Where The Crawdads Sing, Delia Owens - My Magic Book Journal

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Wednesday, February 6, 2019

Where the Crawdads Sing, Delia Owens

I have heard the title of this book from time to time over the last year. I didn't hear many opinions on it. I just heard someone ask others' opinion of it. One of the things I want to do this year is read a few more very recent tales. Mostly I love to let time act as a literary filter. But, I have decided to change this very old habit of mine this year. I don't know if anyone actually reads my blog: but if someone does, let it be known that spoilers will exist. The story covers the life of a girl, nicknamed Kya. The girl lives alone and is intensely lonely. She's been abandoned by everyone: her parents, her siblings. She is all alone. A few times people try to capture her as a child in order to take better care of her, but she manages to evade them all. She meets a few men, falls in love with one who leaves her, and falls in love with the idea of life with another before he chooses another woman for his wife. Owens' timeline shifts back and forth between Kya's life growing up, and the mystery surrounding a young man's death. The mystery is not entirely resolved until the very end when it is shown that Kya was in fact the person responsible for the death of the young man. The motive is established: he attempts to rape her and beats her badly enough that it takes her more than a month before she is fully physically recovered. But she constantly lives with the fear of him coming upon her and further visiting violence on her. During the trial, it seems quite absurd that she is suspected at all for the murder of the young man. This was no accidental murder: it was coldly calculated. She had an established alibi and witnesses. Timing was a major issue. It would seem nearly impossible for her to have done it at all. But it is not until the last chapter, when she has died and her partner has discovered a hidden trap door with her secrets hiding underneath, that it is revealed that she indeed was the author of the murder. I cannot imagine a sheriff or any decent investigator taking the whole affair to a court. Considering the witnesses and the alibi in favor of her not having done it vs. the witnesses of her having been in the area at the time would have made it difficult for a reasonable prosecutor to make the decision of taking on such a case. Color: for almost the entire book, I thought Kya was black. That is, until Owens described her as a white girl. I guess I don't know southern accents very well, so maybe that had something to do with me seeing her as black when she wasn't. I thought she came from a poor black family. Also, she associated with a black family better than any of the white families. But then, suddenly, she's white. I wonder if Owens did all of this intentionally: did she try to make me think that she was black and then suddenly, near to the end, revealed that she was white? If so, why? What's the point? If she hadn't meant to deceive me, why mention the color of the girl so suddenly and concretely? Another thing that jumped out at me was the character of Kya. She's been alone for so long, yet seems to have a better comprehension of human behavior than someone having lived in isolation ought to have had. Further, she goes from being barely literate to an academic superstar. She has been gifted with paints and canvas and becomes an expert in them, all by herself. Becoming an expert in anything in such isolation seems almost an absurd proposition. I guess, in a book which does not really exist within the framework of science fiction, or horror, and attempts a semblance of realism, ends up being scrutinized for realism in a way that I don't apply to works of the other genres. All of that said, I think that this novel is quite a remarkable achievement for a debut novel. It was very easy to read and enjoyable. Posted by at 9:57 AM Labels: best seller, contemporary fiction

29 comments:

  1. AneeshaJune 24, 2019 at 6:55 PM

    Same here, I also thought Kya was black and that was a big reason she was facing the discrimination at that time.

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    1. AnonymousJuly 22, 2020 at 11:41 AM

      Same. I’m now rereading to see who I thought that. I too wondered if it was intentional by the author and would love to ask her.

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  2. AlisonAugust 27, 2019 at 5:04 PM

    I too thought she was black ...at first. Then began to wonder if I'd missed it somewhere. Then it began to feel like an intentional mystery. I'm only half way so don't want to find out any more details but the race of Kya was killing me :)

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  3. MaggieSeptember 6, 2019 at 5:09 AM

    I’m surprised people thought she was black, in the very beginning as a 6 year old she was taken to school and promised a hot lunch, and describe the two segregated schools in her town, one for blacks, which was in “colored town” and one for whites, which was in downtown, which is the school the truant officer took her to the first day.

