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Where the Crawdads Sing Paperback – Large Print, August 14, 2018
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Delia Owens
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Delia Owens
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Print length496 pages
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LanguageEnglish
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PublisherRandom House Large Print
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Publication dateAugust 14, 2018
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Dimensions6.13 x 1.03 x 9.24 inches
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ISBN-101984827618
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ISBN-13978-1984827616
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Lexile measure880L
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Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Delia Owens is the coauthor of three internationally bestselling nonfiction books about her life as a wildlife scientist in Africa. She holds a BS in Zoology from the University of Georgia and a PhD in Animal Behavior from the University of California at Davis. She has won the John Burroughs Award for Nature Writing and has been published in Nature, The African Journal of Ecology, and International Wildlife, among many others. She lives in the mountains of North Carolina. Where the Crawdads Sing is her first novel.
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Product details
- Publisher : Random House Large Print; Large type / Large print edition (August 14, 2018)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 496 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1984827618
- ISBN-13 : 978-1984827616
- Lexile measure : 880L
- Item Weight : 1.1 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.13 x 1.03 x 9.24 inches
-
Best Sellers Rank:
#14,561 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #545 in Coming of Age Fiction (Books)
- #1,788 in Literary Fiction (Books)
- #2,728 in American Literature (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
Customer reviews
4.8 out of 5 stars
4.8 out of 5
128,596 global ratings
How are ratings calculated?
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzes reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
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Reviewed in the United States on October 28, 2018
Verified Purchase
I was very disappointed in this book after reading all the hype about it. While the reading is good, the story is so nonsensical- a 6 year old left alone in a shack raises herself, living in the same shack, using the same boat, and no one lifts a hand to help her? In more than 20 years, the boat never breaks down, the house doesn't need repairs and she's able to wear the same clothes for many years....she's got long hair that she says is ratty and tangled but description s of it has it down her back, luxurious...she's gorgeous but bathing is optional until in her 20s...she has sex with a philanderer but never gets a vd and not once apparently does she get sick. No flu, cold, nothing....she never got shots and apparently has the immune system of a super hero because she stepped on a nail and never got tetanus....I kept reading so I'd finish and the ending is unexpected but it's generally a boring book where day after day, she's alone in the marsh....
6,306 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on January 27, 2019
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I was sure I would like this book..and actually finished it. I grew more irritated with each page by the last half. I grew up in coastal North Carolina and was born in the 40s, so would be the same age as the main characters. It was clear that the author did not do her research about the area and about what would be plausible at the time of the story. When she mentioned real towns, she should have known Asheville would not be the destination city from the coast, especially in the 60s. Ma's old cardboard suitcase that had been in the closet in the marsh for 19 years would be covered in mildew, Fireflies would have been called lightening bugs. No boy in a small town in NC would have been named either Tate or Chase in 40s, more recent popular names. I could go on and on. The inconsistencies in the dialect was grating, and many parts of the story were just not believable to me. I am amazed that so many people loved the book and the poetry.
3,247 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on October 1, 2018
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About half this book was good. Beautifully written at times, and with an interesting, sometimes plausible story. But wait...the gaps ...Maybe less time talking about Kya fumbling around with sex with Chase and more time on her development as a renowned author and painter would have been nice. There's more, but you may be reading the book. I must comment though on the most ridiculous court room antics since Curly's trial in a Three Stooges short. Oh, I think I just did. (And just after reading a book on Harper Lee - if you know what I mean). This was one of the most disappointing books I have read in quite a long time. Sorry Ms. Witherspoon. Can I get my money back if I return the book?
2,798 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on January 31, 2019
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I read a lot. Sometimes folks refer a title to me ... sometimes I don't ALWAYS 'adjust' to the referring individuals taste. My niece recommended this title and said, "It's not so much the story line ... even though that's VERY good ... but, the WRITING style. After the first pages, I was HOOKED. Love Ms. Owen's style. Descriptive, picturesque speech.

