I read this book a few months ago (maybe December?) after waiting a bit for it to become available. It is Ms. Owens’ debut novel, and a pretty big success at that for a first novel.
This book switches between two timelines. One is in 1969 (It’s been a while since I read the book so I had to look up these dates on the preview of the ebook on Amazon :), which starts out with a glimpse of a dead man in the swamps of North Carolina below a fire tower. It’s slowly revealed that it is Chase Andrews, the golden boy of the town. The sheriff begins to suspect murder. In the earlier timeline, in 1952, we meet Kya Clark, only about seven, I believe. Her mother leaves the family, walking away from her children with only a blue suitcase in hand, fed up and perhaps even mentally damaged by her husband’s abuse. There are a few other children around, including Kya’s brother Jodie, but they soon leave as well because of their father’s verbal and physical abuse. Kya is left to fend for herself. Her dad stops his drinking and abuse for a while and they get along for a while, but he soon leaves too. Kya has an unsuccessful try at attending school and though she has a few friends, including Jumpin’, a man who owns a gas station, and who she sells fish to, and his wife Mabel, most of the town doesn’t know her and doesn’t want to, thinking instead that she is odd and outcast. A young man named Tate befriends and helps her, but after he goes to college she is alone again until… well, a lot of other things happen but I’m afraid I’ll spoil plot points if I keep going on. She is also a wonderful artist and knows much about the swamp.
It’s been a while since I read this, so forgive any mistakes in the plot or in my thoughts about it. I did like this book a lot, but it was quite sad. Also there was some sexual content and violence, so this is definitely an adult book. However, it is a very good book. I enjoyed the resilience of Kya and her determination to live and make a home for herself. However, it was very sad to see her wish for love and friendship that just kept getting thwarted. Probably Jumpin’ and Mabel were my favorite characters because they were so caring and loving toward Kya. It was interesting to see that since Kya didn’t have morals taught to her, her morals came from the swamp, from the nature around her, which led to certain other events in this book (don’t want to spoil so hopefully that’s not too vague if you have read this). I was also thinking of Tate’s friendship with Kya, it is definitely an encouragement to us to befriend those who may seem odd or outcast instead of judging or leaving them outcast, because we never know what has happened to them to make them the way they are. Especially for Christians, we should realize that all people are worth getting to know and sharing the love of Christ with. However, unlike Tate, we should not abandon them because we think we are getting to be above them. I don’t remember anything else that jumps out as I think back on this story. Have you read Where the Crawdads Sing? What are your thoughts on it?
Do you have any other recommendations for me? I always love reading new stories!
Abby
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