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WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING

by Delia Owens ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 14, 2018

Despite some distractions, there’s an irresistible charm to Owens’ first foray into nature-infused romantic fiction.

A wild child’s isolated, dirt-poor upbringing in a Southern coastal wilderness fails to shield her from heartbreak or an accusation of murder.

“The Marsh Girl,” “swamp trash”—Catherine “Kya” Clark is a figure of mystery and prejudice in the remote North Carolina coastal community of Barkley Cove in the 1950s and '60s. Abandoned by a mother no longer able to endure her drunken husband’s beatings and then by her four siblings, Kya grows up in the careless, sometimes-savage company of her father, who eventually disappears, too. Alone, virtually or actually, from age 6, Kya learns both to be self-sufficient and to find solace and company in her fertile natural surroundings. Owens ( Secrets of the Savanna , 2006, etc.), the accomplished co-author of several nonfiction books on wildlife, is at her best reflecting Kya’s fascination with the birds, insects, dappled light, and shifting tides of the marshes. The girl’s collections of shells and feathers, her communion with the gulls, her exploration of the wetlands are evoked in lyrical phrasing which only occasionally tips into excess. But as the child turns teenager and is befriended by local boy Tate Walker, who teaches her to read, the novel settles into a less magical, more predictable pattern. Interspersed with Kya’s coming-of-age is the 1969 murder investigation arising from the discovery of a man’s body in the marsh. The victim is Chase Andrews, “star quarterback and town hot shot,” who was once Kya’s lover. In the eyes of a pair of semicomic local police officers, Kya will eventually become the chief suspect and must stand trial. By now the novel’s weaknesses have become apparent: the monochromatic characterization (good boy Tate, bad boy Chase) and implausibilities (Kya evolves into a polymath—a published writer, artist, and poet), yet the closing twist is perhaps its most memorable oddity.

Pub Date: Aug. 14, 2018

ISBN: 978-0-7352-1909-0

Page Count: 384

Publisher: Putnam

Review Posted Online: May 14, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2018

LITERARY FICTION

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HOUSE OF LEAVES

by Mark Z. Danielewski ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 6, 2000

The story's very ambiguity steadily feeds its mysteriousness and power, and Danielewski's mastery of postmodernist and...

An amazingly intricate and ambitious first novel - ten years in the making - that puts an engrossing new spin on the traditional haunted-house tale.

Texts within texts, preceded by intriguing introductory material and followed by 150 pages of appendices and related "documents" and photographs, tell the story of a mysterious old house in a Virginia suburb inhabited by esteemed photographer-filmmaker Will Navidson, his companion Karen Green (an ex-fashion model), and their young children Daisy and Chad.  The record of their experiences therein is preserved in Will's film The Davidson Record - which is the subject of an unpublished manuscript left behind by a (possibly insane) old man, Frank Zampano - which falls into the possession of Johnny Truant, a drifter who has survived an abusive childhood and the perverse possessiveness of his mad mother (who is institutionalized).  As Johnny reads Zampano's manuscript, he adds his own (autobiographical) annotations to the scholarly ones that already adorn and clutter the text (a trick perhaps influenced by David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest ) - and begins experiencing panic attacks and episodes of disorientation that echo with ominous precision the content of Davidson's film (their house's interior proves, "impossibly," to be larger than its exterior; previously unnoticed doors and corridors extend inward inexplicably, and swallow up or traumatize all who dare to "explore" their recesses).  Danielewski skillfully manipulates the reader's expectations and fears, employing ingeniously skewed typography, and throwing out hints that the house's apparent malevolence may be related to the history of the Jamestown colony, or to Davidson's Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of a dying Vietnamese child stalked by a waiting vulture.  Or, as "some critics [have suggested,] the house's mutations reflect the psychology of anyone who enters it."

Pub Date: March 6, 2000

ISBN: 0-375-70376-4

Page Count: 704

Publisher: Pantheon

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2000

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Absolutely enthralling. Read it.

A young Irish couple gets together, splits up, gets together, splits up—sorry, can't tell you how it ends!

Irish writer Rooney has made a trans-Atlantic splash since publishing her first novel, Conversations With Friends , in 2017. Her second has already won the Costa Novel Award, among other honors, since it was published in Ireland and Britain last year. In outline it's a simple story, but Rooney tells it with bravura intelligence, wit, and delicacy. Connell Waldron and Marianne Sheridan are classmates in the small Irish town of Carricklea, where his mother works for her family as a cleaner. It's 2011, after the financial crisis, which hovers around the edges of the book like a ghost. Connell is popular in school, good at soccer, and nice; Marianne is strange and friendless. They're the smartest kids in their class, and they forge an intimacy when Connell picks his mother up from Marianne's house. Soon they're having sex, but Connell doesn't want anyone to know and Marianne doesn't mind; either she really doesn't care, or it's all she thinks she deserves. Or both. Though one time when she's forced into a social situation with some of their classmates, she briefly fantasizes about what would happen if she revealed their connection: "How much terrifying and bewildering status would accrue to her in this one moment, how destabilising it would be, how destructive." When they both move to Dublin for Trinity College, their positions are swapped: Marianne now seems electric and in-demand while Connell feels adrift in this unfamiliar environment. Rooney's genius lies in her ability to track her characters' subtle shifts in power, both within themselves and in relation to each other, and the ways they do and don't know each other; they both feel most like themselves when they're together, but they still have disastrous failures of communication. "Sorry about last night," Marianne says to Connell in February 2012. Then Rooney elaborates: "She tries to pronounce this in a way that communicates several things: apology, painful embarrassment, some additional pained embarrassment that serves to ironise and dilute the painful kind, a sense that she knows she will be forgiven or is already, a desire not to 'make a big deal.' " Then: "Forget about it, he says." Rooney precisely articulates everything that's going on below the surface; there's humor and insight here as well as the pleasure of getting to know two prickly, complicated people as they try to figure out who they are and who they want to become.

Pub Date: April 16, 2019

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Page Count: 288

Publisher: Hogarth

Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2019

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Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens review – in the swamps of North Carolina

This lush debut about an isolated girl who finds education and solace in nature is already a US bestseller

I n screen dramas, during a scene of sex or violence in a living room, the camera will often slyly reveal that a David Attenborough wildlife documentary is playing unwatched in the corner. The naturalist’s whispered observations about the tactics of the “male” or “female” comment ironically or ominously on the human interactions.

That trope is spectacularly extended in Where the Crawdads Sing , the debut novel by Delia Owens, an American wildlife scientist. It lands in Britain boosted by the cherished trinity of New York Times bestsellerdom, a frenzied foreign sales fight, and a film in development by Reese Witherspoon (her online book club picked the novel in September 2018).

The main storyline spans – in a date-jumbling, tension-building order –1952 to 1970, following Kya Clark between the ages of six and 25 as she grows up alone in a shack in the swamplands of North Carolina after being abandoned by her family. She learns from the wildlife around her, gaining tricks of camouflage to evade truant officers and acquiring hunting skills to feed herself and catch mussels and fish to sell to shopkeepers in the town beyond the creek.

