Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

This is review #2 for today 9/7/21.

Full disclosure, I actually read this in 2019 for another purpose (one of my former side gigs), so I could not review it here.  This is the Teachers' Book Club selection for September 2021, and since I no longer have said side gig, I figure after two years I can review it here.  

I. Love. This. Book.  

And apparently so do many of you, because I can't keep it on the shelf.  Thus, once we decided to make this a selection, I bought it again to donate a second copy.  You KNOW a book has to be good for me to dedicate space to a 2nd!  I read this over this weekend to prepare.  I'm eagerly awaiting our club's meeting!

Kya is a small child, the youngest in a poor family living on the marshy coast of North Carolina.  Her older siblings and mother leave to escape her abusive alcoholic father, who eventually leaves her too.  Kya learns to survive on her own, harvesting mussels and smoking fish and tending a garden. A young man named Tate teaches her to read, but she is also pursued by Chase, the star quarterback (moreso as the wild Marsh Girl than actual love).  

in 1969, Chase is found murdered in the marsh, and Kya (poor, uneducated) is the primary suspect. 

I don't want to spoil any more.  You HAVE to read this, and you HAVE to keep reading until the very end.  I can tell you that Ms. Marcella jumped up off her couch accidentally flinging one of her cats she was so shocked.  I cried the first time and I cried again Sunday.  

I will be adding this to our collection as soon as my printer is fixed and I can make labels again.

Remember that all opinions expressed on this blog or the video version of it are solely those of Mrs. W.