Where the Crawdads Sing

There are racial slurs towards black people and a chapter of assault near the end.

Now that I have this out of the way.

This is a novel that starts out promising. Beautiful descriptions of nature, wonderful comparisons of our main protagonist learning about humans through animals and fungus and the swamps, feeling the water around your feet, seeing it sprout in your cabin. The familial dynamics captivated me, the slow start with the “mystery present day” chapters sprinkled in was so engaging.

Then, the second half happened. The second half took the first half and transformed it, somehow, from a promising southern-gothic mystery into a twisted-up love triangle, where both men love interests thought of her as “the girl who isn't like other girls” and it wasn't due to her individuality, but her forsaking traditional femininity roles. ( We even see her trying to emulate those to “be pretty” for them. ) I enjoyed the first romance. I REALLY did. The way they communicated, the way he was willing to meet her in the middle. The reason for it ending? Stupid. Fell flat.

The racial slurs in question happened on one page. The situation was never brought up again. It struck me as being used as a way to further the white protagonist's narrative ( who seemed rather “wild Indian” coded as we went along, and yes, I know that swamp-person-culture is real, and I am not invalidating that with this statement, but after reading the blatant racial slurs, my guard went up. ) The racial tensions of this time period were brushed upon or used to further her narrative. And then, in the second half, which consisted of nothing but the court case and that wasn't emotionally involving at all, I'm expected to feel sympathetic ... for the discrimination against HER, the protagonist.

My empathy vein had turned off by that point. And honestly, it was no fault of the protagonist's, I actually found her to be a very objectively empathetic person despite her upbringing. It was the author's. In my opinion, you should not be writing out slurs that do not belong to you. You definitely shouldn't use it, and the black characters, who I was desperate to know more about ( and honestly, any more townsfolk in general! beyond their tropes, but no! ) were reduced to minstrel-like characterisations.

I couldn't believe the entire second-half of the book, for me, failed to deliver on the promises that were in the first half. This was very nearly a do-not-finish, and whilst the assault scene in question was not explicit, it was explicit enough that I dissociated. I warn any person of colour or survivor of assault to be cautious when reading this book — or to avoid reading it all together.

The beautiful, colourful language — was restricted to nature. That is the greatest disappointment.