Surprising and beautiful. I think I fell in love with its restraint.

This review is in exchange for a free e-galley from netgalley.com.

Cute story! I listened to it and the narration was really good. I don’t know that it lived up to its hype but a solid good book!

Oh wow. Put some time away for this book. It has all the ingredients for a terrific book and probably my best read of the Year. All the stars!!!

No spoilers from me. Book is great with lots of lies, romance, tragedy, and twists. Also, loved the ending. Can't say enough great about this. Read it today!!

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this fabulous book.

Usually a book has to grab me quickly or I tend to walk away from it. The character Kya I found interesting right from the beginning and I enjoyed watching her journey and the ways she evolved and learned. The supporting characters are also quite endearing. I loved how atmospheric the story was, set in the marshes of North Carolina. If you are interested in character-focused stories, true crime novels, or historical fiction, I think you'll enjoy this one. 5/5 stars. (I have mixed feelings about the ending. Still a wonderful book.)

I loved this book in a million ways! Kya is one of the strongest female characters I’ve ever encountered. Her story was filled with gorgeous imagery, loss, love and triumph.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me a free e-ARC to review.

Oh Kya...why does everyone leave you? I just want to reach out and give her a big hug. This story covers the relationships between family and the friends you choose to be your family. No matter the harshness humanity threw at Kya, she learned the lessons to survive from life in the marsh she called home. Every page aches of the loneliness and the story slowly unfolds in the rolling southern drawl of North Carolina. The author's prose is descriptive and reads like the poetry that is scattered throughout the book.

I loved this book so much. If you've never had the luxury, yes luxury, of seeing a marsh, this book will take you there. I immediately became entranced and committed to the story and to Kya. My heart ached with her and for her and there were times I purposefully slowed down to relish in the story. This isn't a read in one sitting book, and I mean in the most positive way. I really didn't want to read at one point, fearing the ending would leave me in a pile of mush, which it did. Beautifully written and wonderfully sculpted story.

Thank you for the advanced copy of this book. My reviews can be found on my GoodReads page at https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1335387-kelly.

Loved this book! This book is so many wonderful elements wrapped in one. There is a murder mystery to be solved. There is love both romantic and familial. There is a story of survival. Just wow! The writer writes beautifully. Her words were a joy to read. Kya's, "swamp girl" loneliness is palpable...you can really feel the emotions of all the characters.

This was an exceptional Southern literary fiction set against the atmospheric marshes of North Carolina. We follow a young girl, Kya, and her progression through life on the outskirts of society. Simultaneously, we also follow chapters with a murder investigation set ahead of Kya’s childhood narrative, instantly trying to connect the dots how the two narrative threads overlap. The beautifully drawn characters and eerie sense of place captivated my imagination and had me transported, puttering along in a motorboat with Kya! I genuinely was hooked from page one and was blown away by the ending. Easily one of the best stories I have read this year (worth the hype, y’all!).

This is the story of Kya, a marsh girl in the south who is abandoned by the people she loves one by one. She is a resilient, smart girl who, when left to her own devices, manages to survive. I loved the way each chapter moved back and forth in Kya’s life. Even though author Delia Owens doesn’t share the events in Kya’s life in chronological order, they come to give the reader a full perspective of how Kya survives and why she makes the choices she does. I absolutely LOVED this book!! After I finished, I kept saying “what a great book” aloud to myself. I recommend it to anyone that loves to read southern stories, stories with strong women, stories of families, love stories, ok, really, I will recommend it to anyone that can read!!

5 star Thank you to NetGalley and G.P. Putnam's and Sons for the opportunity to read and review this book. Published August 14, 2018.

Seldom does a book leave you with a warm and completed feeling. Especially one revealing a murderer in its closing paragraphs. But this is the book that managed to do just that.

