Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
I'm sure by now everyone has seen the trailers (or the entire movie) that was created from this book. Main character Kya raised herself in the marshlands of North Carolina after being abandoned by her family. Known in the nearby town as "the Marsh Gil", she is isolated from the community of Barkley Cove, until she finds her life intertwined with first one local boy, and then another. When one of the boys is found dead, Kya is the main suspect. As the story unfolds, it threatens to reveal a great many secrets of Kya and the rest of the town.
I wasn't really sure I wanted to read this but I started seeing the movie trailer and decided I definitely had to read the book before I saw the movie. Turned out to be a very good decision as I was pleasantly surprised by the book and equally as pleased with the movie. The screen version is very similar to the book and only different in ways that improved the visual aspects of the story, not detracting from the story in any way.
The characterizations are well done, drawing you further and further into the story. I found myself empathetic to Kya and fully able to understand why she would feel the ways she was depicted as. I was afraid of the ending of this book because of how I felt. And while I was surprised by how the story ended, I also wouldn't have called it predictable at all.
I'm honestly very surprised that this is Owens first novel. It's well constructed and wreaks of someone who knows their craft inside and out. The story is put together in a not-typical way, and she leads you through it at just the right pace to exactly the places you need to be to see what you need to see. This may be my top read of the year.
(#52-2022)
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