Where the Crawdads Sing

cw: attempted rape

When I finished this book I was leaning more towards a solid four but I'm afraid I have two big issues (and a few smaller ones). I have w/ this book bring it down to a 3/5 stars.

That being said, I really did enjoy this book and would recommend to most people.

The writing is engaging, the author clearly knows the mid-60s to 70s southern culture. I actually caught myself slipping back into a “Jawja” accent.

Overall, I think the handling of abuse and isolation on the main character, Kya, is well handled. Sometimes it's frustrating because at some points you can just see Kya is stopping herself/hurting herself with destructive behavior. But as someone familiar with mental illness, I cannot blame her (or any of the abused parties in this story) for the actions they took.

However, outside of Kya's family, most of the characters are pretty one-note. There's not a lot depth in Tate or Chase or Jumpin' or Mable. (Tate has some depth, but is still a pretty shallow character.)

But that's a small nitpick–a lot of people say they like “deep” characters but in reality have enjoyed many media where the characters are not as well rounded but still tell a good story.

My bigger issues (and more spoilery) are below the tag.

My first big issue should not be a surprise to anyone who knows me, but I am upset that the biggest conflict comes from attempted rape.The tl;dr of the soapbox is that I feel rape is a cheap way to increase drama and stakes. It is mostly used to victimize women. I'm not saying it can't be used affectively (I've seen it done), but my litmus test for this is if you change rape/attempt rape to another traumatizing human event (say war/ptsd, the loss of home, murder of a loved one, etc) and can get a similar emotional outcome (in this case: the loss of personal safety), then you don't need rape and shouldn't use rape.Okay, off the soapbox.My second issue is that all of Kya's most meaningful relationships are with men. The only significant relationships with women are with her mother (who leaves in the first part of the book and we don't really hear about until the end) and Mable, a kind black woman who gives Kya clothes and teaches her about puberty.Mable isn't really given a lot time and is glossed over. Kya's relationship with Mable's husband, Jumpin is given more weight.And it's not like the book ignored the importance of women's relationships, but Kya is never given a female confidant or friend. And in a world that needs more positive examples of these kinds of relationships, I really wish this book had stepped up to it.

Overall it was a quick good read, great for the beach or a bookclub (definitely guaranteed to get a good discussion going on a number of subjects). Not life changing but not every book needs to be. :)