Where the Crawdads Sing
Ratings944
Average rating4.1
Er det noen sammenheng mellom de beste bøkene og de beste selgerne? Etter å ha lest der en bok som har satt rekord for lengst sammenhengende førsteplass på bestselgerlisten til New York Times er svaret ganske enkelt: Ingen som helst.
Dette er en dårlig versjon av Nicholas Sparks, en historie som ikke er til å tro på, med litterære kvaliteter på nivå med en skolestil, i en historie som selvsagt ender opp i en amerikansk rettssal, slik alle bestselgerromaner fra USA må gjøre for å skape spenning - og likevel trives jeg gjennom nesten alle de 368 sidene med naturskildringer og eksotisk landskap som er så spennende at jeg har begynt å undersøke mulighetene for å ta meg en ferie nær Outer Banks.
Dette er ikke stor litteratur, det er knapt litteratur, det er uten spenning, men likevel medrivende. Er det mulig?
This book had been sitting on my kindle for quite some time before I decided to read it. I didn't read any reviews before I started it; I never do, I like to make up my own mind. I've read several reviews now, mostly bad.
I'm not American so I can't comment on the geography of the location, or the vernacular of the people.
What I can say though, is that I enjoyed this book. I found it poignant. Sometimes it moved me to tears, other times it angered me. It engaged me, and in my opinion, that's what a book should do.
4.4 ⭐s!!
Where the Crawdads Sing is a fantastic book about the struggles and survival of being abandoned with a touch of murder mystery.
For my full review, check it out at
https://youtu.be/vaGVYG2ovm8
i absolutely adored this book
tags: coming of age, loneliness, trust, wonders of nature, yearning
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)
really confused about what genre this book falls under?
not really for me, but i can understand why people enjoy it.
“Where The Crawdads Sing” begins with a deep jolt straight to the heart. A disgruntled family living near a marsh abandons each other, leaving only a father and his young daughter in a dilapidated cabin. The father chases his vices as the young one marvels at the joy of the outdoors and the wonderment of discovering birds and insects. When the father ups and leaves, Kya is left to fend for herself.
As the days pass, she meets a boy who teaches her how to read and encourages her to follow her interest in researching the critters that inhabit the marsh. Everything seems to be going great until someone dies and an investigation starts to unravel secrets in the small town.
“Time ensures children never know their parents young.”
I enjoyed the book quite a bit. It actually conjured up memories of my own upbringing. In a way, I understood what the main character was going through. Barkley Cove encapsulates everything about the harshness of a small town, right down to the proclivity to mistreat those who are outcasts. It's not all doom and gloom, though. Kya takes solace in those who are kind and understand her predicament, uses her knowledge of the area to help sustain her way of life, and ultimately unlocks the joy of learning to read.
“If anyone would understand loneliness, the moon would.”
There is quite a bit of pain, loneliness, and fear that surround Kya as she grows older and learns more about the world. Her research grounds her, but she still yearns for someone to share her life with. Something I think we can all relate to.
“Please don't talk to me about isolation. No one has to tell me how it changes a person. I have lived it. I am isolation.”
I'll say nothing more about the story, but I would like to talk a bit about the writing. Sure, it might meander a bit and gloss over pertinent character details, but what it does well is tell a great coming-of-age story. It covers most of the physical and biological touchstones in a primitive setting while providing vivid descriptions of the natural world.
The way the story ends is a keen fascination: We can guess where it might end up, but it takes guts to actually go through with it. Justification might be the way sinners are granted absolution, but in this fictional world, without spoiling anything, I think vindication reigns supreme.
❖ Category: literary fiction / mystery
❖ Rating: 4.5/5
This book was beautiful and had my tearing up within the first 2 chapters. I loved it and can't wait to watch the movie.
A base da história é ótima, mas a estrutura narrativa me incomodou em vários momentos. A inconsistência dos capítulos alternados, o mistério artificial que não condiz com a onisciência do narrador... Narrador esse que alterna seu foco no meio de capítulos sem motivo aparente. Acho que, em geral, meu problema com o livro foi uma falta de foco.
