Where the Crawdads Sing

Pros: great atmosphere when the girl is in the marsh (makes sense because the author was a wildlife biologist), she's easy to cheer for, great final dismount

Cons: The dialogue is terribly flat (she does write in an accent, which is actually fine, I mean the sentences themselves). In the first half of the book this is a smaller problem because it's mostly her in the marsh by herself, but then the second half is all a courtroom drama, and the dialogue can't carry the full weight of the plot.

It's framed as a love triangle for a bit, but then that gets resolved quickly. The formula of one part “kid survives alone” like Hatchet, one part “who will she choose” like Twilight, one part legal drama is just too any pieces for the delivery to pull off. A much shorter version that only focused on one of them would have been more successful.



I do want to say that it's great to see Delia Owens breaking into fiction. When real scientists start writing for broader audiences, and especially in new genres, it elevates science in the public mind and what people think science can be good for. (Mary Doria Russell is the other prominent example in my mind)