Where The Crawdads Sing
by Delia Owens
Nomination: Dublin Longlist 2020
Date Read: August 27, 2022
I didn’t know a whole lot about Where The Crawdads Sing when I picked it up, except for the controversy surrounding the author, Delia Owens. Apparently, after the book came out, Owens was questioned again about a local murder, one that remained unsolved and that she had based her book on.
Kya is a girl that the world has left behind. Her mother left one day, walking out on her abusive husband and abandoning her children to his violent whims. One by one, her brothers and sisters left when they couldn’t take the violence anymore until it was just Kya and her father. He tried to pull himself together for her sake, but was ultimately unable – his demons too deep. And just like everyone else, one day he failed to come home, until that day turned into years.
Kya was only 10 when she was left on her own, figuring out how to feed herself and survive in the North Carolina marsh. The birds and animals of the marsh become her family, as does Tate, a local boy that sees Kya’s humanity and innate intelligence and dedicates himself to her education. Kya never went to school, being laughed out of the building by other kids and she swore to never go back.
But Tate was the one who gave her the greatest gift of all – the ability to identify all of the flora and fauna of the marsh, which she collected, drew, labeled and displayed in her tiny shack in the marsh. Tate ultimately left her too, promising he would return during his breaks from college but as he was approaching her shore for his first visit, he realized that their two worlds would never line up. She could never live in his world, even though he wasn’t sure what that world would be.
Kya, lonely and abandoned again, allows herself to be lured in by the charming Chase, a local playboy that used patience as a way to conquer. He wooed Kya with words of marriage, never pressuring her too much to have sex and promising her a future together. Although the reader can feel the drool coming off his teeth, Kya takes him at his word until she sees his engagement announcement in the local paper.
Tate, although despised now by Kya, tries to apologize for his cowardice and tells Kya that he has never stopped loving her. He tried but it was impossible. As he walks into her shack, he sees all of her displays and drawings and knows that her work is good enough for a book. He introduces her to a publisher and she becomes a local author with an expertise on the marsh.
Chase, being used to having whatever he wants, when he wants finds Kya one day collecting samples and he nearly rapes her. She barely escapes, although she is black and blue from the encounter. Not too long after, Chase winds up dead. The sheriff bends over backwards trying to prove his death was a murder but the clues are so few and Kya’s connection to the crime just about impossible to prove. She is ultimately acquitted. Then again…
I read this novel during a particularly difficult time in my life (after a rather serious ATV accident) and I appreciated the way Owens used nature as almost another character in the book. Her descriptions of the marsh are exquisite and I felt like I could see everything Kya could. I was joyful she finally experienced true love and lived to her life’s purpose. Most people never quite find theirs, myself included. I am grateful to Owens for giving me the marsh when I was stuck inside, waiting for surgery.
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