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    1. BorknardMarch 4, 2020 at 3:02 PM

      The following is the quote from the book. Where does it say that they took her to the white school?:"Barkley Cove had one school for whites. First grade through twelfth went to a brick two-story at the opposite end of Main from the sheriff’s office. The black kids had their own school, a one-story cement block structure out near Colored Town.When she was led into the school office, they found her name but no date of birth"

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    2. Sarah McClureJuly 31, 2020 at 7:36 AM

      I remember reading this and noting that they never said which school they took her too. I think it was on purpose to make it more ambivalent and maybe helps wider audience identify with her

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    3. KellyiwiAugust 26, 2020 at 2:52 AM

      There were blonde girls at school with her, so I assume the white kids school

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    4. A.J. WhiteJanuary 19, 2021 at 9:58 AM

      “Their own school” implies the other, as though she’s talking about a group to which she does not belong

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    5. Bubs & Honey Co.April 13, 2021 at 8:00 AM

      Either way, page 100 very clearly states she's "white trash". She also mentioned that her dad had used the N word like "a cuss word", so she knew it was a bad word.

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  4. UnknownOctober 30, 2019 at 11:21 AM

    She implied that she was black..she made it seem like she was at the black school.

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    1. KellyiwiAugust 26, 2020 at 2:51 AM

      Apart from the blonde girls at school with her

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    2. A.J. WhiteJanuary 19, 2021 at 9:57 AM

      No she didn’t. You assumed she was black because she was poor and ‘talked southern’

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  5. UnknownFebruary 18, 2020 at 8:30 AM

    I just finished this book and I have a couple notes to the above. 1. There are multiple mentions of Kya and her family being white and poor white trash. 2. This bloggers summation of the book is quite lacking. I think she is overly critical and she makes some of the finer points of the book seem trivial. This book is complex and very well written. It is full of feeling. I give it 5 stars.

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    1. UnknownJune 12, 2020 at 3:02 AM

      I loved this book..

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  6. MicahFebruary 22, 2020 at 5:52 PM

    Somewhere in the late beginning, it explained her skin color as “olive”. It’s too late, she will be a cute little black girl for the rest of the novel in my eyes

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  7. A.J. LentiniApril 20, 2020 at 4:09 PM

    Lol. I thoight she was black too interested just now when she was identified as white. I don't know why, bit I liked her better when she was black.

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  8. A.J. LentiniApril 20, 2020 at 4:11 PM

    Too late, she's now a beautiful mixed race iny eyes.

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  9. UnknownJuly 1, 2020 at 10:57 AM

    I never did think she was black. During that time there were so many very poor white families in that area. She was ostrasized by the towns people, mainly because of how she was basically raising herself out of context of social acceptance. She was challenged not only by survival, but by physical changes from 10 to 25 as a girl.

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  10. UnknownAugust 5, 2020 at 4:54 PM

    Same.

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  11. NinaAugust 15, 2020 at 4:24 AM

    Woah.. you could have put spoil alert in the title... I didn’t even start reading yet...no point now.

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  12. KellyiwiAugust 26, 2020 at 2:50 AM

    I thought she was colored....until she went to school. It said there was a separate school for the colored children and there were blonde kids who I assume are white at the one she was at....

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  13. UnknownSeptember 1, 2020 at 8:35 PM

    I’ve a question on the plot. How did Kya know yo meet Chase at the tower on the fatal night? Did I miss something?

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  14. BiggaBau55September 2, 2020 at 1:15 PM

    So, did she go by boat or walk to the tower?

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  15. RicardodoSeptember 14, 2020 at 10:16 AM

    The boat has to be favourite: a) the timeline is so tight b) fewer traces to clear up c) reasonable chance it was her spotted in the darkened boat. How she returns to the bus stop, gets into disguise somewhere, re-enters room unseen etc. is pretty mind boggling, but that’s what she is (:

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  16. RicardodoSeptember 14, 2020 at 10:17 AM

    The boat has to be favourite: a) the timeline is so tight b) fewer traces to clear up c) reasonable chance it was her spotted in the darkened boat. How she returns to the bus stop, gets into disguise somewhere, re-enters room unseen etc. is pretty mind boggling, but that’s what she is (:

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  17. merlotNovember 26, 2020 at 11:42 AM

    I also thought sky’s was black. She still is in my mind. Makes a better story!

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  18. A.J. WhiteJanuary 19, 2021 at 9:55 AM

    It was pretty clear from the beginning that the swamp people were considered poor white trash.

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    1. Bubs & Honey Co.April 13, 2021 at 8:05 AM

      Totally agree. Not sure where the confusion is!There's clear mention of her being "white trash", her dad using the N word like a cuss word so she knew it was bad, and how she'd never been to colored town before.

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  19. UnknownJanuary 25, 2021 at 7:27 PM

    a lovely story about a little girl growing up by herself - twists & turns - learning to read - loving two men - I couldn't put it down. Swamp birds & joys of nature as friends she paints, collects & gleans knowledge about people - the movie is coming soon.....

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