I attended Appalachian State University in Boone. There are (at the very least) five different dialects spoken in North Carolina. Southern hick does not equal southern hick does not equal southern hick. You have to know a place so well in order to do that. AGHHHHH!!!! This is why authors shouldn't use dialect when they write. Then there was the massive eye-brow raising I did when I discovered this was taking place in North Carolina. And so much of the book is just that overly flowery language barfed over every page for no reason, saying nothing or not making a lick of sense with what it does say. There is beautiful imagery, and then there is pretentious cobbling together of SAT words and figurative language so it seems deep but really isn't.

Life decays and reeks and returns to the rotted duff a poignant wallow of death begetting life.' There are sounds, of course, but compared to the marsh, the swamp is quiet because decomposition is cellular work. Even night crawlers are diurnal in this lair. 'Swamp water is still and dark, having swallowed the light inits muddy throat. I absolutely abhor overwrought prose that reads like the author sat down with the intention of writing the next Great American Novel and therefore had a certain number of adjectives and metaphors to fit on each page to prove their work was worth the accolades it was sure to get with sentences like: I definitely knew this wasn't the book for me on the very first page. Crayfish are all over the place, but they don't sing in any of those places.* I should've known things weren't going to go well from the title alone. This will be ranty and in the order in which things made me want to rant. A lot of times when a book is rated this high, I tend to think it's me and not the book. Unlike so many people, I am not impressed. Like so many people, I read this book because my book club chose it. Crayfish are all over the place, but they don't sing in any of Wow. The clues to the mystery are brushed into the lush habitat and natural histories of its wild creatures.more The story asks how isolation influences the behavior of a young woman, who like all of us, has the genetic propensity to belong to a group. Thought-provoking, wise, and deeply moving, Owens’s debut novel reminds us that we are forever shaped by the child within us, while also subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps. In Where the Crawdads Sing, Owens juxtaposes an exquisite ode to the natural world against a profound coming of age story and haunting mystery.

Drawn to two young men from town, who are each intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new and startling world-until the unthinkable happens.

But while she has the skills to live in solitude forever, the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. A born naturalist with just one day of school, she takes life's lessons from the land, learning the real ways of the world from the dishonest signals of fireflies.

So in late 1969, when the popular Chase Andrews is found dead, locals immediately suspect her.īut Kya is not what they say. Kya Clark is barefoot and wild unfit for polite society. A born naturalist with just one day of school, she takes life's lessons from the land, learning the real way For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet fishing village. So in late 1969, when the popular Chase Andrews is found dead, locals immediately suspect her. For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet fishing village.

Where the crawdads sing