Thursday, July 22, 2021

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens


When I heard Where the Crawdads Sing was our July selection for F2F group, I actually said, "Ugh," aloud. I did not want to read this book. The sheer volume of hype had turned me off and the few reviews I read didn't make it sound appealing to me. I strongly considered skipping this book group selection. After all, I'm on a book-buying ban and planned only to buy those I'm most interested in for book group. 

What changed my mind? I looked up the book and it was reasonably priced. At that moment, I didn't want to go hunt down a copy at the library so I just hit the button and voilá, it appeared in my mailbox. I miss having bookstores nearby but can't deny that modern book ordering can be kinda cool. I read it immediately (in June) because I had been planning to read Gone With the Wind in July since the beginning of the year. 

At first, I was sure my "Ugh," was going to be accurate. I spent the first 60 pages hating the book because I was so angry at every character who abandoned the main character, Kya, aka the Marsh Girl. And, as I mentioned in yesterday's review of Gone With the Wind (and many others), I'm not a fan of dialogue written in vernacular unless its use is very limited. At one point, I mentioned the fact that I just wasn't sure I was going to be able to finish. Thank goodness a friend on Instagram informed me that it improves. 

I'm not sure when I got to the point that I couldn't bear to put Where the Crawdads Sing down but I was up a tad late on the night I finished and totally gripped. I was angry, skeptical, teary, happy briefly, then teary again. What an emotional ride. 

Recommended - While there were things I disliked about Where the Crawdads Sing and things that I found implausible (to the point that I was visualizing the author sitting with pen and paper, plotting), I loved the naturalist aspect of the book and eventually the book became impossible to put down. I had to know what was going to happen to Kya, especially whether or not she would ever end up with the love of her life. The murder mystery was not nearly as interesting to me and I'm not actually sure how I feel about the ending. 

Unfortunately, I did not feel up to driving the 30 miles to book group so I can't speak to what others in my F2F group thought, darn it. I was really looking forward to this meeting because I think there's lots to talk about in Where the Crawdads Sing. So, I'd recommend it as a discussion book, even not knowing how the discussion went. 

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6 comments:

  1. I enjoyed this one too, although read it before all the hype really began (reviewed June 1, 2019).

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    1. Lucky! I'm glad I went into the reading without high expectations. That's how all the hype usually ruins a book.

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  2. It was overhyped in my opinion but I still enjoyed it. The movie is being filmed now. I thought much of it was a stretch but it was the kind of book that took you out of reality for a bit and that is what I wanted at the time.

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    1. Same. I think it deserved attention but not quite *that* much. The fact that bits of it were more than implausible didn't spoil my enjoyment, either. I'm still surprised at how difficult the book was to put down.

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  3. I liked it, even though I had issues with what some of the characters said/did not fitting what I'd expect of their situation, if you know what I mean.

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    1. Yes, I know exactly what you mean! I had some issues, too, but I still ended up really enjoying the book.

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