Where the Crawdads Sing is a 2018 coming-of-age murder mystery novel by Delia Owens. The story follows Kya, who was abandoned as a young girl who raises herself in the marshlands of North Carolina. For years, rumors of the “marsh girl” haunted the town of Barkley Cove. Isolated from the rest of her community, Kya suddenly finds herself drawn between two young men from the town. However, after one of them is found dead, Kya becomes the leading suspect in the murder of a man with whom she was involved with. As the book goes on and the case begins to unfold, the judgment as to what happened becomes increasingly unclear as many secrets are revealed.

The imagery in this book is phenomenal, the scenery the author puts in your head while reading is incredible. I wasn’t fully influenced to read the book until I heard they were coming out with the movie in 2022. I soon realized that it wasn’t just a story, but an experience told through Kya the main character. The author does a great job of making you feel every bit of emotion Kya is feeling as she goes through being suspected of murder, and the love she has for two boys. Reading the book never truly got boring, as the chapters alternate between Kya’s past and the current investigation of the murder. Owens’s writing is very poetic and tells a story of survival, prejudice, love, loss, and loneliness.

I would highly recommend this book, especially if you’re into romance and mystery. I loved being able to almost be in on the investigation while reading. I would say the author’s targeted audience is younger girls who are still trying to find where they fit into society and who they are as a whole. Reading this as a teenager in high school can be very eye-opening and you can relate to Kya in multiple aspects. Overall, I would rate this book a 4.7 out of 5 stars. It was beautiful, capturing, and cleverly written.