Reviews with content warning for Terminal illness - Where the Crawdads Sing

I'm giving this 4.5 stars because I really do think it's beautifully crafted. The beginning is fairly slow though, so I'm docking it half a star because of that.

I am glad I finally read this after people constantly asking for it when I was working at Barnes and Noble. It really looks at people's perceptions of others and the fact that maybe not everything is as it seems on the surface. The mystery at the core of the story really helped to drive the story overall, and I was invested in Kya's story until the very end.

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

In 1969 Chase Andrews is found dead in the swamp. While the police tries to figure out what happened to the young man, the town people already have a suspect: Kya Clarke, the strange girl living alone in the marsh. Starting in 1952 we get to know Kya's life story and what led to the events of 1969.

Kya's life takes up the most part of the book, leaving the mystery in the background for most of it. Which might have been frustrating for me if I had expected a mystery in the first place. So I'm glad I didn't because... this book means everything to me.

First of all, I loved the writing. The first page is SO beautifully written, I had goosebumps and was immediately caught in the scenery and atmosphere. It's also a perfect foretaste for the whole book, beautiful prose, atmospheric, sloooooow paced, not much happens. So if you read the first page and cannot imagine reading a whole book like this, this book is probably not for you.

Then there is Kya. Oh, where do I begin. I don't have the words to describe what she means to me. I just felt everything she went through and the consequences deep in my bones. The parallels between her life and mine were SO significant, it physically hurt to read some passages. I basically cried through the whole book. Coming from an abusive home, being an outcast, being abandoned, rejected, feeling like you don't belong anywhere, being lonely and jearning to be loved and accepted. Uff. I've never before read a book that described my feelings so accurately and in such a beautiful and powerful way.
Not every detail of her life is this realistic and there is this some "not like other girls" vibe going on. But I needed this tbh to feel a little hope and not despairing all the time. These parts made reading the book a wholesome experience which made me cry even more while hugging the book.
(There are also some of my most favourite tropes in this book like found family and friends to lovers and I'm always here for these.)

The other subject of the book I fell in love with is nature. The part it plays and the way it is described is breathtaking. Usually I don't enjoy reading long descriptions of nature but in this book it is done in such an artistic way, I'm in awe. Given the background of the author, this shouldn't be surprising. She clearly loves nature and through her words I can clearly see why. Everything felt so vivid and real, as if I was there. Oh how I wish I was there now!

The mystery part... I didn't care for it that much most of the time. Until the last 100 pages where it took over the plot. I liked how the details were presented and I was really stressed while reading that part to a point where I couldn't breath on the page where... things were decided. I had to force myself not to wander down the page with my eyes just to stall the outcome.

Which leads us to the ending of the book. I didn't love it. But it makes perfect sense and is the perfect ending for this story in my opinion. Maybe I do love it a little. Okay, from a purely storytelling perspective, considering the way the book is constructed from start to finish, I do like it. Let's leave it at that.

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