Where the Crawdads Sing

Ok – I think this is definitely an overhyped book, largely because although the idea, the characters and the story are refreshingly heartwarming through the love of nature and how well it blends with the protagonist, everything else is underwhelming. The language (took me 70 pages to get into it, so flowery, so pretentious, so overdone, until you get used to it and stop minding), the issues that have been raised with the dialect and geographical inconsistencies (did she barely research it? did she purposefully resort to old tropes of good vs bad = non dialect vs dialect? who knows), and then there were many weak plot developments that were too convenient to be true (the tie plot points in a bow and call it a day type of scenario).

Overall I gave it 4 stars because I still was absorbed by the story, emotionally convinced of it, and cared about the characters to feel the melancholy of finishing the last page, but that's because I know nothing about North Carolina or dialects, and because I persevered through the sluggish parts.

What I would recommend instead of this: Why Fish Don't Exist by Lulu Miller. EXCELLENT