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Where the Crawdads Sing: A Novel
Unavailable
Where the Crawdads Sing: A Novel
Unavailable
Where the Crawdads Sing: A Novel
Audiobook12 hours

Where the Crawdads Sing: A Novel

Written by Delia Owens

Narrated by Cassandra Campbell

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

4.5/5

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Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

How long can you protect your heart?

For years, rumors of the "Marsh Girl" have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life—until the unthinkable happens.

Perfect for fans of Barbara Kingsolver and Karen Russell, Where the Crawdads Sing is at once an exquisite ode to the natural world, a heartbreaking coming-of-age story, and a surprising tale of possible murder. Owens reminds us that we are forever shaped by the children we once were, and that we are all subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.

Editor's Note

Little bit of everything…

Lauded nature writer Delia Owens penned this beautiful first foray into fiction. There’s a little bit of everything — it’s a survival story, and a mystery, and a romance — and altogether, it makes a powerful package. Reese Witherspoon selected it for her book club and is set to produce a movie adaptation.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateAug 14, 2018
ISBN9780525640370
Unavailable
Where the Crawdads Sing: A Novel
Author

Delia Owens

Delia Owens is the coauthor of three internationally bestselling nonfiction books about her life as a wildlife scientist in Africa. She holds a BS in Zoology from the University of Georgia and a PhD in Animal Behavior from the University of California at Davis. She has won the John Burroughs Award for Nature Writing and has been published in Nature, The African Journal of Ecology, and International Wildlife, among many others. She lives in the mountains of North Carolina. Where the Crawdads Sing is her first novel.

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Reviews for Where the Crawdads Sing