Apesar de tudo, sinto que há várias versões desse livro que eu adoraria. Consigo ver uma história com potencial através desses incômodos estruturais.
Good pace with detailed but straightforward prose from the beginning. Really does give you a good sense of the setting and a clear/true picture. The imagery/visuals the writing paints and the story and evolution of the characters is very good. Things come together really well and the way the duelling timelines intersected (and what was done when they did) was clever. The legal stuff in the last 100 pages was also very well written, easy to follow, engaging, and had great flow. Strong resolution to everything and was tied up in a nice bow.
Overall, this was really good!
I'm not sure why I avoided it for so long. The story was interesting, and compelling, and truly kept me on my toes. I also loved that ending–really well done. I think this book is a great case study in Hailey-Still-Sometimes-Avoids-Mainstream-Things-And-She-Should-Not. So that's something I'll definitely be working on in the future.
I was not a fan of the pacing of this book–I thought the timeline was confusing and I feel like much of my confusion would have been remedied by simply including the month/day along with the year at the start of the chapter.
Fantastic book. I listened to this after having watched the movie, which I also loved. Rarely have I felt so connected to a character.
Delia Owens writes beautifullyyyyy, this book is also filled with many aha's and small things that come back later or somewhere else in the story.
Though, I am still confused on who killed Chase? The trial at the end could have been developed way better and nicer, and this also goes for the love between Tate and Kya. I missed so much development there.
All in all a good book though!!
Set in the marshlands of North Carolina in the 1950s and 1960s, “Where the Crawdads Sing” tells the story of Kya Clark, a girl who grows up in poverty and isolation after being abandoned by her family. What sets this novel apart is the way it portrays the resilience and strength of women in the face of adversity.
Throughout the book, Kya faces numerous challenges, from poverty and discrimination to violence and abuse, but she never gives up on her dreams or loses her sense of self-worth. Owens' writing is both sensitive and insightful, with a deep understanding of the ways in which women's lives are shaped by social and cultural forces. She portrays Kya's experiences with nuance and empathy, exploring the intersections of gender, class, race, and sexuality in a way that is both realistic and poignant.
“Where the Crawdads Sing” is a must-read for anyone interested in feminist literature. It is a powerful and moving novel that celebrates the strength and resilience of women in the face of adversity and offers a message of hope and empowerment that is sorely needed in today's world.
Very simplistic plot and characters. Each character felt like a total archetype (quarterback jock, “wild” girl, young pure love, prissy townspeople...). At some points I felt like I was reading a high schooler's short story.
The writing felt heavy-handed at times with people's “accents” and the nature descriptions. How many times do I need to read that the marsh was beautiful and wild and alive and..etc etc. in soooo much flowery language?
I enjoyed the uncomplicated depictions of the familial and romantic love that Kya developed with others as she grew older. I also liked Sunday Justice, the cat.
3/5 • Really wanted to love it.
I think this book has been recommended to me the most over the past year or so. I went in with high expectations and whilst I did enjoy some of the story I found most of the characters to be quite frustrating and honestly unlikable. The storyline was relatively predictable, I did enjoy the court trial and the descriptive language used to describe the landscape. Overall a pretty avantage read.
Baca edisi terjemahan Bahasa Indonesia. Aku sedikit menyesal menunda membaca buku ini, salah satu alasannya karena hype, dan biasanya aku kurang cocok dgn buku yg overhype.
Membaca historical fiction harus siap dgn cerita pilu & menyayat hati. Tidak terkecuali dgn buku ini. Bisa dikatakan buku ini pantas dgn kepopulerannya. Hal yang paling kusuka adalah sains yg terselip dalam buku ini.
An interesting first novel. The world building was fantastic and there were some interesting characters. The plot was somewhat far-fetched and the conclusion was a little disappointing.
This was such an interesting book. It is about loneliness and being different. Also about the prejudice that people have to someones odd.
I think you should read this book if you liked Alias Grace by Margareth Atwood.
I am currently reading this book for the second time. I listened to the audiobook last summer, and after seeing the movie this year I had to pick up my own copy and read it again. Something deep within me connected to this book. There is a lot of controversy around it, but my introverted adventurous soul found a home here.
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