5.0 out of 5 stars
You'll NEVER Want To Leave
By Diane Parker on January 31, 2019
I read a lot. Sometimes folks refer a title to me ... sometimes I don't ALWAYS 'adjust' to the referring individuals taste. My niece recommended this title and said, "It's not so much the story line ... even though that's VERY good ... but, the WRITING style. After the first pages, I was HOOKED. Love Ms. Owen's style. Descriptive, picturesque speech.
By Diane Parker on January 31, 2019
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1,405 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on September 16, 2018
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This book had so many fantastic reviews. I was looking forward to reading it but quickly became disillusioned. I'm from NC and have never heard anyone talk with the type of accents Ms. Owens chose for her characters. It seems like a small thing but it was extremely distracting, and eventually became ridiculous, especially because the characters somehow switched back and forth between speaking like Mark Twain's Jim to perfect English. It made me wonder if the author has ever been to our fair state. The story was good enough, albeit predictable, and it's obvious the author did her research on marsh life. I learned quite a few wildlife facts that were interesting. The conversations just kept me wrinkling up my nose with distaste and I ended the book on a sour note.
1,908 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on August 19, 2018
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This is one of the most moving, caring, emotional novels I have ever read. I read this book only because I had met Delia and have read her wildlife books she wrote with husband Mark Owens. After starting the book this was all I could think about for days. Kya's life become part of mine and the characters ceased to live on the page... they were alive with me and I was in the marsh, feeling every feather - the air, creatures and the plants. Jumpin' became a trusted friend and so many moments touched my very soul. I should not have been surprised as Delia has a great style in her wildlife books that I love to read. But a novel like this is not my normal read. Maybe I need to now reconsider what I choose as this book stopped me cold and made me rethink a lot that happened in my life. Delia touched the human soul with her behavioral descriptions. She is not only a respected wildlife scientist, she is a human behaviorist and understands more about the human condition that just about anyone else I know. This is a tremendous treasure of a book and I'm sure it's staying in my read again list for a long time. Highly recommend the book.
1,704 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on September 3, 2018
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I am extremely stingy with my compliments for good books, but this tale is well-deserving of the praise. Of the last dozen or so books I've read, only two others earned five complete stars by me: She Read to Us in the Late Afternoons: A Life in Novels by Kathleen Hill, and Circe by Madeline Miller.
I have to confess that I have also had magical moments with marsh creatures such as herons, eagles, and mud turtles. Like the main character, Kya, I am a compulsive collector of treasures from those Great Rock Tumblers: the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean which makes this book so attractive to me. However, Delia Owens' writing is more than just about the natural world. She spins a good and very well-written tale about murder, courtroom drama, nature, poetry, and even love.
Another reviewer described Owens' writing as lyrical. It is. Take your time and savor every sentence.
I have to confess that I have also had magical moments with marsh creatures such as herons, eagles, and mud turtles. Like the main character, Kya, I am a compulsive collector of treasures from those Great Rock Tumblers: the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean which makes this book so attractive to me. However, Delia Owens' writing is more than just about the natural world. She spins a good and very well-written tale about murder, courtroom drama, nature, poetry, and even love.
Another reviewer described Owens' writing as lyrical. It is. Take your time and savor every sentence.
1,244 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on August 25, 2018
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Wow! I just finished reading Where the Crawdads Sing. And I will say it again, Wow! This books is so filled with emotion. Kya, the main character, is trying to survive by herself from a young age. She has been abandoned by those who should teach her, guide her, protect her. She has to fend for herself. Two men come into her life and teach her about the good and bad in life.
I only keep few book's that I know I will read again. This is staying in my library.
I only keep few book's that I know I will read again. This is staying in my library.