As a human who knows only nature, all Kya’s reference points come from her surroundings – and her creator’s day job. Her observation that mother animals and birds always return to their young leads her poignantly to believe that her childhood solitude will be temporary. When, as a teenager, she starts to attract attention from two townie boys, kind working-class Tate and arrogant posh boy Chase, her dating rituals are drawn from observing the sex life of fireflies. She also, crucially, observes the dangers of predation in the wild.

Among the many modern phenomena of which isolated Kya has no inkling is the vast popularity of crime fiction. But Owens knows the tricks of the genre, beginning the novel with a prologue set in 1969 in which a young man has died suspiciously in the swamp. The rest of the book cuts between the investigation, in which bigoted witnesses incriminate the “swamp girl”, and flashbacks to Kya’s youth and young adulthood, as local suspicion grows that makes the white people dislike her almost as much as they do the residents of the area known, in the prejudiced term of the time, as Colored Town.

Appreciating the fictional limitations of a feral recluse with no vocabulary or life skills, Owens provides tutors for Kya. As a result, the tone of the central section sometimes feels like YA, as Kya is instructed by a wise African American woman (one of the supporting characters who flirt with virtuous cliche) in the mysteries of men and menstruation.

But soon the narrative is satisfyingly reclaimed for older adults when at the local library Kya reads an article entitled “Sneaky Fuckers” in a science journal, which describes deceitful mating strategies. These include undersized bullfrogs who hang out with the alpha males with a view to picking up spare females, and the male damselfly, to whom God or Darwin has given a useful scoop that removes the sperm of a prior impregnator to clear the passage for his own.

As with those Attenborough clips in screen fiction, these anecdotes hover as metaphors for the behaviour of males in the story, and will allow the director of the eventual film to have fun with pointed cutaways. The divided timeline – a standard cinematic structure – will also help the screenwriter. And somewhere in stage schools now are the actors who, playing the young and older Kya, should have a shot at Oscars.

She is a vivid and original character. At times, her survival in isolation comes close to superheroism, but Owens convincingly depicts the instincts and calculations that get Kya into and out of difficulties. Without too much sentimentality, there is a strong emotional line in her desire to have a “shred of family”. The potential soppiness of a coming-of-age romance is also offset by the possibility that Kya is a murderer, although Owens has studied the big beasts of crime fiction sufficiently to leave room for doubt and surprises.

The storylines involving social competition and violent death feel like a reworking, from a young female perspective, of Theodore Dreiser ’s classic 1925 melodrama An American Tragedy . Like Dreiser, Owens combines high tension with precise detail about how people dress, sound, live and eat – the case studies in her book are both human and natural.

Surprise bestsellers are often works that chime with the times. Though set in the 1950s and 60s, Where the Crawdads Sing is, in its treatment of racial and social division and the fragile complex-ities of nature, obviously relevant to contemporary politics and ecology. But these themes will reach a huge audience though the writer’s old-fashioned talents for compelling character, plotting and landscape description.

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Review: ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’ is the latest literary sensation turned ho-hum movie

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In 2018, retired zoologist Delia Owens, the author of the bestselling 1984 memoir “Cry of the Kalahari,” published her first novel at the age of 69. “Where the Crawdads Sing” is set on the North Carolina coast in the 1950s and ’60s, threading romance and murder mystery through the life story of a young, isolated woman, Kya, who grows up abandoned in the marsh. The story is a bit far-fetched, the characterizations broad, but there’s a beauty in Owens’ description of Kya’s relationship to the natural world. Her derisive nickname, “the Marsh Girl,” ultimately becomes her strength.

“Where the Crawdads Sing” has become a legitimate publishing phenomenon, one of the bestselling books of all time, despite a controversy bubbling in Owens’ past — a connection to the killing of a suspected animal poacher in Zambia. Reese Witherspoon bestowed the book with her book club blessing, and as she has done with other titles from her club, like “Big Little Lies,” Witherspoon has produced the film adaptation of “Where the Crawdads Sing,” written by Lucy Alibar, directed by Olivia Newman, and starring Daisy Edgar-Jones as the heroine, Kya.

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The film is easily slotted into the Southern gothic courtroom drama sub-genre — it’s like “A Time to Kill” with a feminine touch. While the nature of adaptation requires compression and elision, the film dutifully tells the story that fans of the book will turn out to see brought to life on the big screen. But in checking off all the plot points, the movie version loses what makes the book work, which is the time we spend with Kya.

Kya is a tricky protagonist whose life story requires a certain suspension of disbelief. Abandoned by her mother (Ahna O’Reilly) and siblings escaping the drunken abuse of her father (Garret Dillahunt), who later disappears, young Kya (Jojo Regina) survives on her own, selling mussels to the proprietor of the local bait and tackle shop, Jumpin’ (Sterling Macer Jr.). His wife, Mabel (Michael Hyatt), takes pity on Kya and offers her some clothes and food donations, but it’s an exceedingly tough existence, something that the film does not manage to fully convey.

As a teen, Kya forms a friendship with a local boy, Tate (Taylor John Smith), who teaches her to read, and though their relationship turns romantic, he ultimately leaves her for college. Abandoned once again, she seeks companionship with popular local cad Chase Andrews (Harris Dickinson). It’s his death, from a fall at the rickety fire tower, that sees Kya on trial in the town of Barkley Cove, which ultimately becomes a referendum on how she’s been harshly judged over the years by the townspeople.

The only reason Kya works in the book is the amount of time the reader spends with her in the marsh, understanding the tactics she uses to get by, and getting to know the natural world in the way that she does, observing the patterns and life cycles of animals, insects, and plants. The deep knowledge of her environment and ad-hoc education from Tate helps Kya overcome poverty, as she publishes illustrated books of local shells, plants, and birds. But in the film, which sacrifices getting to know her in order to prioritize the more scandal-driven twists and turns, Kya comes off as somewhat silly, a bit easy to laugh at in her naiveté and guilelessness.

There’s also the matter of plausibility, and the shininess with which this rough, wild world has been rendered by Newman and cinematographer Polly Morgan. The marsh (shot on location in Louisiana) is captured with a crisp, if perfunctory beauty, but it’s hard to buy English rose Edgar-Jones in her crisp blouses and clean jeans as the near-feral naturalist who has been brutally cast out by society. Everything’s just too pretty, a Disneyland version of the marsh.

The whole world feels sanded-down and spit-shined within an inch of its life, lacking any grime or grit that might make this feel authentic, and that extends to the storytelling as well. It feels exceedingly rushed, as the actors hit their marks and deliver their monologues with a sense of obligation to moving the plot along rather than developing character. Hyatt, as Mabel, and David Strathairn, who plays Kya’s lawyer, Tom Milton, are the only actors who deliver grounded performances that feel like real people — everyone else feels like a two-dimensional version of an archetype spouting the necessary backstory or subtext to keep the plot churning forward.

