Reviews with content warning for Alcoholism - Where the Crawdads Sing

This book will break your heart and mend it again. I’m honestly not sure why I put off reading this book for so long! I really enjoyed the faster pace, the characters and their development, the tension, and I truly wish I could visit this exact Marsh with Kya as my guide. The author’s expertise as a wildlife scientist also shines through the passages on the marsh beautifully.

Kya is such a resilient, thoughtful, and brilliant character… of course the descriptions about how beautiful she is vs the swamp trash were at times distracting but necessary to building further tension between the men, the town, and her.

I didn’t know this was a murder mystery coming in to the book (I know, I know- how?! But I avoided all the hype and didn’t watch the movie adaptation 😅), and I genuinely enjoyed this plot line as a means to move the story forward.

Personally- I loved the ending. It felt VERY appropriate looking back at some of the foreshadowing and earlier reflections from Kya.

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hlledfor's review

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challenging dark emotional slow-paced

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

2.0

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johnsongracea's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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emilyarice's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing 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

4.75

This was so good. Kya is such an emotionally deep character with a powerful mind but has been judged her entire life, and her prospects of love, daring and fun, and her very-real mistakes, truly made her embody a real human spirit. The novel was able to be informative and teach the reader about things that they would never learn on their own (specifically about the marsh) while also tugging at our heartstrings, making us love Tate but despise Chase. The one critique I have is that the last 2 chapters of the book could have been 6.

I understand that the end of the book was not the premise of the story but was rather giving the readers fulfillment with an end to the story. It just felt very rushed compared to the rest of the story, but it also makes sense because the rest of her life was lived in peace, while the intense parts that the book is actually about required more detail.

Anyways, I loved the book!

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lindsaywalsvick's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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iamlaura's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes

5.0

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haleysversion's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective fast-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

5.0

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jaybird27'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? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

The story's detailed descriptions and multidimensional main character made a great start to my 2025 reading year. I'm a fan of mysteries and historical fiction, both genres that use mixed timelines a lot, and found this handled it particularly well. Would recommend.

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