992 people found this helpful
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Eliza
1.0 out of 5 stars
Complete claptrap
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 18, 2019Verified Purchase
This story of a six-year-old child left to fend for herself in a Carolina swamp when her stereotype swamp-trash likker-sluggin' pa finally doesn't come home again (we're not told why - hopefully an alligator ate him), is an exercise in cliches. We are asked to believe that this beautiful (natch), sensitive, artistic blah blah little girl raises herself from barefoot illiteracy to womanhood and published fame as a naturalist, with three self-illustrated books on marshland flora and fauna. She is taught to read and overnight to abandon her swamp patois for highbrow English by, gosh, a boy who falls in love with her, and manages to educate her to university level with some textbooks. Said boy, having achieved this Pygmalion-like transformation, then departs to do his own high-class degree, promising to return to his true love, who hangs around the swamp waiting. But he doesn't return because alas! he realises she is a wild creature, a child of nature who would never fit into civilisation, and so on. So he passes on coming back to claim her and Swamp Girl's heart broken. She has a fling with the baddie of the piece, another walking cliche - handsome, privileged, all the girls want to go to the prom with him - and predictably he breaks her heart by marrying an appropriate girl who wears shoes and pearls. Really at this point I was ready to give up on the novel, but there is a murder involved and I wanted to find out whodunnit. The murder itself is just a device and fails hopelessly. The trial is ludicrous, the murder allegations are based on evidence that no prosecuting counsel, fictional or otherwise, would have even remotely considered sound, and the attempts to build suspense during the jury's deliberations are just plain silly.
If this flimsy and wholly ridiculous plot line were in any way to be redeemed, it might have been through quality of writing because of the interesting environment of the swamp and its wildlife, but even in this the novel fails. The only passable passages are indeed the ones in which Ms Owens describes the swamp life. The dialogue is ridiculous, the love scenes are stitched together out of worn-out cliches, and the suspension of disbelief required of the reader is just asking way too much.
I have no doubt that Delia Owens is an excellent naturalist and ecologist and an asset to her field. But as a novelist, she doesn't cut it. Don't waste your money on this book.
If this flimsy and wholly ridiculous plot line were in any way to be redeemed, it might have been through quality of writing because of the interesting environment of the swamp and its wildlife, but even in this the novel fails. The only passable passages are indeed the ones in which Ms Owens describes the swamp life. The dialogue is ridiculous, the love scenes are stitched together out of worn-out cliches, and the suspension of disbelief required of the reader is just asking way too much.
I have no doubt that Delia Owens is an excellent naturalist and ecologist and an asset to her field. But as a novelist, she doesn't cut it. Don't waste your money on this book.
1,258 people found this helpful
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chocolateg
2.0 out of 5 stars
Huge disappointment.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 4, 2019Verified Purchase
After all the rave reviews I was expecting something exceptional but was completely underwhelmed. I felt the the characters were underdeveloped and the plot rushed and implausible. Wish I’d saved my money and waited until i could pick up a cheaper secondhand copy.
341 people found this helpful
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TripFiction
5.0 out of 5 stars
Poignant novel set in NORTH CAROLINA
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 18, 2019Verified Purchase
“There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot”
For months now – since it was the September 2018 Reece Witherspoon Hello Sunshine Book Club choice – I have seen nothing but glowing reviews of this seminal novel. It will, I am sure become a classic in its own right (there, I have already given away how I feel about the book!). The actress has also optioned the film rights for it.
This is the story of Kya, shortened from Catherine Danielle, who lives in the swampy marshes of North Caroline, not far from Asheville. Her mother walked out on her when she was young and she still has visions of her departure, suitcase in hand, faux snakeskin shoes, tripping her way down the track and out of sight. Her older siblings have also abandoned life in the little homestead, leaving her with her oftentimes drunk and violent father; he is around less and less as he fritters away any income, there is money neither for food nor clothes. To all intents and purposes she is abandoned by those who are important in her life and she is tasked with raising herself, this little “marsh girl” who has nothing in her life but the nature surrounding their hovel. The birds and wildlife are her companions. Oh, and she has access to her father’s small boat which gives her some mobility. She is adept at cruising the waterways.