Though it is faithful, “Where the Crawdads Sing” is lacking the essential character and storytelling connective tissue that makes a story like this work — an adaptation such as this cannot survive on plot alone.

Katie Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.

'Where the Crawdads Sing'

Rating: PG-13, for sexual content and some violence including a sexual assault Running time: 2 hours, 5 minutes Playing: In general release July 15

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BookBrowse Reviews Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

Summary  |  Excerpt  |  Reading Guide  |  Reviews  |  Beyond the book  |  Read-Alikes  |  Genres & Themes  |  Author Bio

Where the Crawdads Sing

by Delia Owens

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• Literary Fiction
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In Delia Owens's debut novel, a young woman who's survived a solitary childhood in a shack in North Carolina's marsh country looks for love and builds a career in science.

Voted 2018 Best Debut Award Winner by BookBrowse Subscribers Where the Crawdads Sing was a hit even before being chosen for Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine Book Club – and it's easy to see why so many have taken this debut novel into their hearts. It's a gripping mystery but also a tender coming-of-age story about one woman's desperately lonely upbringing and her rocky route to finding love and a vocation. Not only that, but its North Carolina marsh setting is described in lyrical language that evinces Delia Owens's background in nature writing (see Beyond the Book ). We first meet Kya Clark in 1952. The marshland surrounding the Clarks' shack has been a haven for fugitives and runaway slaves; though it's not far from Barkley Cove, it seems to have its own rules based on instinct and survival. Six-year-old Kya watches Ma leave with a blue suitcase in hand, and before long Pa's drunken violence has also driven off the last of her four older siblings, her brother Jodie. Pa disappears for weeks at a time, leaving Kya to subsist on grits and soda crackers. The thought of a hot lunch lures her into attending second grade for a day, but after the kids call her "swamp trash" and make fun of her for not knowing how to spell, she vows to never set foot in school again. For years she survives by picking mussels and trading them for dry goods and kerosene at the general store run by Jumpin' and Mabel. As African Americans in the South, they know what it's like to be ostracized, and become like family to white Kya. Kya's other source of support is Jodie's friend Tate, who shares her love of nature and teaches her to read when she's 14. Tate brings her rare feathers, science books and paint for her sketches. Their budding romance is cut short when Tate leaves for college. Although he promises to come back for Kya, the years pass and she's still alone, writing and illustrating field guides to the region's shells and birds. When she's 19, star quarterback Chase Andrews catches her eye and starts wooing her over picnics. Soon he's talking marriage, though he still hasn't introduced Kya to his parents or friends. Does he really love her, or is he just making a trophy out of "the Marsh Girl"? Early on in the novel we learn that Chase Andrews will be found dead in 1969, having fallen from the fire tower into the swamp. No fingerprints or footprints are found; it doesn't seem like suicide or an accident. Soon rumor points to "the crazy lady on the marsh" because of her clandestine relationship with Chase. In between sections about Kya's childhood and adolescence, there are short updates on the 1969 investigation. As the two story lines converge, the chapters become more rapid-fire. Owens ramps up the tension, culminating in top-notch courtroom scenes as Kya stands trial for murder. The novel's third-person narration is coy, omitting certain scenes to allow readers to speculate right along with the prosecution. Although the novel focuses on the years between 1965 and 1970, it encompasses the whole span of Kya's life. At times I found it hard to believe that the plucky urchin living off of grits and evading truant officers is the same character as the willowy nature writer wondering who will love her and never leave. Also, the chronology becomes slightly difficult to follow as it approaches 1969, and there are perhaps a few too many Amanda Hamilton poems. (You'll have to read the novel to find out more about who this fictional poet is!) The use of animal behavior metaphors works very well, though. Kya understands her fellow humans by analogy, asking why a mother animal might leave her cubs or why males compete for female attention. The title refers to places where wild creatures do what comes naturally, and throughout the book we are invited to ponder how instinct and altruism interact and what impact human actions can have in the grand scheme of things, as in this passage about the marsh swallowing Chase's body: "the swamp is quiet because decomposition is cellular work. Life decays and reeks and returns to the rotted duff. … A swamp knows all about death, and doesn't necessarily define it as tragedy, certainly not a sin." In Kya, Owens has created a truly outstanding character. The extremity of her loneliness makes her a sympathetic figure in spite of her oddities. If you like the idea of a literary novel flavored with elements of mystery and romance, and of a poetic writing style tempered with folksy Southern dialect, Crawdads is a real treat.

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Where the Crawdads Sing

By delia owens.

Book review, full book summary and synopsis for Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, a coming-of-age crime drama about a girl growing up alone in the marshes of North Carolina.

In Where the Crawdads Sing , Kya is known in her town as the "Marsh Girl." She grows up in a shack out in the marshes bordering a small village on the coast of North Carolina. Her mother and her four older siblings all leave to get away from their abusive father, leaving her behind to fend for herself. Eventually, her father disappears as well.

Where the Crawdads Sing is part bildungsroman and part crime drama, centered around Kya, a wild and unkempt girl. The book follows the ups and downs of her life. She lives a lonely life, but her story is a hopeful one as well. With a little help, she's able to survive and even learn to read.

Despite her status as an outcast, her natural beauty catches the eye of two men in town. However, when the body of Chase Andrews, the local hotshot, is discovered in the marshes, she quickly becomes a prime suspect. The fragile life she has struggled and fought so hard to build is at risk.

(The Full Plot Summary is also available, below)

Full Plot Summary

The Prologue opens with the discovery of the body of Chase Andrews in a swamp in 1969.

In Part I , Kya Clark grows up with her abusive father in a shack in the swampy outskirts of town in the 1950's (her mother and siblings all leave due because of Pa's abuse). Kya meets Tate, a boy from town that befriends her. When Kya is 10, Pa disappears (a couple nearby, Jumpin' and Mabel, help Kya to survive). As she grows up, Kya develops a keen knowledge of the outdoors. Kya and Tate reconnect, he teaches her to read, and it grows into a romance. When Tate leaves for college, he promises to come back, but later Tate worries that Kya (wild and unkempt) can't fit into his world. He doesn't return, and Kya gives up on him.

(Flash forward) Many years later, the body of Chase Andrews, the town hotshot and ladies' man, is found in the swamp at the bottom of the fire tower. An investigation starts up.

In Part II , Kya is now 19. Chase Andrews has been pursuing Kya aggressively, and she finally gives in to his advances. One day, Chase takes her to the fire tower, and she gives him a shell necklace as a gift. He promises to marry her, but Kya soon discovers that Chase is actually engaged to someone else. She dumps him. Meanwhile, Tate comes back and apologizes for what happened. He also wants to help Kya turn her nature diagrams into a book. Eventually, Kya's book is published in 1968.

