Book Review: Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

I was late to the party on this book. I only read it because I enjoyed the film and was surprised to find that I like them equally for the same reasons.

Kya, an abandoned child, lives in her parents home in a North Carolina marsh. The nearby town ignores her except for a lovely black couple who serve as parental figures and Tate, a boy of her own age who spends his extra time fishing in the marsh. When she grows up and falls in and out of love with Tate when he breaks a promise to her, she ends up accused of murder Chase, a man who she had a relationship with before he married someone else.

This book, much like the movie, jumps back and forth between Kya’s murder trial and how she grew up, including the events that led to rumors of her supposed love affair with Chase. It works because the past always seems to connect to her present. Her abandonment trust issues are ever present even as her friends support her while the rest of the town demands a guilty verdict. Even after she is acquitted, the majority of the townspeople demand justice as Kya moves back to her quiet life in the marsh.

I’m about to get spoilery so if you plan on reading the novel and don’t want it spoiled, stop reading now. At the end of the book, the reader finds out that Kya did in fact murder Chase for she feared for her life. He did try to rape her after all and showed no sign of leaving her alone. Some dislike this ending, but a woman is allowed to defend herself when the world has abandoned her so the ending isn’t one that bothers me.

I enjoy the book and the movie equally, so if you enjoyed one, you will like the other.