. So when the white people of the town turn their backs on a small white child, but a poor black man steps up and helps her survive, I think it’s worth pointing out. People are good people based solely on their character, nothing else.
When the quarterback mysteriously dies at the bottom of a fire tower, the town once again begins whispering about the Marsh Girl and his secret relationship with her. The son of a prominent family, half the town swears she’s guilty and they’ll vow it in a court of law. Not for the first time, Kya is fighting for her life.
While I did enjoy reading this, I felt that the plot was drawn out for far too long. Which, when you think about it, is pretty impressive for a book that’s only 384 pages long. So my final verdict is; read it if you want, it is enjoyable but, it’s not something I’m going to be thrusting at people I know and insisting that they read it.
cupcakesandmachetes 
I felt the exact same way! Towards the end, I just got so sick and tired of Kya being dumped on by literally everyone who has ever come into contact with her. I think the author is beautifully descriptive, but I don’t understand the hype surrounding this book.
Yeah, either do I. It’s not bad but it’s certainly not amazing. The best thing about it is the descriptive writing about nature.
This one was SO hyped, I feel like I’ve seen it everywhere. It sounds like it was easy to get caught up in the descriptive writing and ignore that the rest of it wasn’t so stellar.
I would agree with that 100%. Because of the hype, I was expecting something really special and it was just alright. The plot line wasn’t anything all that special or surprising.
I’m planning to read it next month! 😀
Hope your next read will be better! I get that feeling sometimes with short books that they are just “too long”. Haha. Kinda weird, but it happens.
Hopefully you enjoy it more than I did! Nothing wrong with it but the hype had me really expecting something special.
Nice review! 🙂 It’s too bad it took so long to pick up. Sounds like an interesting read otherwise.
Thank you because the review was really hard to write when it was kind of, meh.