In 1969, Kya is identified as a suspect in the Chase Andrews murder. Notably, Chase's shell necklace that he always wore was not found on his body. Eventually, Kya is arrested for Chase's death. The trial proceeds (reviewing evidence such as the missing necklace, fibers found on Chase's body, Kya's whereabouts, plus Chase had attacked Kya after being rebuffed two months before his death). But Kya is found not guilty, and she and Tate profess their love for each other.

Time passes, and Kya and Tate turn her shack into a nice cottage and remain there. Kya passes away at 64. Tate goes through her things and discovers evidence (in the form of a poem Kya wrote under a pseudonym and notably Chase's shell necklace) that Kya killed Chase. The book ends with Tate destroying the poems and tossing the necklace into the ocean.

For more detail, see the full Section-by-Section Summary .

If this summary was useful to you, please consider supporting this site by leaving a tip ( $2 , $3 , or $5 ) or joining the Patreon !

Book Review

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens opens with a picture of a map and the discovery of a dead body in the marshes of North Carolina.

I was intrigued immediately when I saw it in the bookstore, though I put off reading it for a while. Ultimately, though, my curiosity won out as it hung in the bestseller lists, and I’m very glad it did.

Where the Crawdads Sing is about resiliency and survival, but also alienation. I loved the part about Kya’s childhood; it made for a unique story line as Kya learns to navigate the world on her own. The story focuses thematically a lot on her status as an outcast and sense of abandonment, as she is forced to fend for herself. In terms of pacing, it is eventful and mostly fast-moving.

Kya’s story has elements of romance, mystery and even a courtroom thriller interlude. Nature enthusiasts will also enjoy this book, as Kya’s love of the nature around her is conveyed through detailed descriptions of the flora and fauna, a reflection of the author’s background as a former wildlife scientist.

The compelling imagery is descriptive in the right places and sparse when it serves the story better instead. The book has a strong sense of place, transporting you to a different life where you can smell the salty air and sink your feet into the muddy grounds outside the seaside village.

Meanwhile, the discovery of a dead body leads to the Chase Andrews investigation that provides the suspense in the story. Kya’s story is also interspersed with flash-forwards detailing the progress of the investigation. I found this worked well, adding an element of mystery, since it’s not clear how it will play out for Kya or what exactly happened that night. There’s compelling evidence on both sides and the pacing of the investigation is spot-on, making for pleasurable and suspenseful reading.

Some Criticisms

As she heads into her teenage years, the romantic storylines start kicking in, and the melodrama starts ramping up as well. My enthusiasm waned a little bit at this point. The book is increasingly divorced from reality (the idea that a teenage boy would teach her not only to read but about her period seemed far-fetched, and it goes on from there) and plot events get a bit contrived.

Additionally, Kya’s internal journey, her mentally processing the events of her life, felt a little surface level. She struggles with being abandoned by her mother, and the book brings in interesting parallels to nature, but beyond that, events simply happen without much reflection. It felt like there were a number of missed opportunity for it to be a more insightful book.

But, for whatever criticisms I had while reading, the story easily won me over. As it approaches the date of the crime and the investigation ramps up, I was totally engrossed.

Read it or Skip It?

I read this book quickly and found myself delighted by it by the end. The book is more melodrama than a serious literary novel, but is such an engaging story that it’s easy to accept. It’s part romance, mystery, courtroom drama and ode to nature, all of which make for an appealing tale about the town outcast.

The setting is a distinctive “slice-of-life” that’s commonplace, yet not often portrayed clearly in books or movies. It is vividly drawn in a way that infuses the story with energy, a credit to Owen’s genuine love and respect for nature.

Where the Crawdads Sing has been very popular among book clubs, and deservedly so. It’s eventful and accessible, but thoughtfully written, all of which make it a good choice for readers of varying tastes. See it on Amazon or Book Depository .

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65 comments

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well crafted review

Fantastic review! I’ve been wondering about this one and I think I’ll check it out :)

Thank you! Glad to hear it, and I hope you like it if you end up getting a chance to read it! :)

This sounds like a book I might enjoy, tossing another one on the TBR!

That’s awesome to hear, thanks for letting me know and thanks for reading!

What a beautifully written, helpfully compartmentalised review! Feeling very inspired. Sounds like an engaging read too x

Thank you so much and thanks for reading!

Wonderful, thorough review. You don’t see a lot of coming-of-age murder mysteries. I’m putting this on my TBR list. Thanks for the post.

Hey Rosi! Yes, I liked that it felt like a unique book and story, both in terms of the setting and the plot. Definitely not cookie cutter. Hope you love it if you get a chance to read it — it goes by quickly! Nice to hear from you as always, and cheers! :)

Jennifer, you are one of the best writers I have seen. I read your reviews because I love the way you talk about books. Your honesty is much appreciated and gives me insight into titles I may otherwise never pick up.

Hey Jen, that’s such a kind thing for you to say. I really appreciate your feedback and that you take the time to read my reviews! My goal in writing this blog has always been to help books find the right readers, so thank you for saying that. I genuinely value your encouragement, thanks again! :)

Nicely done review.

Hi Martie! Thank you very much and nice to hear from you again! :)

Melodrama irritates me, but the synopsis sounds so good that I need to read it. This book is high on my priority list. I’m happy it’s good. Great review!

Honestly, it bothered me a little at first, but I think there’s a lot of wonderful but unrealistic stories out there. If it didn’t all add up to something solid and interesting it would have bothered me more, but I think it came together in a way that made me feel like it was worth overlooking. Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did if you get a chance to read it! :)

You’ve motivated me to put this book on my TBR!

Thank you for reading and visiting! Hope you enjoy it if you get a chance to read it!

I’ve been interested in this one but a bit wary since I really didn’t like the other Reese’s Book Club pick I’ve read. Glad you enjoyed it. Your review definitely makes it likely I’ll give it a go after all.

Hey, that’s great to hear — yeah I mean I guess she picks out one new-ish book a month which is actually kind of a lot so I suppose they can’t all be winners. I think this one is definitely one of her better recs though, hope you like it!

Beautiful review of a beautiful book! I enjoyed this, too. It took some patience with all that description, but in the end, it worked to create that sense of place you described.

Thank you for reading! I usually don’t have a ton of patience for unnecessary description (I’m always a little wary of books that are described by reviewers as “lyrical” since sometimes that translates into lots of lengthy descriptive passages) but I thought Owens did a good job of balancing out creating atmosphere and moving the plot forward — thanks for dropping by! :)

Sounds like an interesting book – even with the negative parts.

I really enjoyed it, thanks for reading! :)

wow, you give thorough reviews…

haha what can I say, I love talking about books! :)

too bad, my genre doesn’t fit… have a wonderful weekend

Good to know that this is more melodrama than a serious literary novel. I do like the sound of this slice of life book. Great review!

Thank you and thanks for reading! :)

Thanks for the balanced review! Will consider picking this up.

Glad to hear that, and thanks for reading!

I thought the book was wonderful. I loved all of it. It had a perfect ending.

glad to hear it — yeah I was really impressed by the ending as well! thanks for dropping by!

