Where the Crawdads Sing

By: Delia Owens

Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell

Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's Summary

Number One New York Times Best-Selling Phenomenon

More than six million copies sold worldwide

A Reese Witherspoon x Hello Sunshine Book Club Pick

A Business Insider Defining Book of the Decade

"I can't even express how much I love this book! I didn't want this story to end!" (Reese Witherspoon)

"Painfully beautiful." (The New York Times Book Review)

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.

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.

©2018 Delia Owens (P)2018 Penguin Audio

Critic Reviews

"Narrator Cassandra Campbell serves up a bushel of Carolina accents in this debut novel by nature writer Delia Owens. Campbell's accents give the mix of classes and regions in the story the same realistic detail Owens provides for the marsh.... Prepare to be enchanted and haunted." (AudioFile)

"A lush debut; Owens delivers her mystery wrapped in gorgeous, lyrical prose." (Alexandra Fuller, author of Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight)  

“A painfully beautiful first novel that is at once a murder mystery, a coming-of-age narrative and a celebration of nature.... Owens here surveys the desolate marshlands of the North Carolina coast through the eyes of an abandoned child. And in her isolation that child makes us open our own eyes to the secret wonders - and dangers - of her private world.” (The New York Times Book Review)

“Steeped in the rhythms and shadows of the coastal marshes of North Carolina’s Outer Banks, this fierce and hauntingly beautiful novel centers on.... Kya’s heartbreaking story of learning to trust human connections, intertwine[d] with a gripping murder mystery, revealing savage truths. An astonishing debut.” (People)

Don't listen to the negative reviews.

First off, I'm a 29 year old low key nerdy male who watches NBA, NFL, shoots guns, plays basketball, races turbo cars and crotch rockets and loves zombie stuff and horror.

This is the first book like this I have read since high school. I hate anything romance, this is a subtle romance book.

All the reviews were what led me to this and they did not disappoint. Anyone who has anything negative to say is probably too close minded to accept the sheer brilliance and beauty of this book. The narrator and her accents add so much to the story.

The way the author depicts the south makes you feel like you had grown up there and everything is spot on. I guess I could see why someone wouldn't particularly love this but I would just assume they weren't intellectual or philosophical enough to appreciate it, Anyone who likes to step outside their comfort zone and see things from another perspective will like this.

193 people found this helpful

Not sure how this book has such high ratings

I was so bored listening to this book to the point of almost not finishing it. I also had a very hard time with the narrator's voices she chose for the characters. I found it very distracting and really couldn't stand Kya's voice.

There was way too much dialogue, slow moving storyline, uninteresting characters, and anticlimactic twist at the end. I know I'm in the minority here, but I just couldn't get into it.

194 people found this helpful

Not worth the hipe.

Struggle to finish. Narrator had fake southern accent that was annoying.
Story was not interesting.

102 people found this helpful

I KNEW from the title that this book wasn't for me

...but I wasted a credit on it anyway because it was a choice for Reese Witherspoon's book club and the preponderance of 5-star ratings, which I just don't understand. The premise strains belief; Kya's family abandons her as a child - her father, mother, older sisters and older brother leave her to her own devices in a decrepit shack in the marsh. But somehow, without help, she manages. Her relationship with Chase also doesn't ring true, but that's a necessary part of the story. The writing is pat and cliched.
The narration of dialog was awful - very exaggerated and I would say lower class speech, even for the judge and lawyers, who would have been educated and speak with a more scholarly dialect, but the narrator doesn't seem to know the difference. She must not be from these parts or she would know better. Her delivery of the narrative parts of the book was fine and unaccented. Kya's voice never develops any grown-up confidence, even after she becomes a mostly self-educated author of scientific books and and an authority on marsh wildlife; it remains shy and child-like.

76 people found this helpful

Im sorry I wasted a credit on this book

The narrator made this story so hard to listen to. In trying to make the characters sound ignorant, she made them sound like they all had speech impediments. She was slow and drawn out. Her performance really ruined the story for me.

106 people found this helpful

Sappy

I probably would have liked the book more if I had read it, but the narrator has a simpering voice with a fake southern accent that I could never get past.

102 people found this helpful

Alright, but dreadfully slow

Beautiful descriptions of coastal NC. Story is a bit implausible. Seems over rated to me, but I can understand why some listeners would really enjoy this book. The geography of North Carolina is a bit off. No one drives from the Outer Banks to Ashville to run errands. That is hundreds of miles. Rocky Mount would be more plausible.

Enjoy, if you like this genre.

50 people found this helpful

This book drove me nuts

I'm pretty sure this author has never been to North Carolina. It's set on the NC coast and mentions Asheville about a dozen times. Asheville is in the mountains, about an 8-hour drive from the coast. No one would "run to Asheville" from there to buy supplies or a bicycle or a suit. It's just ludicrous. And with all those mentions of a far away mountain town, the Outer Banks are never mentioned at all! Has she even looked at a map of NC? I don't know why the author didn't choose to set this story in her home state of Georgia, where there are also marshes, and where she'd presumably know the geography. I finished this, but it was a struggle. The story was ridiculous in so many ways, and the characters weren't believable. Maybe if I didn't live in NC and wasn't aware of the glaring geographical absurdities, I could overlook some of the book's other faults, but it was just too much for me. The narration annoyed me, too. The breathy, childlike voice she chose for Kya was grating, as was her over-enunciated sing-song performance. I know she's a favorite of many, but I'm not a fan.

163 people found this helpful

Boring

Kept hoping the story would pick up. It was painfully boring. Don’t get all the acclaim...

74 people found this helpful

Why is this book so popular?

I do not understand why this book is so popular. The story is uneven and difficult to believe, the characters are one-dimensional, and the ending was predictable. The narration gave the main character a breathy childish tone that rarely changed. We hear a lot about rare feathers and being left behind. It took a long time to set the backstory for the eventual conflict and it wasn't worth the wait.

111 people found this helpful

Beautiful

A beautiful story, beautifully read. I loved this from start to finish, the narrator brought the story and characters to life, I didn’t want it to end!

1 person found this helpful

This book truly touched my soul.

A wonderful beautiful book which makes you feel breathtakingly lonely and ecstatic with happiness all together.

1 person found this helpful

Lovely Listeb

It's a slow burner, but what a lovely listen. Very poetic, it's an ode to nature. Very well written. I really enjoyed it. Worth it!

One of the best reads I had by far in a long

One of the best reads I had by far in a long. What a true heroine!

wow

this is simply beautiful. I could not stop listening to this hauntingly sad and at the same time uplifting tale.

Haunting and gripping

Although there are some overblown descriptions of the marshes and lagoons the essence of this story is good. It interweaves well between past and present to tell the story of a murder.
You cannot help but be drawn into the lonely life of the Marsh Girl and find out whodunnit.

Amazing

My favourite book this year! Owen’s vivid depiction of marsh life and an abandoned child unraveled into this masterpiece of story telling with themes so current and ancient at the same time. I could not stop listening.