Rating: 4.4091081134246055 out of 5 stars
4.5/5

5,259 ratings477 reviews

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Hard to put down---just wonderful to read! I'm sorry I don't have it ahead of me!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Loved the book. Loved the characters. The Marsh and the animals have a life of their own. Loved her other non-fiction as well.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book was given to me by a friends mother who sends me books regularly. I have never met this lady, but she is an encouraging lady and knows that I love books! What I find impressive is that I had this book on my reading wish list and somehow she knew I would love it. This is thus far one of the best books I have read in a long time and it took me only a few days to read. I could not put it down. Kya, the main character is left alone by her family at a very young age to survive in the marshes of North Carolina. She is alone and is afraid of the towns people who judge her and in her early years tried to force her to attend school and become civilized. She has an uncanny ability to hide among the marsh from those who try to find her. As the story progresses, it goes into great depth of description of the natural habitat that is her sanctuary. She learns to feed herself and survive with out humans. And then one day she is in her adolescence and feels drawn towards a young man that she spots out on the marsh...this book goes into great detail of all the longings and desires and fears of growing into a wild young woman. My kind of book. I was able to relate to her in many ways. She deals with abandonment issues and the fear of being hurt by other humans and so becomes entangled in the safety and reliability of nature and her wild animal pets. Unfortunately a murder is a discovered in the marsh and she is the main suspect. I don't want to spoil the book, so I will stop here. I highly recommend this book!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Really enjoyable read, provided you don't think too hard about whether or not the story is realistic.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    There was so much hype for this book that I had to listen to the audio. It was a pleasant enough experience and the writing did flow well. It is a heartbreaking coming-of-age story and a tale of nature, poetry, love, murder and courtroom drama. Kya is the Marsh Girl from Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. It is 1969 and two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty and Kya opens herself to a new life--until the unthinkable happens. Chase Andrews is found dead and the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark. The courtroom drama follows and we get to see how the town handles a strange girl from the marsh who is tried for murder. Also, if you love nature and poetry then you should read this book.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    In the swamps of North Carolina live a poverty stricken family. As the family implodes, one by one they leave, except for a little girl and her abusive father. First the mother walks through the trees, beaten and destitute, then many of the children, then the brother who thought he could never abandon his little sister.One child remains with the alcoholic father. Then, he leaves as well.The child is proud and strong. School attendance lasts one day because she is made fun of for her backward and ignorant ways. Now, alone, she learns how to cook, how to fend for herself, and how to live alone with all the wonderful marsh creatures to keep her company. One day she spots a young boy, Tate, who befriends her. Later, he leaves for college and abandons her. This is the loss that hurts the most.It is when she dares to go into the small town that her life is changed. She meets a wonderful family who help her as they can, and there is a king of the town. He is golden, proud, spoiled and dangerous. He sets the now teen aged girl as his.Disaster occurs, and as a result of the swamp girl flees to go back where she belongs. Now, the town folk blame her for the disaster, and much like Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, a lone ethical lawyer steps forward to help her.This is a richly woven tale, binding nature and human will together. There aren't many new things I can say about this incredible book that others haven't already mentioned.It is one of the books when you tell everyone you know who is a reader that they MUST read this book. Five Stars
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    What an amazing mystery to read. I absolutely devoured it and highly recommend it to anyone who loves a good mystery. This is the amazing story of Kya and her will to survive when all of her family abandons her in the swamp home. Against all odds she survives and builds such an interesting life for herself. For such a young girl to survive on her own at such a young age and build the life that she did is just amazing.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Abandoned, self reliant, lonely, solitary, betrayed, isolated, these are the words that describe Kya the Marsh Girl, but the story is so much more. Set in the Lowlands of North Carolina this book circles around a young girl who at the age of ten is left to survive on her own. It is a harsh story that is beautifully written. The prose and dialect are perfect, the story grows and morphs. This is a story of survival, of learning, of love of nature and the right and wrong man. This is a story of a young woman embroiled in a mystery that will make you sit on the edge of your seat and hold your breath fearing for her, for the outcome. This is an extraordinary piece of writing.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Kya’s father returned from WWII a damaged man. He moved his wife deep into the North Carolina marshland, where few but society’s outcasts lived. Due to his alcoholism and abuse, one by one his children and wife left him, until only 6 year old Kya and her father remained. And when Kya turned ten, her father left, too, leaving Kya alone in the swamp.Luckily she had had years of learning to survive on indigenous foods. She was befriended by a boy her age, who taught her to read. Her observations of birds and plants and her ability to draw, led to a surprisingly successful career. But then a murder occurred and circumstantial evidence pointed to Kya. Could this odd girl-now-woman, rejected and ostracized by the nearby community, have committed such an intricate plot?The natural history of the marsh and birds are beautifully done, rich and true. Author Delia Owens spent time as a field biologist and wrote best-selling nonfiction about her time in Africa. I did have quibbles with the book. It stretched my credulity that this abandoned girl, totally on her own, could not just support herself physically, but, became such a skilled illustrator of her beloved marsh.Overall though, I found it sweeping and hard to put down. Recommended.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    "...Where the Crawdads Sing is at once an exquisite ode the natural world, a heartbreaking coming-of-age story, and a surprising tale of possible? murder. Owens reminds us that we are forever shaped by the children we once were, and that we are all subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps." -from book flap The story's best: the atmospheric setting details, the everyday living lessons in botany/biology the marsh & seashore provide Kya, the interplay of the family drama, esp in the early childhood chapters,the emerging of a lonely, bereft little girl who survives unthinkable neglect and sorrow to become a resilient young woman, an accomplished naturalist, and a fierce believer in herself. Less than best: the (it takes forever) back story of why her mother left them, and what happened to her, her brother's -finally?!!- guilty return (no letters? no nothing?) and the (almost last-ha!) encounter with her ex-Chase Andrews, the attempted rape, etc which reduces his character to a caricature, and the somewhat surreal acceptance of EVERYone in town to allow a little girl to live out beyond the village borders and not reach out to her, help her. The kind black man, Jumpin, with the gas/supplies dock, and his wife Mabel are the exceptions, but even they should've known to bring her in to authorities -seek out her mother and her people when it was clear her father was long gone? This seemed a stretch - The last two pages (a surprise "reveal") while also a bit of a stretch, still gave the reader some satisfaction for all the passages where Kya muses on how so many females in the animal and insect kingdoms more than hold their own in their sexual encounters, to propagate offspring. They often destroyed, ate, or tricked their male counterparts... foreshadowing indeed!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Where The Crawdads Sing is a beautifully written book about isolation, nature, prejudice, and survival. Kya is known to most in her nearby community as The Marsh Girl. Abandoned as a child she lives in a remote area of the marsh learning from nature how to survive. She is shunned by most of the community but is helped a bit by an older Black couple. In her early teens she gains one true friend, Tate, who teaches her to read and helps her hone her skills and excel in biology.There are many instances of Kya being abandoned and extreme prejudice from the nearby residents. Time and again she manages to overcome obstacles and thrive.