Where the Crawdads Sing
By Delia Owens
Published 2018
Read June 2020
This book has been wildly popular. This reader listened to it while on a summer vacation and understands the appeal. It is a coming-of-age story. The person coming of age is a young girl abandoned by family and surviving on her own in the swamplands of North Carolina. It has lush language about the landscape. The young girl blossoms into a well-respected author despite many obstacles. It has a murder mystery, the story of the investigation running parallel to the coming-of-age story. The reader is engaged to root for the young girl during her struggles to both interact with and avoid society. It is sweet but not sappy. It’s a little unbelievable with regards to the ability of a girl of nine to actually survive on her own but as the youngest of a hard-scrabble family she had to learn some things before everyone left and the family from whom she buys gas has their eye on her.
So enjoy reading this book along with lots of other readers even if it’s not one that you will discuss for many hours with a serious book discussion group. We need some of these too, especially during these days of a seemingly unending pandemic and this one might provide some needed positive nourishment.
MarshaReads.com 