“Where the Crawdads Sing” by Delia Owens

A review and analysis

My girlfriend decided she wanted to read this book, so I thought I would as well so we could discuss it. It’s written in third-person omniscient point-of-view but mainly from the perspective of the novel’s heroine, Kya, starting at age 6. She’s a feral child who grows up to be a feral adult. It’s a murder mystery-semi love story-and love affair which the marsh Kya inhabits. Owens is a naturalist by trade, and much of the power of the novel is from her excellent descriptions of the natural world as seen through Kya’s eyes. Kya’s life is essentially a series of abandonments through which she perseveres, largely by relying on what are to her the comforts of the marsh. Notably, the kindness she’s shown is mainly from hardscrabble people and never the people who would actually be in a position to offer real help. From them, she receives scorn and condemnation. Ultimately, Kya as an adult is forced to take action to protect her ability to do her research in the marsh. I think that’s part of the reason this is such a powerful story for women, whose freedom to roam is often if not always restricted by the potential violence done to them simply because they are female.