Where the Crawdads Sing – Audiobook read with husband and finished on 5/20/20 in quarantine.
With all the hype around this book, I was excited to escape to the marshy best seller. This novel followed the female lead Kya through her life, highlighting the few highs and many lows. The second half of Where the Crawdads Sing focuses on a court case to prove her innocence against a murder charge on a local former high school quarterback.
I enjoyed the imagery Delia Owens evoked, and my husband and I were excited to hear the next installment of our nightly routine. It’s plot line was intriguing, but there were times I wished the author hadn’t turned to such worn phrases such as “whispers along her thigh” or "quivers in desire" which Owens herself used twice in the same book.
Also, my husband had to cover his ears as I often shouted, “You’re going to let a child just go live by herself?” at Jumpin, Mabel, Tate and Tate’s Dad, pretty much every other character in the book. Why did no one call Child Protective Services? The truant officer tried, but more resources could have been used to find her instead of writing her off as a person.
I am also familiar with instances where Child Protective Services does not always end up doing what’s best for the child, no matter how noble their intentions. Kya would have hid from CPS to ensure her freedom and marsh access. It would have been terrible for her to have to uproot and roll the dice on being placed with a family who understood her. But how can Mabel give a menstruating young girl a bag of pads, tell her welcome to womanhood, and send her back to her shack? Why didn’t they have her stay at Jumpin and Mabel’s house? It was a point of contention that doesn’t matter in the scheme of things but brought me out of the story many times.
After reading the book, I was grateful for the satisfying confirmations at the end. No loose ends here.
It seems the first two things readers want to know after finishing Crawdads is if it’s a true story and when the movie is coming out. At this time the official word is the film is in it’s early stages. I’d bet there will be a longer delay because of covid-19 making production impossible, but hopefully the extra time is spent developing the setting of the book, which is almost a character onto itself.
In regards to the true story bit, the answer is grey. The Owens Family lived in Zambia where they routinely fought off poachers in an effort to protect the Elephants. But much like Kya, they also took conservation efforts as far as even caring for the local fauna. There is no evidence to support the claim, but after a video a poacher being shot to death started circulating, the Owens Family was asked in for questioning. Instead, they came to United States and never went back. You can read more details about this event HERE.
Personally, I am much more interested in the Owens story than Kya’s. Obviously, Owens drew from some of her own passions when writing but that in no way is a confirmation of guilt. I would love a companion book, “Kya and I” that is more biographical of Owens and the ways she connects with Kya. Even more than that, I’d love to know if hidden away somewhere in the Owens family home is a necklace, perhaps one with an ivory tusk pendant.
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