Delia Owens introduces you to a wonderful list of characters. Then she sends them on their way to circle around one little waif of a girl, as she tries to circumvent isolation and loneliness. Kya, known to others as the Marsh Girl, lives a lonely life in an old marsh cabin, left on her own from an early age, trying to understand and accept her solitary existence.

Long after I have put this book down I will be thinking of the characters and setting. Both were exquisitely written. Within just a few pages you are drawn into this world. You are set down in a marshland, taken back, where things were, as they always have been. Space, time and distance melt away and you are there, silently moving alongside the characters, bringing them to life. Smelling the brackish water, hearing the drone of insects, watching the birds fly. The author gives you the visual, the characters give you the familiarity.

This is a book that will take your breath away. Not one to be missed.

What a beautifully written, tragic, yet strength-filled novel "Where The Crawdads Sing" is. I am going to encourage all my readers and friends to read this book. Kya is smart, extremely so, she is naturally strong for a girl who was abandoned at such a young age. I fell in love with her from Delia Owens' first introduction of Kya. This novel brings so many emotions to the reader: anger at the adults in Kya's life; laughter when she starts experiencing her first kiss. Joy when she decides to stand up for herself and not hide anymore and terror at her unthinkable situation which she is thrust into which then causes a feeling of admiration when you realize her situation does not hold her back. Delia Owens' characters are rich in detail even down to the minute background characters. Her world is filled with vivid, breathing life that unless you have lived in a marsh or deep into nature as Kya does, you would never know existed. This is a book I will re-read again just to find out if there is anything else I can glean from Kya and her outlook on life. Thank you Penguin books and NetGalley for the chance to read this beautiful novel in lieu of my honest opinion. I have enjoyed every second of it.



5 stars!!!

Where the Crawdads Sing is such a beautiful unputdownable book. The storytelling is phenomenal and settings so vivid that I felt immersed in the surroundings myself.. Kya "Marsh Girl" is no stranger to continuous heartbreak and abandonment. She is resilient is spite of everything that she has been dealt and I kept hoping something good would come her way. Throw in a bit of a love story and a murder in town and this book has it all. down to well developed characters. Definitely a book for my favorites shelf. I can't wait to see what else Delia Owens will come out with in the future.

Kya Clark is only 6 years old when she watches her mom walk down the lonely road that takes her away from their cabin, and off into an unknown world. Soon after Kya’s four older siblings begin to slowly depart their home far out in the marsh off the coast of North Carolina. Finally it is only Kya, the youngest, left with their alcoholic and abusive father, whose only effort at caretaking is to teach Kya how to fish, and how to start and steer their boat. After that she is pretty much on her own.
Kya tried going to school, for one day; after that she evades the truancy officers who infrequently make their way through the marsh to try to find her or a parent.
Kya is a character that will win your heart. She is lonely, and sad, but also bright and inquisitive, navigating her way through the marsh by trial and error, finding food for both she and her Dad by digging clams, and foraging for edible plants. As her father continues to disappear more and more often, finally leaving altogether when Kya is around 10, she becomes increasingly independent and resourceful, but also isolated and distrustful of the outside world. A few friends along the way begin to rebuild her trust, and become her champions when the outside world grows critical and judgmental.
And there is a murder mystery along the way, which becomes a part of Kya’s story.
Besides the wonderful character of Kya, I was won over by the lush descriptions this author employs in telling of the natural life that surrounds Kya; she writes with a prose that makes the marsh, the insects, plants, trees, water, and wind, come alive. And on the coast, the same vibrancy is given to the sea-life, waves and ocean. I love finding this kind of beautiful language used to describe the natural world that is the setting in a fiction book; for me it adds such richness to the story.
My thanks to NetGalley, author Delia Owens, and publisher, G.P. Putnam's Sons, for the copy of this book I was provided.

This is Reese Witherspoon’s book of September and I see exactly why she chose it. It leaves you feeling a lot of different emotions. It also keeps you turning page after page to see what happens with Kya, the Marsh Girl.