Years pass and her loneliness becomes entrenched. Tate is drawn to this skinny young girl but ultimately he forsakes her for his studies, leaving her abandoned once again. Soon she is befriended by Chase, a dapper young man about town, a womaniser and who, we know, is found dead at the outset of the novel lying at the bottom of the Fire Tower. Natural suspicion amongst the nearby townsfolk falls on Kya because she is an oddball, she lives in poverty, she is different…. and she is female. Remember this is a time in American history when there was discrimination against anyone who was different to the overwhelmingly white populace. The author has an acute eye for capturing people, prejudices and small town life.
Kya, surrounded by the natural world starts to record what she sees and experiences. This holds her in good stead as her life develops. Yet she is no match as a single, lonely girl for the bigoted views held by those around her. A storm of prejudice and a need to see justice done, at any cost, whips through the community, targeting her as the only viable suspect in the murder case.
Loneliness is a theme throughout the novel that makes this a particularly heartfelt and poignant story.
What makes this a fabulous read are the rich descriptions, the language and the languorous pace that, just like the waterways, move the story along at just the right tempo. The setting comes to life beautifully. The writing and storytelling has been compared to the work of Barbara Kingsolver and I can really see why!
The title comes from common parlance in the area and means …far in the bush where critters are wild, still behaving like critters…
I was sad when this book came to an end and it is still vibrantly with me, a couple of weeks down the line. It indeed has all the hallmarks of a future classic!
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
For months now – since it was the September 2018 Reece Witherspoon Hello Sunshine Book Club choice – I have seen nothing but glowing reviews of this seminal novel. It will, I am sure become a classic in its own right (there, I have already given away how I feel about the book!). The actress has also optioned the film rights for it.
This is the story of Kya, shortened from Catherine Danielle, who lives in the swampy marshes of North Caroline, not far from Asheville. Her mother walked out on her when she was young and she still has visions of her departure, suitcase in hand, faux snakeskin shoes, tripping her way down the track and out of sight. Her older siblings have also abandoned life in the little homestead, leaving her with her oftentimes drunk and violent father; he is around less and less as he fritters away any income, there is money neither for food nor clothes. To all intents and purposes she is abandoned by those who are important in her life and she is tasked with raising herself, this little “marsh girl” who has nothing in her life but the nature surrounding their hovel. The birds and wildlife are her companions. Oh, and she has access to her father’s small boat which gives her some mobility. She is adept at cruising the waterways.
Years pass and her loneliness becomes entrenched. Tate is drawn to this skinny young girl but ultimately he forsakes her for his studies, leaving her abandoned once again. Soon she is befriended by Chase, a dapper young man about town, a womaniser and who, we know, is found dead at the outset of the novel lying at the bottom of the Fire Tower. Natural suspicion amongst the nearby townsfolk falls on Kya because she is an oddball, she lives in poverty, she is different…. and she is female. Remember this is a time in American history when there was discrimination against anyone who was different to the overwhelmingly white populace. The author has an acute eye for capturing people, prejudices and small town life.
Kya, surrounded by the natural world starts to record what she sees and experiences. This holds her in good stead as her life develops. Yet she is no match as a single, lonely girl for the bigoted views held by those around her. A storm of prejudice and a need to see justice done, at any cost, whips through the community, targeting her as the only viable suspect in the murder case.
Loneliness is a theme throughout the novel that makes this a particularly heartfelt and poignant story.
What makes this a fabulous read are the rich descriptions, the language and the languorous pace that, just like the waterways, move the story along at just the right tempo. The setting comes to life beautifully. The writing and storytelling has been compared to the work of Barbara Kingsolver and I can really see why!
The title comes from common parlance in the area and means …far in the bush where critters are wild, still behaving like critters…
I was sad when this book came to an end and it is still vibrantly with me, a couple of weeks down the line. It indeed has all the hallmarks of a future classic!
