Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

1072 reviews

sasha_832's review against another edition

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emotional 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? It's complicated

4.0


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radh's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Been on my TBR for ages and I'm glad I finally read it. Wonderful story and well written. I will say the mixed timelines were a bit confusing to follow in the audiobook, but I suspect that in a print copy it would be more obvious. The historical racial segregation did seem like an afterthought thrown in randomly throughout the book rather than truly integrated into the story, but it doesn't take much away from the writing. 

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singletarya's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative 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? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I love how Owens weaved Kya’s character into the ecology of the marsh so lyrically and profoundly through comparing her to marsh creatures and illuminating patterns of her life with ecological processes. I loved reading most about Kya’s character development from her interactions with the marsh. I could tell this book was written by an ecologist/naturalist with a very artistic and wise voice. However, the mystery aspect of the plot fell flat to me. It wasn’t terribly compelling or well developed; I found a few confusing plot holes. The red hat being the main one; Chase had given her the hat shortly before the murders, so at trial, wouldn’t he have known that the fibers had to have come from Kya recently and she could have been responsible for his death? If so, why was he surprised to find out after Kya’s death that she had in fact killed Chase? This plot hole weighs down my rating of the book. I understand that Kya needed to murder Chase in order to protect herself and bring the story arc of abuse (and the parallels of female marsh fauna doing what needs to be done to survive) full circle. I just wish I had been done better. 

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ertrunnell's review against another edition

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adventurous inspiring reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

Some misgivings about the inaccuracies in dialect and geography and the requirements of suspending belief for a lot of the happenings, but easy to read and kept me interested.

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kemia's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad fast-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? No

4.75


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book_hang_o_ver's review

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

3.5

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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laurasilva149's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • 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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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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cmketchum's review against another edition

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dark reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75


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hereforthefunofit's review against another edition

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slow-paced
  • Loveable characters? No

3.0

is this not to kill a mockingbird?

i was most intrigued by the beginning of her life. i would have preferred much more of that mundane description rather than the narrative being overtaken by her relationships with men. consequently, the book lost steam for me in the centre, but the court aspect rejuvenated me a bit. it's an odd choice i think, but i definitely didn't hate it. 

i certainly did not like the notlikeothergirlsification of kya. of course, she wouldn't be like other girls. girlhood is due to socialisation, which she did not have much of. however, the constant reference to it from the male perspective made me think (read: know) that that's not how the author meant it. kya's not like other girls, she likes birds. and that's supposed to mean something to me. it didn't. i also DEFINITELY did not like tate and his and kya's relationship for reasons i think should be obvious, although i don't see many comments about it. he's not noble. he's weird. 

despite both sides, the book didn't have much impact on me. neither positive nor negative; hence, the rating. 

back to my earlier question...is this not to kill a mockingbird with leaves? 

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