Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. Published August 14, 2018. Pages 368. 

This book is such an amazing coming of age book. I really loved all the descriptions of the marsh and the setting. It was so beautiful and descriptive. The author Delia Owens is a zoologist so that really contributed to her writing and I loved it.  

This book is about a girl, Kya the protagonist, who is isolated from her town, she is known as the Marsh Girl. She dealt with prejudice and discrimination since she grew up abonded by all of her family. She learned how to fend for herself, making a few connections with people. One of her main relationships is with Jumpin’ who is like a father figure to her. Another relationship she had was with a boy named Tate, who she knew since she was a little girl since her brother fished with him. He taught her how to read and showed her many new things. Once she was abandoned by her whole family, left alone in the marsh, Tate became her friend and soon a romantic partner. But he also left her, making Kya develop major trust issues. She soon meets Chase Andrews and they soon also become romantic partners. But he lied to her, he married another woman and made promises that weren’t kept. Tate comes back but he knows he wronged Kya, but they both are still in love with each other. They become friends again and Tate helps her publish books. 

The two main conflicts are Kya being abandoned and the murder of Chase Andrews. We see her face challenges being alone and isolated, but she learns how to fend for herself. This book switches between years, the past: where she was growing up alone, and the present: where she is on trial for the murder of Chase Andrews.  One of the main pieces of evidence is that the necklace he always wore wasn't on him when he died. There was evidence proving that she murdered him, but no solid evidence, so she was set free.Tate and become romantic partners again, they grow old together. At the end, Kya sadly passed at the age of 65. Tate is obviously devastated, he goes through Kya’s old stuff and finds a poem. She wrote this poem and it was about the murder of Chase Andrews, how she lured him and murdered him. Tate then found the necklace that was missing. He burned the poems and threw the necklace in the ocean, keeping Kya’s secret even after she died. 

This is one of my favorite books I’ve read this year, we watched Kya grow up as a young girl who was abandoned by her family, all the way until her death. We watched her become a woman. I loved Kya and Tate’s relationship so much, they had such a strong bond. They were connected by nature and I loved their story. I also enjoyed how when she was a little girl it was very slow paced and towards the end, it was really fast paced as they were growing older. This really illustrates that you should really enjoy your life as a teen and have fun experiences, it doesn’t last forever so you should enjoy it before it's gone. This book made me feel so many emotions and I cried many times throughout the book, just a little. This book does contain some inappropriate content, but I think most teens can handle it. It also contains abuse and assault. This is a book I will definitely reread because there is so much symbolism and themes, I would like to continuously read this to see how my perspective changes. This book is also becoming a movie, so I will definitely be checking that out!