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    At the age of 9, Kya finds herself living alone in the coastal North Carolina marshlands, having been abandoned by her mother, father, and brother. She fends for herself, living off the land and making a small amount of money by selling mussels to a shopkeeper at the marina. She avoids contact with the townspeople and anyone who comes looking for her, except for Tate, a boy a few years older. Tate teaches Kya to read and together they explore the marshland’s flora and fauna. He becomes her first love but eventually leaves for college. In a parallel narrative set several years later, officials are investigating the suspicious death of Chase Andrews, the town’s favorite son and former high school quarterback. As the narratives converge the reader learns more about Chase as seen through Kya’s eyes. All is certainly not what it seems.Where the Crawdads Sing is a hugely popular debut novel, in its 45th week at or near the top of the New York Times bestseller list at the time of this review. And while I enjoyed this book, it didn’t live up to the hype. I’d been warned of the need to suspend disbelief, especially regarding Kya’s ability to survive on her own and not end up in foster care. I was actually okay with that part. But not only did Kya learn to read, she somehow managed to become a well-known biologist despite a complete lack of formal education. And some aspects of the writing didn’t work for me. The author was inconsistent in her use of dialect: while most of the town’s white population (including Kya) spoke perfect schoolbook English, Chase’s speech was inexplicably littered with southern vernacular. There was a side plot involving poems which I found a distraction. And the book ended with a sweeping dénouement that should have been accompanied by dramatic orchestral music.Despite my issues with this book, if you can accept if for what it is, it makes for a pleasant summer read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    One of the most fabulous, prosaic novels I have ever read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A terrific read with solid characters and rich descriptions of the North Carolina marshlands that paint a compelling picture in the mind's eye.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    My wife and I have been discussing what the source of the power of this novel is. A recent set of stories in the NY Times and on Slate.com gave some additional food for thought. It is a very compelling story, somewhat spoiled for me by the O. Henry ending.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I found the book interesting and entertaining. The combination of a mystery and a coming of age book in a picturesque setting was clever. I can understand why this book has a large following.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Compelling and hard to put down story of a young girl abandoned in the marshes on North Carolina to raise herself. She grows up and the story turns to murder mystery and love story. Very painterly writing but the plot is a bit ridiculous and contrived. Still a good read, highly recommended.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I always approach a book set in the American south with the expectation that I will enjoy it, and this book did not disappoint. Great combination of a strong female character, an exotic setting, a mystery, and a romantic element made for a great summer read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Where the Crawdads Sing, set in the marshlands of South Carolina in the1950s and 1960s, is the story of Kya and the murder of a local towns boy named Chase Andrews.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is such a popular book that it's difficult to write something that hasn't been written before. It surprises me at it's rampant popularity. I think a positive note is that one tends to believe you have solved the mystery, in a very predictable way, early on but...you haven't. I had to suspend my cynicism to pretend to believe that Kya , living in the marsh without any media, could know so much about the world and the legal system by the end of the book. But other than that, I enjoyed it.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The majority of reviewers have stated exactly how I feel about this book. Kya Clark is about ten years old, living in the marshes along the North Carolina coast, as the last member of her family disappears, leaving her to fend for herself. Digging for mussels and selling them, and getting charity from the black community, Kya is befriended by a friend of her brother's, Tate, who teaches her to read. This allows her to study more scientifically the marsh life around her, becoming an expert few can match. But when former high school football star Chase Andrews is found dead at the foot of a fire tower, Kya is the one suspected of his murder.This is a beautifully written story that weaves back and forth between Kya's childhood and the murder mystery. Kya's extreme loneliness and isolation give her a self-reliance she carries all her life. She finds her focus in the animals, birds, and insects around her, letting them teach her and giving her a possibly skewed view of how humans live at the same time. The book is roughly set in the 1960s, and the author has captured that time period in the South very well. My heart ached for Kya as she grew up and I shed a few tears at the ending. This is a wonderful story, one I highly recommend.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Great story, highly descriptive prose...well worth a read.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I guess I had unrealistically high expectations for this book because so many people seem to love it. My reaction was mixed. I thought the author did a great job of describing nature, and she definitely brought the area of the marsh to vivid life. However, I thought she did a poor job of letting the reader understand how various characters feel through her writing - instead, she tended to over-explain emotions and reactions, which to me is a poor way to write. I also thought the plot was too predictable (except for the ending) and in a way too simplistic. Characters had little depth, except for the main character - for example, the explanation for why Tate stayed away for so long made no sense to me because he was mostly a cipher. It seemed to me that she put that into the story just to further the plot, and I found that irritating. And even Kya, who was supposed to be incredibly intelligent, seemed unrealistically naive.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Wonderful book. Liked a lot but didn’t love, for some reason.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I listened to the e-audio version of this beautiful, nature-based tale narrated by Cassandra Campbell and really enjoyed her embodiment of the main character, Kya, and all of the other NC voices. Campbell also narrates another NC-based series which I've enjoyed, the juvenile fiction Serafina series by Robert Beatty. One thing which confused me: why the mention of going all the way to Asheville from the coast for various business matters? Wouldn't the capital, Raleigh, have been so much closer?
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Wonderful book. Enjoyed through and through. Wonderfully described scenery and nature, the relationship between people and nature. Having said this, at times a bit unrealistic.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Soooo good. Well-written. Excellent mystery. Fascinating science.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    It is astonishing that a first time novelist could write such an amazing story! I loved every word, sentence and thought that this work of fiction displayed to me. Possibly the best book I have ever read, and the best story from the South. Delia Owens had the grasp of what the Southern culture is all about. I am sure here expertise in zoology and wildlife greatly informed her depiction of marsh life along the coast of North Carolina. This one I shall treasure and reread again and again.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A good story, well-written, a bit problematic at times with logic and character development, but felt myself pulled along to the conclusion.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A nice summer beach read, Where the Crawdads Sing was an enjoyable, if predicatable (yes, even the ending), coming of age story. It isn’t literature, but it is well written with a competent plot and fairly simple characters. At times the metaphors seemed forced and the symbolism a little on the hokey side. It’s the kind of book you can read with distractions and not miss much; hence, the beach read categorizing. I’m a bit surprised by the book’s commercial success, although the fact that it’s an easy read probably contributes to that. Worth a quick couple of days’ investment.