12. Where The Crawdads Sing

Where The Crawdads Sing. Delia Owens. 2018.

In some ways, this is a lovely read. The descriptions of marsh life are interesting and detailed. I don't know anything first hand about how accurate any of the descriptions are, either in terms of living in that part of the world, the culture of ostracism and racism in that era, or the science of the flora, fauna, and wildlife are, but knowing nothing about them, they seemed good enough.  

And yet, here we are again in a story of trauma, abandonment, and betrayal that just didn't really feel genuine to me.  There was something about the descriptions of the relationships and people that just didn't resonate with me.  The courtroom scenes seemed far-fetched and everything just tied up too neatly in the end for my taste. Life is just some much more nuanced and complicated and messy than this booked seemed to let it be.

Now, I know that many people have loved this book and so I hate to be a naysayer here, but I can't help it.  I much preferred The Great Alone, Educated, and The Lace Reader, all with similar themes and heaviness to them, but with something to them that seemed less like it was trying to mislead us with just parts of the story at a time and more like they were actually telling a story.  I did, however, love the title and how it referred to being somewhere beyond where anyone goes, way out where the crawdads sing.  A lovely metaphor for someone everyone always leaves alone in a swampy marsh by herself.  

Not recommended.
 
Lesley: Where the Crawdads Sing is supposed to be really good - that’s in my queue

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