Reviews with content warning for Alcoholism - Where the Crawdads Sing

Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

606 reviews

geminimoon's review against another edition

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emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

No God's gonna come to to this garden

This was a Book™️. It has the fancy prose and metaphors for the sake of it. You have to suspend your disbelief to enjoy this book. The characters are one dimensional. For example, it'd make sense for Kaya to be racist if her town and her parents are racist, but no, she's an angel. I will admit that I was distracted at times while reading, but about halfway, I tried to piece together her personality only for me to not find any. Did the author accurately depict a traumatized girl? It's complicated. On one hand, Kaya is way too functional despite all she's experienced, but on the other, she repressed her childhood is repeatedly preyed upon, which is a sad reality of those who have been traumatized.

Tate is disgusting. What makes their age gap (senior and freshmen) unforgivable are the times he talks about her pureness and said, "now she really sounds like little girl."(and smiled! Ew.)

I couldnt help but wonder what the book would be like from a black person' perspective, and at first I was like, no way they' d go after a white women, even if she was poor, before a black man. Kaya saying that she would receive the same scrutiny as the black girls is laughable. It didn't go into race because it' not to kill a Mockingbird but wishes it could be.

Where are the other white trash people in the story? Maybe I'm just slow. Anyway, a more compelling look would be
Kaya getting imprisoned despite being victimized because that's the sad reality. The book mentioned all the ways the odds are stacked against her, but she beats them.

There is no mystery to the story, so, what's the message? I also couldn't think of a deserving theme. Perseverance, but it's not deserving of it due to it being unrealistic.

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sparklyodin's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I feel like the ending is forced in order to have a "twist" and was not believable. If I could chop off the last 4 pages it would be the oerfect book.

Spoiler

They spend the whole book telling you not to assume the undereducated woman is a murderer, defending her character, and then in the last 10 seconds they say "just kidding she is totally the filthy character you all thought. Judge poor people forever, they nasty."

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paulinskaja's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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literarystrawberry's review against another edition

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mausi's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful informative mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

It took me a while to get into this book but about a quarter way through, it truly gripped me. I absolutely adored the world in which the book is set, and the author describes the marsh land and it’s biodiversity in such a gorgeous, detailed and magical way. I’m not usually the one to appreciate vivid scenery due to my aphantasia but Owens managed to create the world not only by visual descriptions but in a multisensory and emotional way which fully immersed me in the story. In addition, the book also had plenty other aspects that I appreciate, a strong character development, gripping plot and a diverse range of characters, intertwined with an educational twist. As an academic, I am astonished at the way Owens translated her academic background into a novel which further emphasises the importance of marshlands and communicates her life’s work further.

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klr0's review against another edition

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slow-paced

Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

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sarah_hutchins's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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emilypolcyn's review against another edition

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mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I had a lot of problems with the dialect in this book — the inaccuracies, the classism (only “bad” or “stupid” characters have a dialect, and once someone becomes educated or good they lose the accent), the racism (white lady failing pretty hard at writing AAVE in the 60s). Plus the prose would occasionally have dialect (like saying “likker” instead of “liquor”) but inconsistently and seemingly for no real reason? Not sure what that choice was but it always threw me out of it.

Very flowery writing but also was kind of giving thesaurus.com… and lots of small details about nature and food that interrupt the action without contributing anything thematically (besides that nature is beautiful and they’re in the south, which, yeah). If she mentioned grits one more time…

Also weak character development + characters who say every thought they’re having out loud (also in well-articulated prose) (unless they’re dumb and poor)

I think this really picked up during the court sequence (which I genuinely was interested in and a bit hooked by) but then slowed down again and got detached at the end. But maybe that’s just because Owens was referring to her own connection to a murder trial (which I only heard about after finishing this book and oh my god…. That lady for sure killed someone)

Spoiler

Rolled my eyes SO hard at the Amanda Hamilton reveal… like omg no way this clunky bad poetry that’s been shoehorned into random scenes the whole book was actually ~her~ the ~whole time~ wow I am so shocked

Also weird sex scenes?? And every single time she gets close to having sex she uses the phrase “circling her nipple”. Literally happened like four times 🥴

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xashleyxvix's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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reemoony's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

before anything else, fuck delia owens. now, this was genuinely the best book ive read this year. it sucked me in on the first page and kept me there. following kya from her childhood all the way to adulthood become my favorite activity for a week.

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