I will definitely have to pick this one up. You make it sound compelling. Thanks for the post.

Very interesting review. I’ve been split on a lot of her book club picks but I have noticed that almost all of them she has the movie rights for which makes me a little cynical about her choices in some cases :)

yeah, I can understand that. On one hand, I’m glad that the adaptations are giving authors a way to make some big dollars. On the other hand, it is kind of annoying when I read books that seem to be written in a way that feels like the’re prepackaged for hollywood though. So I have mixed feelings.

Fabulous review

Please read my first post

I subscribed to your blog just now because you had such a thorough review of this book. I am about halfway through the book at this point, and while I have enjoyed it, I have found, as you, there were missed opportunities for more development in some areas, and some events which seemed unreasonable. Overall, I am enjoying the book. Great job! I look forward to reading more of your reviews!

Hi Sandra, thank you so much for the thoughtful comment! Much appreciated. Thanks for reading! Even with those criticisms, I’m glad I read it. I hope you enjoy the rest of it as well!

I’ve read 33 novels so far in 2019 and this is my favorite. Loved it!

NIcely written review.

Terrific. Will help at my book club. Ty.

Thanks for the review. I am yet to read this one!

Thanks so much. I appreciate you time to share.

The focus on nature was refreshing in contrast to the sadness of Kya literally raising herself. Changing back and forth with the time frame was a bit distracting as was the poetry inserted here and there ( not especially good poetry) but as you near the end that is explained. I was more impressed with how Kya, in school just a day, could educate herself enough to write books about the plants and critters living in the marsh and become a well respected author. Then the trial about who killed the jerk Chase Andrews with a surprising end when she is found not guilty. Kya goes on to live a happy life with her original friend and first love Tate, but in the end he discovers she really did kill Chase. There were some positive things in her life but such a disfunctional family and so much hatred from most of the townspeople offset the real beauty of the marsh .

Consider listening to it. The reader’s soft. N. Carolina accent lends an authenticity to the flora and fauna descriptions.

This is the most balanced review I’ve read yet of this book. It sounds like it goes a bit off the rails but is overall worth the read. Thanks for the post!

Not great literature at all. Just a story. Delia needs to read more of the best HEMINGWAY, STEINBECK, CATHER and the other great authors to learn symbolism, conflict and the art of not telling but showing.

My feelings about the character Kya are that she really could be cast as a Native American. She has the instincts and abilities of a Native American woman. Reese Witherspoon and Delia Owens, maybe you can consider this as a facet of the character.

I am looking for some good solid books for my avid pre teen reader. Do think the scope of details would be ok for someone that young?

Hmmm, I think it’s a little iffy. There’s definitely talk about sex, sexual desires and at one point one of the characters gets kind of aggressive about it.

Great start but then descended into a melodrama with an eye on the prize of a television or film adaptation. It was so obvious and disappointing. Unconvincing after the very promising first chapters onwards. The premise was unlikely and my interest waned when the story turned into a murder mystery. It was obvious that Kya killed Chase. Who else would bother?

Thank you for an excellent review. Loved the book but also felt it dragged at points. The Ode to Nature and the child that nature nourished when people failed was spell-binding.

I think it was proven that there was no time for Kya to kill Chase

Did Kaya have her own children with Tate or were they just a flashback of her childhood

I hope the movie stands up. I remember waiting with great anticipation for “the Prince of tides” movie to come out and feared it would digress from the book. I was delighted to be wrong.

I loved this book but have struggled to understand the absence of Chase’s wife in the courtroom. Why isn’t she there to support justice for her husband, staring down Kya and acting bereaved?And why did she allow her husband to wear a necklace every day of his life, fashioned for him by another woman? Why wasn’t she a suspect in her husband’s murder, given that jealousy and vengeance could have been her motive? She had as much reason as Kya to hate Chase and to remove the all-significant necklace. Anyone else agree?

I believe author wants reader to know who killed chase from early on. The phrase where the crawdads sings , essentially speaks to how nature will always try to ensure continuation of species. She was raised by nature.the references to female fire flies and praying mantis who kill males to continue survival of future generations. The mother fox who is injured who leaves her kits to die,so she can come day have future litters. Biggest disappointment in story line was that ” Tate” was not aware kya killed chase. She only received red hat after he attempted to rape her. It could only have been Tate or kya.

I found the book to be a quick read, and suspenseful until the last page. The characters were realistic and each one was well developed.

Thank you so much for your thoughtful review!!! this helps me to determine whether or not to read the book :) the movie was fantastic!

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Word of Mouth

Submitting a book for review, write the editor, you are here:, where the crawdads sing.

Kya is just six years old when her mother leaves, never to return. Her father is a mean drunk and a gambler who regularly beats her mother, and sometimes inflicts similar abuse on her and her four brothers and sisters. Soon after their mother’s abrupt departure, her three older siblings disappear. Then one day, her brother, whom she loves dearly, also decides to leave. So Kya is left alone with her father, who, when he isn’t consuming alcohol, takes her fishing and teaches her how to steer a boat. Yet that soon changes, as he becomes violent and starts drinking again. One day he leaves and doesn’t return.

So, when she is just 10, Kya is left all alone in the marsh. She learns fairly quickly how to take care of herself, but her life is a hard, lonesome and sad one. All this time, Kya longs for human interaction. She is fortunate enough to befriend local gas seller Jumpin’ and his wife, Mabel, along with a boy named Tate, who teaches her to read, write and count. Tate has opened up a whole new world to Kya, and she starts to record the wildlife of the marsh. Nonetheless, for residents of Barkley Cove, a small town on the North Carolina coast, Kya is just a “Marsh Girl.” Thus, when Chase Andrews, a young local, is found dead, Kya is the first and only suspect.

"What Owens has done is pure magic. She has managed to write a story that has resonated with me and that I will remember for a very long time."

WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING has it all --- beautiful characters, a wonderful plot and magnificent descriptions --- and provides in-depth insight into the marsh’s flora and fauna. Author Delia Owens is also masterful at describing life in the small town, whose citizens are highly distrustful of those who live on its outskirts, and provides a fine critique of how easily people jump to conclusions.

Although the novel contains elements that I am not very fond of --- a child who is abandoned and rejected, detailed descriptions of nature, a non-linear narrative (the story goes back and forth between 1952 and 1970, describing Kya’s life from her childhood to her early 20s) --- it made me cry and turned out to be a fantastic read. While wiping away my tears, I was frantically turning pages to find out what would happen next and if Kya would finally get her happy ending.

What Owens has done is pure magic. She has managed to write a story that has resonated with me and that I will remember for a very long time. It is so obvious that she cares deeply for both Kya and nature; the connection between this beautiful girl and the marsh in which she lives is palpable. WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING is absolutely worth reading, and I give it my highest possible recommendation.

Reviewed by Dunja Bonacci Skenderović on August 17, 2018

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

• Publication Date: March 30, 2021
• Genres: Fiction , Women's Fiction
• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons
• ISBN-10: 0735219109
• ISBN-13: 9780735219106

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Book Review

Where the crawdads sing.

