I was Wrong. So Very Wrong. This Book is AMAZING.

For a year and a half, I had less than zero desire to read this book.

The reviews were glowing, everyone kept recommending it to me, and yet…I was determined to read EVERYTHING else.

I even posted on Facebook and Instagram about this book telling people that I had absolutely no desire to ever read it and I just didn’t understand its popularity. Nope. Never reading this boring sounding book. Not for me.

Then I broke my toe and was in desperate need of a good book. I went to the library and nothing stood out to me. I so randomly saw one lone copy of this book on the shelf. I ignored it and kept searching. About 20 minutes later I went back to the shelf, grabbed it, and begrudgingly checked it out. There was simply nothing else!  I figured that if I was EVER going to read this book, this was the time…where I was literally forced to lay down and ice my toe for 20 minutes 3 times each day.

I came home, propped up my toe with ice, opened to page 1…and promptly and happily devoured every single page after that.

Synopsis from Goodreads:

For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life–until the unthinkable happens.

Perfect for fans of Barbara Kingsolver and Karen Russell, Where the Crawdads Sing is at once an exquisite ode to the natural world, a heartbreaking coming-of-age story, and a surprising tale of possible murder. Owens reminds us that we are forever shaped by the children we once were, and that we are all subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.

My Thoughts:

(Disclaimer: I will never post spoilers in my reviews HOWEVER the comment section is completely fair game to discuss any and all specifics including spoilers)

1,000,000 stars

Oh this book. It’s absolutely BEAUTIFUL.

One of the best books I’ve ever read (which if you are a faithful blog reader you realize that I’ve now discovered TWO of my all time favorites over the past 6 months! How amazing is that???)

I very literally could not put this book down. I found myself reading whenever I could spare a few minutes. I thought about it ALL the time (and still do). I theorized so much of what was going to happen in the end (I was waaaay off, lol).

This is such a special story from beginning to end. I can’t even begin to imagine how beautiful this movie will be! The movie rights have already been purchased but the release date hasn’t been announced yet…READ THE BOOK FIRST! I can promise that even if the movie will be amazing, there is just no way it can capture the depth of the book. I can already say with DEFINITE clarity that the book is better 🙂

When books are overly hyped I find myself either LOVING or HATING them but rarely are my feelings somewhere in the middle.  This book deserves every single bit of hype it has received.  Delia Owens wrote such a lovely story.  I smiled, I cried, I loved it all.

I do have 2 issues with this book:

1. The absolute biggest issue that I have with this book is how the synopsis on the cover is written. It sounds BORING. It’s not…it’s actually anything but. I’m not exactly sure how I would have written it differently but it just doesn’t do this book justice. If not for the hype surrounding this book there is NO way I would have picked this one up on my own. A big thank you to whomever gave this book a chance before it was popular and helped give it the popularity that it has so rightfully gained.

2. The imagery in this book is spectacular. The details used to describe even the tiniest of objects were amazing. There was only 1 thing not described well…the main character!!! For the first 1/3 of the book I pictured her with black skin until I finally Googled “What color is Kya’s skin in Where the Crawdads Sing?” because I was starting to think I was wrong. Sure enough…I (and apparently a whole lot of other people) was wrong! Once I got it in my head that her skin was white, I immediately pictured her as a shoulder length blond until they mentioned her long black hair about HALFWAY through the book. Ummm…what?! These details should have been solidified early on. Not to mention that I’m still not 100 percent sure I’m pronouncing her name correctly (I say it like Kaia which after another Google search I learned is also apparently how it’s pronounced in the audio version?? However, it’s supposed to be short for Catherine which makes makes me think that maybe it’s meant to be pronounced Ka?)

Even with these issues, I truly loved this story.  BEAUTIFUL!

It was so meant to be that there was that one random lone copy of this book on the library shelf.  This was the PERFECT book to help me though that first week with only 9 working toes!

This was the type of book where once I finished, I wasn’t emotionally ready to start reading another book right away…I LOVE WHEN THAT HAPPENS!  When characters truly make their way into my heart, I have a hard time “leaving them”…does this happen to anyone else????

**As I was working on this post, I noticed that it’s on sale for only $9.59 on Amazon today for a HARDCOVER copy!  Amazing deal!  Amazon Affiliate link below…**

Bottom Line:

Truly one of the best books I’ve ever read.  If you haven’t read this one yet…it’s a MUST.

Xo,

Jenny

Did you read this book?  What did you think?  I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

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