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

5.0 out of 5 stars
Poignant novel set in NORTH CAROLINA
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 18, 2019
“There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot”Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 18, 2019
For months now – since it was the September 2018 Reece Witherspoon Hello Sunshine Book Club choice – I have seen nothing but glowing reviews of this seminal novel. It will, I am sure become a classic in its own right (there, I have already given away how I feel about the book!). The actress has also optioned the film rights for it.
This is the story of Kya, shortened from Catherine Danielle, who lives in the swampy marshes of North Caroline, not far from Asheville. Her mother walked out on her when she was young and she still has visions of her departure, suitcase in hand, faux snakeskin shoes, tripping her way down the track and out of sight. Her older siblings have also abandoned life in the little homestead, leaving her with her oftentimes drunk and violent father; he is around less and less as he fritters away any income, there is money neither for food nor clothes. To all intents and purposes she is abandoned by those who are important in her life and she is tasked with raising herself, this little “marsh girl” who has nothing in her life but the nature surrounding their hovel. The birds and wildlife are her companions. Oh, and she has access to her father’s small boat which gives her some mobility. She is adept at cruising the waterways.
Years pass and her loneliness becomes entrenched. Tate is drawn to this skinny young girl but ultimately he forsakes her for his studies, leaving her abandoned once again. Soon she is befriended by Chase, a dapper young man about town, a womaniser and who, we know, is found dead at the outset of the novel lying at the bottom of the Fire Tower. Natural suspicion amongst the nearby townsfolk falls on Kya because she is an oddball, she lives in poverty, she is different…. and she is female. Remember this is a time in American history when there was discrimination against anyone who was different to the overwhelmingly white populace. The author has an acute eye for capturing people, prejudices and small town life.
Kya, surrounded by the natural world starts to record what she sees and experiences. This holds her in good stead as her life develops. Yet she is no match as a single, lonely girl for the bigoted views held by those around her. A storm of prejudice and a need to see justice done, at any cost, whips through the community, targeting her as the only viable suspect in the murder case.
Loneliness is a theme throughout the novel that makes this a particularly heartfelt and poignant story.
What makes this a fabulous read are the rich descriptions, the language and the languorous pace that, just like the waterways, move the story along at just the right tempo. The setting comes to life beautifully. The writing and storytelling has been compared to the work of Barbara Kingsolver and I can really see why!
The title comes from common parlance in the area and means …far in the bush where critters are wild, still behaving like critters…
I was sad when this book came to an end and it is still vibrantly with me, a couple of weeks down the line. It indeed has all the hallmarks of a future classic!
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
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152 people found this helpful
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JamieM
5.0 out of 5 stars
LOVE how different this is
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 9, 2019Verified Purchase
This book was so amazing, firstly just because of how different it is! I find there's so many of the same (now boring) books out there that once I found this I couldn't put it down!! It is so interesting reading from the perspective of Kya, starting from when she is very young and how she learns to survive on her own, her outlook on the world from living so isolated for so long. The beautiful descriptions of the land and the marsh, I have never been to the marshes but the way Cordelia describes it through Kya it is so easy to imagine!! Love love loved this!! A story about nature, growing up, coming of age and survival. 10/10.
60 people found this helpful
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Julie
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not a bestseller for me ...
Reviewed in Canada on September 6, 2019Verified Purchase
I don’t understand how or why this book made it on to the NYT bestseller list?? I found it to be implausible and unrelatable. Kya, a completely uneducated urchin has raised herself alone in a marsh from the age of six. By the time she’s not yet even reached adulthood, she’s magically become a world renowned marine biologist having written and illustrated several books? And she has her own publicist...*insert skeptical face* The plot made no sense. Characters were poorly developed, unbelievable, and I just didn’t really care about any of them. Not a bestseller for me on any level.
66 people found this helpful
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