Recently I have read a book that completely blew my mind with it’s brilliance and I want to talk about it. Where the Crawdads Sing first published in 2018, on August 14th. I purchased my own copy, Croatian edition. It was the first time that I have read something in my first language after years of reading exclusively in English.
About the book:
FROM GOODREADS /
For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet fishing village. Kya Clark is barefoot and wild; unfit for polite society. So in late 1969, when the popular Chase Andrews is found dead, locals immediately suspect her.
But Kya is not what they say. A born naturalist with just one day of school, she takes life’s lessons from the land, learning the real ways of the world from the dishonest signals of fireflies. But while she has the skills to live in solitude forever, the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. Drawn to two young men from town, who are each intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new and startling world—until the unthinkable happens.
In Where the Crawdads Sing, Owens juxtaposes an exquisite ode to the natural world against a profound coming of age story and haunting mystery. Thought-provoking, wise, and deeply moving, Owens’s debut novel reminds us that we are forever shaped by the child within us, while also subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.
The story asks how isolation influences the behavior of a young woman, who like all of us, has the genetic propensity to belong to a group. The clues to the mystery are brushed into the lush habitat and natural histories of its wild creatures.
Review:
As a reader, you come across good and bad books, some of them stand out, some of them touch you irreversibly, some even change your life in a way, and few you dare to call a masterpiece. And there are only few books you read in your life that stand out from others with it’s brilliance, quality and the feeling they gave you. You know you read a book that will stay with you forever, has find it’s place on your “favourite shelf” before you even finish, and you can’t find anything that can be compared to it.
For me, Where the Crawdads Sing was that book.
This novel was on my tbr list for what feels like years now, and although I expected to like it, with so many amazing reviews it also intimidated me.
With the movie coming out in theaters, I decided that it was finally a time to give it a shot, and I also called my friend Amanda to join me on this reading journey.
And what a journey it was! The one, if it was happening in real life, Ben Fogle wouldn’t miss a chance to witness.
The story follows Kya who, ever since she was a little girl, survives on her own, surrounded with nature near the marsh.
Observing the nature, she also compares it to life and people she is familiar with.
I learned so many new things from this book, and I am very grateful for it.
The beautiful writing style is astonishing and incomparable to anything I’ve read before.
The writer captured nature in all it’s rawness and beauty and she also managed to show the beauty and the ugliness of people.
This book touched me dearly, made me care for some characters and hate some too, and what I appreciate the most, it opened my mind to new things and also made me laugh out loud while I was reading a science article about frogs.
One of my friends said this is maybe the best book she has read in her life. Now, when I also read it, I umderstand her statement and couldn’t agree more.
Book Dust Magic 