Where the Crawdads Sing - Delia Owens

This has been on my list for aaaages after seeing it all over the place, and I can honestly say this was one of the best books I’ve read in a long long time! 

Delia Owens’ writing is stunning, captivating and mesmerising, transporting you to the beautiful marshland where Kya dwells. This is one of those novels you completely lose all sense of time and reality with, and I found myself wondering where I was half the time I was reading it. Set in the town of Barkley Cove on the North Carolina coast, and flitting between the years from 1952 through to 1969, we follow the solitary protagonist of Kya, who is abandoned by her family as a young girl, left to fend for herself in a modest house in the marshland and never attending school. With no education, she remains innocent and is deemed ‘simple’ by the townsfolk, who come to know her as the Marsh Girl. 

Spending her time with the creatures of the marsh, collecting shells and teaching herself about the natural world, she is oblivious to the world of the big city and its temptations. She meets a local boy who lives on the marsh who teaches her to read and about the biology of the creatures she studies, passing on his school textbooks for her to learn second-hand. They form a bond which is pushed to its limits when he leaves for university, a world totally beyond Kya’s comprehension. But everything changes for Kya when a popular local boy is found dead on the marsh in 1969. 

This book is at once heartbreaking, empowering and keeps you on the edge of your seat, simultaneously a Bildungsroman and a murder mystery. The twist at the end (no spoilers here!) had me jumping up out of my seat and fist pumping the air - totally unexpected! When reading the brilliant reviews of this novel I didn’t quite believe that it would live up to the hype, but it completely surpassed it. If you want a novel of true escapism, romance and thrilling mystery, please please make it this one!