Where the Crawdads Sing is the most recent book I’ve read. My husband, Wayne, had been encouraging me to download the Kindle version as we share our libraries. Wayne is an avid book reader and Amazon consumer. He is largely responsible for the success of Amazon. Yet he thinks anyone who reviews a book is a nerd. Well, I guess he’s partially right. In many ways I am a nerd. That discussion, however, is for another day.
My Review on Amazon
In preparation for this article, I copied and pasted my Amazon review of Where the Crawdads Sing into a Word document on my iPad. Unfortunately, I forgot to save it at the time. When I opened Word to check on a recipe, I inadvertently deleted the document. Dang! Oh well, I knew it was on Amazon.
Yesterday, I went to go find my review. The scale at the top of the review area showed clearly that the vast majority who had read it gave it 5 stars, as I did. Yet all the reviews on the first page were 1-3 star reviews. I read them all for at least five scrolls. I couldn’t really disagree with some of their points.
- Unrealistic
- Poor supporting character development
- Never heard an accent like that
- How could she have survived
By the way, I never found my review, even after looking at them in chronological order.
Why I Loved This Book
I identified with Kya, the main character, in many ways. Her love of nature, feelings of inadequacy in the outside world, and the abandonment she experienced all touched my heart.
The prose from Delia Owens during Kya’s time in her natural world fills the first half of the book. Even during the difficult scenes of home life, the feeling that calmness and beauty was available mere steps away from the front porch bolstered me to read on.
My childhood home was rural. It was isolated from other children, with only my sister for companionship. My parents were not abusive, yet I also enjoyed quiet alone time, discovering insects crawling along the ground or on leaves. My father taught me the insects to avoid and I spent hours looking at the Encyclopedia color plate of poisonous snakes. I suppose my fascination with books and information about nature is also similar to Kya.
Every instance where the detractors point out implausible plot, I had already understood the why; when Kya was taken from her environment she retreated into herself, I didn’t try to read aloud the accents – rather I ‘heard’ Southern accents I’m very familiar with. Finally, I read the story as fiction, giving the author carte blanche to create her reality.
Why Read This Book?
If you didn’t grow up in the South or in a rural area, read it to get a sense of that life. I remember as a child reading, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. My mind absorbed every word about the foreign world of a metropolitan city and it gave me a different perspective . Also, Where the Crawdads Sing will be made into a movie and as with most other books made into movies, the book is always better.
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