Summary by Goodreads:
For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life–until the unthinkable happens.
Perfect for fans of Barbara Kingsolver and Karen Russell, Where the Crawdads Sing is at once an exquisite ode to the natural world, a heartbreaking coming-of-age story, and a surprising tale of possible murder. Owens reminds us that we are forever shaped by the children we once were, and that we are all subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.
“I have to do life alone. But I knew this. I’ve known a long time that people don’t stay.”
My Thoughts:
The story of the Marsh Girl. A story of so much loss, loneliness, confusion, learning, secrets, becoming one with nature, and growing from a child into a woman. What a gorgeous whirlwind of a story. This mixture of a bildungsroman (a word I’ve loved since I learned it in my AP Literature high school class many years ago) and a mystery drew me in from the get go and kept me reading. I loved the subtle romances. I enjoyed reading about Kya’s ability to survive on her own, how to trade for food and other means of survival. I really, really loved reading about her growing into a woman and her discovery of her sexual desires. And the cherry on top was the mystery tied in, and the beautiful, sad, yet inspiring story line interweaved.
Kya embodies the human emotion of loneliness. She is the epitome of alone. No family. No friends. No community. Just her and her marsh. It’s interesting to see the toll being alone takes on a human. She has trouble communicating and forming sentences because she never has to talk to anybody, she doesn’t know how to create and maintain healthy relationships, and she hides at the sound of any other human approaching. Sometimes we feel alone, but we don’t understand true solitude like Kya does. But it inspired me. Kya embraces her loneliness. She realizes she can’t rely on others, only on herself. She realizes this is her life and she doesn’t want to be like everybody else. She teaches us that we can rely on ourselves, we can take care of ourselves, and we can create and sustain our own pure happiness from within. I’m currently going through a rough patch, a very lonely patch I would say. So reading this novel at this time really changed my perspective on things. Where the Crawdads Sing empowered me to be brave, to be smart, and to be at peace with myself and my solitude. To be the Marsh Girl isn’t bad. It’s an embodiment of the strength in being alone and strength in one’s self.
I love the message behind Kya or “the Marsh Girl.” She represents the mistreatment of “outcasts” of “minorities.” This novel shows that society made Kya feel alone. “Some people whispered that she was part wolf or the missing link between ape and man…. Yet in reality, she was only an abandoned child…but we didn’t help her…. Instead we labeled and rejected her because we thought she was different. But…did we exclude Miss Clark because she was different, or was she different because we excluded her? If we had taken her in as one of our own…we wouldn’t be prejudiced against her.” It was everybody treating her as something less than them, even though they’re all the same, they’re all humans, that caused her to feel so alone and so different. Where the Crawdads Sing showed the mistreatment of women and blacks (most of the story taking place from the 1950s to the 1970s) as well, but mostly showed it through the mistreatment of Kya. “Minorities” aren’t different from society, but society chose to isolate them, harass them, mistreat them. We see the toll it takes on someone as we see Kya’s story unfold.
I couldn’t put this book down—not even when my boss would turn the corner and catch me buried in a novel when I’m supposed to be bartending. I haven’t read a book this fast ever (other than when the seventh Harry Potter came out) and I also haven’t been as inspired by a book as I have been by this one.
This novel showed Kya’s whole life. Her hardships as a child, her hardships in love, her hardships as an adult, finding herself. It shows you what life is truly like and how things in your past can shape who you become. This novel doesn’t leave you with a happy ending, but it doesn’t leave you with a sad ending either. It leaves you with a real ending, which gives people insight and hope, showing them how life really is, that not every story has to be a fairytale and that your own story doesn’t have to be a fairytale.
“Illogical behavior to fill an emptiness would not fulfill much more. How much do you trade to defeat lonesomeness?”
I recommend this book to…
…everyone. When I posted that I had read this novel on Instagram I even had men responding and saying how amazing they thought this book was. “Kya is a badass,” one specifically said. I saw two young teenage girls in a book shop coming in to buy only this one book. When I was in line to buy this book I heard the girl in front of me talking about the “raging party” she would be going to later and she had this book in her hand to buy. A mother I work with, a super religious mother with three children, said she was reading this book in her book club. Anybody and everybody can benefit from this book, from the life lessons it brings and the inspiration it gives you. There are some mature, adult themes such as sex and abuse, but it’s all a part of life. It’s all that part of living that nobody talks about. It isn’t written in a shock-value sort of way or explicitly, but rather in a matter-of-fact way. Each and every word in this novel is important and well thought out. Reading it would only do you favors.
Comfort Guide:
Moderate swearing. Three uses of the “F” word but it is used when quoting the title of something. Several uses of the derogatory “N” word. Mildly explicit sexual scenes. Talk of breasts, thighs, and sexual feelings. Description of a woman becoming of age. Mild abuse scenes and a near rape scene.
Info:
Author – Delia Owens
Published – 2018
Page Count – 384