• Delia Owens
• Drama , Suspense/Thriller

Readability Age Range

• 18 years old and up
• Penguin Random House
• #1 New York Times Bestseller; Reese’s Book Club; British Book Award; Business Insider Defining Book of the Decade; #1 Bestselling Book of the Year; #1 International Bestseller; Edgar Award Nominee; Macavity Award Nominee

Year Published

For years, rumors about Kya Clark swirled around the quiet fishing village of Barkley Cove. Barefoot and wild, they called her the “Marsh Girl.” And when something unthinkable happens and a young man is found dead, it’s Kya the Marsh Girl they blame.

Plot Summary

Kya Clark, known by some locals as the “Marsh Girl,” grew up in a swamp. And that makes her, well, “swamp trash” as far as most folks in the North Carolina coastal community of Barkley Cove are concerned.

One by one, starting with her mother, Kya’s family members all ran off to escape Kya’s intolerable father. And then he ran off, too.

Though she’s been virtually alone from the time she was 6, Kya can never quite stifle her need for human connection. Of course, connecting with people is not easy for a girl living by her lonesome in a swamp. But the one thing she can embrace is the wild, natural world around her. And she tries to understand every relationship through her experience with nature, which causes her to have an unsettling effect on almost all the people she interacts with.

The main exception is Tate Walker, a local boy who befriends her as she turns from child to teenager. Kya’s wildness is beautiful to him, and he compassionately teaches her to read. The pair understand each other because of their mutual appreciation for the marsh, but Kya’s upbringing has put her on a collision course with polite society.

That collision effectively blows up when a former star quarterback and town hot shot named Chase Andrews turns up dead in the marsh. Inconclusive evidence and a romantic run-in are all the townspeople need to start pointing fingers.

And the Marsh Girl is everyone’s top suspect.

Christian Beliefs

It’s said that the town “serves its religion hard-boiled and deep fried.” Kya knows about three white churches and two black churches in the area. One of these black churches helps provide her with clothes, but a white preacher’s wife tells her daughter that Kya is dirty and to stay away.

Several scenes show that Kya feels she is not presentable enough for God, and that Christianity tends to be about religious rituals and posturing.

Other Belief Systems

The evolution of people from animals is implied, and animalistic instincts are a major part of Kya’s worldview. In fact, Kya’s  connection with the Earth and mother nature is akin to worship.

Authority Roles

The glaring lack of authority in Kaya’s life during most of her development as a child, teenager, and young adult is integral to the plot of Where the Crawdads Sing . Arguably, nature itself is her most positive authority figure.

Kya’s dad is abusive and an alcoholic. He relies on a 7-year-old girl to do his cleaning and to cook for herself when her mother, and then older siblings, leave. Throughout the story, Kya’s father is unreliable and he teaches her to deeply mistrust others.

Her mother is shown as a loving figure, but she failed Kya by leaving. Kya’s memories of her fade, and someone later explains that the woman was mentally ill.

Kya’s older brother, Jodie, teaches her a few things about how to survive in the marsh and how to deal with their violent dad, until he leaves in fear of their father.

Kya eventually considers a man named “Jumpin” to be her closest authority figure. He is a kind, protective and consistent presence who gives her basic supplies.

Profanity & Violence

The dialogue includes scattered foul language, especially while Kya’s dad is around, including several occurrences of the s-word and “b–—ch” in various forms. A few strong racial slurs are directed at African American characters. The f-word is used a few times in reference to an article on animals.

The novel addresses physical abuse. Kya’s family suffers at the hands of her dad in varying levels of detail throughout. Kya remembers being struck by a belt and a paddle. Her brother is stabbed in the face with a fire poker. Police officers discover that Chase died because he was pushed from a fire tower. A man assaults Kya, and she beats him badly in self-defense.

Kya’s dad drinks heavily. Chase’s drinking is mentioned.

Two police officers speculate that Chase may have been involved with drugs, which led to his death.

Sexual Content

The sexual content in this book is intense, adult and problematic. Kya’s sexually charged encounters with her first love are described in detail, and it includes nudity. The pair’s longing for one another is clear, and the sexually explicit content is comparable to that of an R-rated movie.

Throughout the book, Kya contemplates the mating rituals of various animals and, sometimes, the resulting violence between mates. Later, Kya has sex with another man after his repeated advances, and he treats her roughly. After their consensual relationship ends, he assaults her and attempts to rape her.

Discussion Topics

Get free discussion question for books at focusonthefamily.com/magazine/thriving-family-book-discussion-questions .

Additional Comments

Where the Crawdads Sing will draw the attention of young readers because of the public praise for the novel as well as the fact that it’s been made into a major motion picture. And this book does explore some deep themes, including the longing that all people, especially women, have for sustaining connection with others, platonically and romantically.

That said, the heavy sexual content, violence, and language here make this an ill-advised read for young people. Even adults should approach this novel with caution and be aware of its content.

You can request a review of a title you can’t find at [email protected] .

Book reviews cover the content, themes and worldviews of fiction books, not necessarily their literary merit, and equip parents to decide whether a book is appropriate for their children. The inclusion of a book’s review does not constitute an endorsement by Focus on the Family.

Review by Marsella Evans

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The Literary Edit

Where the Crawdads Sing Review (Author Delia Owens)

Before starting this Where the Crawdads Sing review and in all my years of book blogging, I’ve learnt that, on the whole, books are divisive. Much like many things in life – such as, for example, whether north or south of the Thames is the better part of London, or which city – Melbourne or Sydney – is the more liveable one (I’m a south London and Sydney-sider for anyone who’s remotely interested) opinions are, more often than not, split. There will be those that adore a book, those that don’t, and those that fall somewhere in between. This was until I read – and posted about my reading – Delia Owens’ Where the Crawdads Sing, on both my Facebook and Instagram account, to entirely unanimous praise of Owens debut.

And no sooner had I started to read Where the Crawdads Sing than I began to see why it was so consistently adored by all who had already read it.

Where the Crawdads Sing Review

A story of resilience, survival and hope, Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens tells the story of Kya – known locally in the North Carolina town in which she resides as the Marsh Girl – who is abandoned at a young age by her parents, siblings and finally the school system; and left to fend for herself.

As Kya grows and learns more about life through her interactions with the creatures of the Marsh, two young men enter her life. One is her brother’s older friend, Tate, who teaches her to read and shows her acceptance and happiness. But when he, too, leaves the Marsh behind for a learned life at university, she learned not to trust nor depend on anyone but herself, and resigns herself to a life spent along on the marsh, until Chase Andrews comes along.

And so when Chase is later found dead, rumours are rife as to Kya’s possible involvement in his murder. Over the years there’s been much hearsay as to the nature of Kya and Chase’s relationship, and with no other suspects so-to-speak, the finger is swiftly pointed at Kya.

