Where the Crawdads Sing
Sometimes you come across a book that just isn't for you. You can appreciate that it was well constructed. The characters were well-developed and believable. The symbolism was woven through. And yet, you just don't connect with it.
That was this book for me. Where the Crawdads Sing was basically fine. I might even recommend it in the future. It follows a girl who survives on her own in the North Carolina marshes after being abandoned by her mother, her siblings, and finally her father. She's knowledgeable and self-reliant, trading mussels and fish to get other supplies she needs. But she's also isolated, ditching the truant officer who shows up to take her to school and hiding from nearly everybody who comes across her.
Eventually a man in the nearby town is murdered, and everyone decides that she's done it. And while that murder mystery is the center of the book, it also feels secondary to this girl's loneliness and trauma.
I think maybe I'm not familiar enough with marshlands to appreciate this book. I have no real experience with them, and I had a hard time visualizing the setting. I also found the author's reliance on poetry distracting. Every emotional moment seems to be punctuated by another poem, and while that might work for some people, it didn't for me.
Ultimately, this book felt like something I'd read in high school. I could probably write a couple of essays about the use of man vs nature, the motif of secrets, the symbolism of the birds and insects. But then I'd move on to the next book and forget it. And that's likely what will happen now (except I don't have to write any essays).
That was this book for me. Where the Crawdads Sing was basically fine. I might even recommend it in the future. It follows a girl who survives on her own in the North Carolina marshes after being abandoned by her mother, her siblings, and finally her father. She's knowledgeable and self-reliant, trading mussels and fish to get other supplies she needs. But she's also isolated, ditching the truant officer who shows up to take her to school and hiding from nearly everybody who comes across her.
Eventually a man in the nearby town is murdered, and everyone decides that she's done it. And while that murder mystery is the center of the book, it also feels secondary to this girl's loneliness and trauma.
I think maybe I'm not familiar enough with marshlands to appreciate this book. I have no real experience with them, and I had a hard time visualizing the setting. I also found the author's reliance on poetry distracting. Every emotional moment seems to be punctuated by another poem, and while that might work for some people, it didn't for me.
Ultimately, this book felt like something I'd read in high school. I could probably write a couple of essays about the use of man vs nature, the motif of secrets, the symbolism of the birds and insects. But then I'd move on to the next book and forget it. And that's likely what will happen now (except I don't have to write any essays).
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