Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

126 reviews

moonbasket's review against another edition

emotional reflective relaxing sad slow-paced

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

5.0

I did not know what to expect from this book when I started it. Honestly, it was beyond my expectations from the very beginning and it just kept going. I did not know how it was going to end.

I was pretty sure Kaya wouldn't go to jail, but I honestly did think that she had killed Tate. It made the most logical sense, but it just didn't seem like she had done it. It was definitely a surprise to have that twist at the end, but it all makes sense and it brings a sense of mildly juvenile wonder which I think really matches Kaya's personality because she was neglected for so long and stayed agoraphobic for her who life.

I laughed and cried reading this and it may be one of the best literary novels I have ever read. I am definitely interested in more books like this, with a focus on ecology and personhood. It is extremely good and I highly recommend this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Classism

Moderate: Cursing, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexual content, Blood, and Death of parent

Minor: Cancer, Child death, Infertility, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Car accident, and War

Kaya, the main character of this book is subject to extreme childhood neglect from and absent mother and alcoholic father. The book focuses on her abandonment and loneliness as it follows her story.

As a teenager she has a relationship with an older boy who is technically an adult for the later part of their relationship. As a young adult, she has a relationship with an emotionally manipulative young man where he is cheating on her and lying to her regularly. After breaking it off with him, he later chases her down and attempts to rape her. She defends herself and is able to escape him.

There are also graphic flashbacks to her father beating her mother and siblings and discussion of how her town is segregated with black people living in "colored town" separate from the white people. There is mild discussion of the racism of the era, but mostly it is simply treated as matter of fact as it is viewed through the eyes of a child.

mack_urdaddy's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.5

The author’s imagery is rn captivating and unlike any other that I’ve read. It truly is like she is leading you through every brush stroke she uses to paint the scene of the marsh.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Blood, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, and Death of parent

geminimoon's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Death of parent, and Classism

denijaaa_s's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Murder, and Abandonment

Moderate: Bullying, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, and Rape

faye___'s review against another edition

emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

DID THE AUTHOR ACTUALLY MURDER SOMEONE

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Abandonment, and Classism

Minor: Death of parent and Murder

idk Tate slays when not a dumbass

emilypolcyn's review

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)

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Misogyny, Racism, and Injury/Injury detail

reemoony's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Infertility, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Classism

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Violence, Death of parent, and War

embreads98's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

I generally enjoyed this book, but there were a few parts I took issue with. The main love interest begins when the main character is in her early teens and her pursuer is 18, and there are passages that imply he is attracted to her naive qualities. That gave me a bit of an ick feeling. The other thing is that there is a minor character (Jumpin’s wife, Mabel) who is repeatedly described as notably fat, and yet when her weight is mentioned it is “almost 200 pounds”. It’s a small detail but as a mid-sized person who is over 200 pounds, it made me feel like the author has never actually met a fat person. All of this said, I enjoyed this easy read and found the writing to be good but not great, not necessarily worth the hype that this book has received.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault and Abandonment

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Physical abuse, Violence, and Alcohol

tiffyd's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, and Abandonment

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Grief, Death of parent, and Classism

Minor: Infertility, Infidelity, and Car accident

skylar_jo_3's review against another edition

hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

The beginning is very slow and hard to get into but the more you read the better it gets!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Sexual assault, Violence, Murder, and Sexual harassment