Rich with poetic prose, lyrical depictions of the marshlands and atmosphere, Where the Crawdads Sing is a beautiful and compelling read steeped in nature. A fusion of murder, mystery, coming-of-age and love-story, Where the Crawdads Sing is a poignant and powerful tale that will stay with its readers long after its gripping finale and I couldn’t wait to review Where the Crawdads Sing.

Where the Crawdads Sing Summary

For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life–until the unthinkable happens.

Perfect for fans of Barbara Kingsolver and Karen Russell,  Where the Crawdads Sing is at once an exquisite ode to the natural world, a heartbreaking coming-of-age story, and a surprising tale of possible murder. Owens reminds us that we are forever shaped by the children we once were and that we are all subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.

About Delia Owens

Delia Owens is the co-author of three internationally bestselling nonfiction books about her life as a wildlife scientist in Africa— Cry of the Kalahari, The Eye of the Elephant , and  Secrets of the Savanna . 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 currently lives in Idaho, where she continues her support for the people and wildlife of Zambia. Where the Crawdads Sing is her first novel. Check out her website for a detailed biography .

Need more reading inspiration? Take a look at more of my book reviews here .

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5 comments on “Where the Crawdads Sing Review (Author Delia Owens)”

I somehow missed this book. Adding this to my summer reading list. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Lucy!

Thanks for stopping by Crystal! I hope you love it as much as I did xo

I finished reading this book only few days ago, and I can say it’s one of the most “unputdownable” books I’ve ever read! And when I think that I hadn’t heard about it before I received it as a gift from a dear friend 🙂

Hi Georgiana, I’m so glad you enjoyed it too – it really is a wonderful book! xo

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What to Know

Daisy Edgar-Jones gives it her all, but Where the Crawdads Sing is ultimately unable to distill its source material into a tonally coherent drama.

A particular treat for viewers who love the book, Where the Crawdads Sing offers a faithfully told, well-acted story in a rich, beautifully filmed setting.

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Where the Crawdads Sing

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“Where the Crawdads Sing” Review

Where the Crawdads Sing

I may be a little late to the game with this review since Where the Crawdads Sing has been garnering attention for over 4 years now. I actually read it when it came out but wasn’t doing adult book reviews at that point. With the new movie bringing it to the top of best-seller lists again, I re-read and revisited my thoughts on this much-lauded book. As I re-read it (and stayed up too late) I remembered why it’s a bestseller. And then I remembered why I ended up hating it.

SPOILER ALERT: This review is going to utterly spoil the big reveal about the murder mystery. Sorry folks; I’m going to recommend against reading it anyway.

Busy Mom Quick Synopsis

6 year old Kya watches her mother, siblings, and father abandon her one after another. With minimal community support, she scratches out a precarious survival alone in the marsh. As she comes of age, she desperately seeks love and acceptance in the wrong places. A mysterious and isolated woman living alone in the swamp, the townspeople regard her with suspicion. When the town’s golden boy is murdered, fingers quickly begin to point Kya’s way. Does she have a single friend to defend her?

Why it’s a best-seller

First of all, it’s a beautifully written story about nature. That’s not a compliment I hand out lightly. Delia Owens must have a deep love of the flora and fauna of the North Carolina marshes. Her genuine delight in natural beauty and belief in the healing power of nature make this book memorable. As a fellow nature lover, I enjoyed her descriptions of the wonder of God’s creation.

Secondly, it’s a heart-warming story. An abandoned young girl from an abusive family beats the odds to educate herself and build a successful career as a writer and illustrator. It’s the stuff of Hallmark movies and human interest articles. Honestly, it’s so far-fetched it strains credibility.

Third, it’s a fast-moving storyline with a murder mystery intertwined. It keeps you turning the pages after your bedtime.

Why I don’t recommend Where the Crawdads Sing

First and foremost, skip this book because of the gratuitous sex scenes. There are multiple fade-out to fully described scenes, some with an underage teen Kya, along with a rape scene. Can you skip over them fairly easily? Yes, you see where the scene is going and can skip a few pages. Did they need to be in this book? Nope. They add nothing to the story and feel voyeuristic. And they definitely make this book a hard no for teens.

On a more philosophical level, I disliked the theme about people being fundamentally highly evolved animals. Kay interprets human interactions in animal terms, perhaps not completely unnaturally given her isolated life. But the author does not lead the reader to the conclusion that Kya is wrong here. Kya’s morality is a Darwinistic survival of the fittest code of ethics. And this leads to the ending, which I hated.

Throughout the book, the big conflict is whether Kya is guilty of the blatant murder of her former boyfriend Chase. As the reader, you’re assuming soft-spoken and nature-loving Kya is innocent. You’re condemning the townspeople for prejudice and judgment against an eccentric outlier. When her lawyer brings forward enough doubt to convince a jury to acquit her, you’re cheering.

But then… the last pages of the book, you realize she did it . She cold-bloodedly plotted the murder of the ex-boyfriend who lied to and later attacked her. Was he a horrible human being? Yes. Does this make me feel any better about the “heroine” murdering him with full intent and not in self-defense? No.

What bothered me most about this jarring conclusion was the feeling that throughout the entire book, the author is trying to set up the reader to condone the murder. It’s like Delia Owens is trying to have the reader walk away going, “Well, maybe murder is okay, sometimes.”

Not a conclusion that sits well with me!

For books I do recommend for adults, check out my For Catholic Parents page!

6 thoughts on “ “where the crawdads sing” review ”.

Yes! I had the same reaction and have struggled with this book for so long. It is so popular and so many members of my book club loved it and could not understand my frustration with the ending. Thank you for this review and putting into words why this popular book just did not sit well with me!!

I never understood the hype. Tried reading it and it just felt off. I abandoned it fairly quickly. Thank you for all you do!!

Ahh… same way I felt about Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier by that one always seems to get a pass🤷‍♀️

I think an interesting addendum to your conclusion is that Delia Owens, the author, is currently embroiled in an increasingly credible case that allegedes she aided or committed a murder while living in Africa. Might be why the ending of the book is asking the reader to condone Kya’s actions?

Thank you for this review! You’re assessment of Where the Crawdads Sing is exactly why I had to stop reading Jodie Picoult’s books. Another excellent fiction writer but always with a hard left sympathy and grey areas of morality. I used to be a big fan and almost went to a book signing, but the deeper I went into my faith the more I couldn’t swallow her narratives and ended up tossing them all.

Thank you for this review. I encountered the first sensual scene and began to feel convicted about further reading. Based on your review and others’ comments, I will put this aside. The writer is talented. It’s a shame the content doesn’t match her innate respect for nature and her poetic descriptions.

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Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, where the crawdads sing.

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The cicadas buzz and the moss drips and the sunset casts a golden shimmer on the water every single evening. But while “Where the Crawdads Sing” is rich in atmosphere, it’s sorely lacking in actual substance or suspense.