Kya lives in a rundown shack off the coast of North Carolina. Her family is what they call trash. Her mother leaves one day and then all her siblings, leaving her alone with her drunken father. He too leaves at one point. This poor little girl, just a child, is left feeling that rejection is a part of life. Her loneliness is palpable. The steeling of her heart is understandable. It was heartbreaking to read. Kya is one with all the water creatures, birds, and plants of the marsh. They become everything to her. The story tells us of her growing up into womanhood, without much help from anyone else. There is Tate, a boy with more ties to her than she really knows. He is such a good man but he does have his faults. There is also Jumpin and Mabel. In a segregated town, Kya finds a family in them, They are two wonderful characters.

A member of the town is murdered, someone with close ties to Kya and the murder trial and her confinement are a big part of the storyline. Everyone blames those who are different, don’t they?

This book had me in knots at times. I just wanted to hug this poor little girl and tell her that she was worth it. As she got older, she reminded me of Debbie Reynolds in Tammy. Maybe she didn’t have the right way of talking but she had some spunk. Watching as she grew into a woman who accomplished a lot, was the purest joy of this book. And I felt some incredible justice with the ending, even if that’s wrong.

The description of the marsh and the surrounding area, made me feel as if I was there. I am going to look up the birds that are mentioned as soon as I finish this review.

This is truly a story of survival and the human spirit. You will fall in love with Kya.

Thanks to Netgalley and G.R. Putnam’s Sons for this wonderful review copy.

Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Group Putnam for my free copy.

This was just picked as Reese Witherspoon book club pick and I say GREAT CHOICE!

This has to be one of my favorite books of the year! 

The story moves between the 1950’s and the late 1960’s in the marshes of the North Carolina coast. It is a story of loneliness, abandonment, murder, survival but also a story of love and trust.

The writing is beautiful and descriptive. The characters have depth and you grow to care so much about them.

I read this in ebook format but will be purchasing a physical book to keep on my shelves as one of my favorites! This will be a book I recommend for a very long time!

My favorite quote is:

“Autumn leaves don't fall, they fly. They take their time and wander on this their only chance to soar.”

I would have loved to have Reeves this book. When I was given the Advanced Reader’s copy weeks ago I immediately went to put in on Adobe Digital Editions and the file was corrupted. Not only would this book not work it messed with the other two books I had in First Editions from Penguin First To Read. I intend on still reading the book and am sure it is amazing but I can’t really accurately rate it at this time due to the fact that something went really wrong when I went to download it. It was my first time using NetGalley as well which stinks because now it appears I have a negative feedback rating :-(

Hands down, best book I've read this year! From violence of an abusive father, the abandonment of a child, to the beauty of the marsh, Where the Crawdads Sing is beautiful, lyrical and haunting. Kya Clark is left on her own to survive in the marsh as a child and survive she did! She made a life in the marsh with no education or help from the village that shunned her because she is different. When a local man is discovered dead, the village believes that Kya, the Marsh Girl, is responsible. Clear some time to sit down and read this book!!

I was hesitant to read this book because it had so much hype behind it. Every where I turned people gushed about how good it was and how everyone needs to read this book. I finally picked it up and I didn't want to put it down!

Delia Owens crafted a wonderful, lyrical book. Not only do the Crawdads Sing in this one but so does the author. Her words spoke to me. It was like her words were just one long poem or song. It has been a long time since i have felt this way over a book. This one really deserves the 5 stars I have rewarded it.

The main character Kya Clark grows up in front of your eyes. She is strong. She stands up for herself. She is a modern day Scout.

Delia's writing transports you to North Carolina. She creates such an atmosphere that you really feel like you are there. Her characterization is so vivid. You fell like you know Tate, Kya, Jumpin' Mabel and Chase.

Pick up this book. Believe the hype. This debut novel is beautiful in every sense of the word. I feel like you will see these characters on the movie screen someday.