Maybe it was an impossible task, taking the best-selling source material and turning it into a cinematic experience that would please both devotees and newbies alike. Delia Owens ’ novel became a phenomenon in part as a Reese Witherspoon book club selection; Witherspoon is a producer on “Where the Crawdads Sing,” and Taylor Swift wrote and performs the theme song, adding to the expectation surrounding the film’s arrival.

But the result of its pulpy premise is a movie that’s surprisingly inert. Director Olivia Newman , working from a script by Lucy Alibar , jumps back and forth without much momentum between a young woman’s murder trial and the recollections of her rough-and-tumble childhood in 1950s and ‘60s North Carolina. (Alibar also wrote “ Beasts of the Southern Wild ,” which “Where the Crawdads Sing” resembles somewhat as a story of a resourceful little girl’s survival within a squalid, swampy setting.)  

It is so loaded with plot that it ends up feeling superficial, rendering major revelations as rushed afterthoughts. For a film about a brave woman who’s grown up in the wild, living by her own rules, “Where the Crawdads Sing” is unusually tepid and restrained. And aside from Daisy Edgar-Jones ’ multi-layered performance as its central figure, the characters never evolve beyond a basic trait or two.

We begin in October 1969 in the marshes of fictional Barkley Cove, North Carolina, where a couple of boys stumble upon a dead body lying in the muck. It turns out to be Chase Andrews, a popular big fish in this insular small pond. And Edgar-Jones’ Kya, with whom he’d once had an unlikely romantic entanglement, becomes the prime suspect. She’s an easy target, having long been ostracized and vilified as The Marsh Girl—or when townsfolk are feeling particularly derisive toward her, That Marsh Girl. Flashbacks reveal the abuse she and her family suffered at the hands of her volatile, alcoholic father ( Garret Dillahunt , harrowing in just a few scenes), and the subsequent abandonment she endured as everyone left her, one by one, to fend for herself—starting with her mother. These vivid, early sections are the most emotionally powerful, with Jojo Regina giving an impressive, demanding performance in her first major film role as eight-year-old Kya.

As she grows into her teens and early 20s and Edgar-Jones takes over, two very different young men shape her formative years. There’s the too-good-to-be-true Tate (Taylor John Smith ), a childhood friend who teaches her to read and write and becomes her first love. (“There was something about that boy that eased the tautness in my chest,” Kya narrates, one of many clunky examples of transferring Owens’ words from page to screen.) And later, there’s the arrogant and bullying Chase ( Harris Dickinson ), who’s obviously bad news from the start, something the reclusive Kya is unable to recognize.

But what she lacks in emotional maturity, she makes up for in curiosity about the natural world around her, and she becomes a gifted artist and autodidact. Edgar-Jones embodies Kya’s raw impulses while also subtly registering her apprehension and mistrust. Pretty much everyone lets her down and underestimates her, except for the kindly Black couple who run the local convenience store and serve as makeshift parents (Sterling Macer Jr. and Michael Hyatt , bringing much-needed warmth, even though there’s not much to their characters). David Strathairn gets the least to work with in one of the film’s most crucial roles as Kya’s attorney: a sympathetic, Atticus Finch type who comes out of retirement to represent her.

This becomes especially obvious in the film’s courtroom scenes, which are universally perfunctory and offer only the blandest cliches and expected dramatic beats. Every time “Where the Crawdads Sing” cuts back to Kya’s murder trial—which happens seemingly out of nowhere, with no discernible rhythm or reason—the pacing drags and you’ll wish you were back in the sun-dappled marshes, investigating its many creatures. ( Polly Morgan provides the pleasing cinematography.)

What actually ends up happening here, though, is such a terrible twist—and it all plays out in such dizzyingly speedy fashion—that it’s unintentionally laughable. You get the sensation that everyone involved felt the need to cram it all in, yet still maintain a manageable running time. If you’ve read the book, you know what happened to Chase Andrews; if you haven’t, I wouldn’t dream of spoiling it here. But I will say I had a variety of far more intriguing conclusions swirling around in my head in the car ride home, and you probably will, too. 

Now playing in theaters.

Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com since 2013. Before that, she was the film critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television series "Ebert Presents At the Movies" opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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Where the Crawdads Sing (2022)

Rated PG-13 for sexual content and some violence including a sexual assault.

125 minutes

Daisy Edgar-Jones as Catherine 'Kya' Clark

Taylor John Smith as Tate Walker

Harris Dickinson as Chase Andrews

Michael Hyatt as Mabel

Sterling MacEr Jr. as Jumpin'

David Strathairn as Tom Milton

Garret Dillahunt as Pa

Eric Ladin as Eric Chastain

Ahna O'Reilly as Ma

Jojo Regina as Young Kya

• Olivia Newman

Writer (based upon the novel by)

• Delia Owens
• Lucy Alibar

Cinematographer

• Polly Morgan
• Alan Edward Bell
• Mychael Danna

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Where the Crawdads Sing ending explained: Did Kya kill Chase?

Daisy Edgar-Jones' movie is now available to watch on Netflix.

Did Kya kill Chase in Where the Crawdads Sing?

Does where the crawdads sing's ending change the book.

Where the Crawdads Sing ending spoilers follow

Where the Crawdads Sing revolves around one important question that never quite gets a clear answer until the very end – did Kya kill Chase?

Starring Daisy Edgar-Jones , this adaptation of Delia Owens' best-selling novel was originally released in 2022 with disappointing results , and it's now being rediscovered by viewers upon its arrival on Netflix UK .

The story follows Kya (Edgar-Jones), known as 'the marsh girl' since she was abandoned by her family as a young girl and was forced to build a life for herself in the North Carolina marshes. The "civilised" people from town mostly ignore her, at least until she finds herself at the epicentre of a murder case.

Beloved local boy Chase Andrews (played by The Iron Claw 's Harris Dickinson) has been found dead in the marshes, and Kya, with whom he shared a short romantic entanglement, is the prime suspect.

Was Kya really involved in Chase's death? If so, was it an accident or a deliberate murder? We delve into the ending.

Where the Crawdads Sing ending explained

Where the Crawdads Sing follows Kya's journey from living with an abusive father as a child to falling in love with a local boy named Tate. However, when Tate leaves town to go to university, she ends up meeting Chase, who drags her into a toxic and abusive relationship.

Once the murder takes place, Kya is brought in front of a jury as the main suspect since the crime was committed in the marshes (a place she knows better than anybody) and given their history together.

There is also the matter of Chase's shell necklace, which his mother brings up in court as an incriminating piece of information. Chase used to wear the necklace every single day after Kya gifted it to him, but the item was not found with his body.

According to his mother, Kya is the only person who would care to retrieve that necklace, but it's obviously not a strong piece of evidence against her.

During the trial, her lawyer Tom Milton proves that Kya couldn't have committed the crime since she wasn't in town at the time of the murder. She was staying in a hotel in a different town that day so, in order to kill Chase, she'd have had to take a bus in the middle of the night and travel back at 2am in order to wake up in the hotel.

There are no witnesses placing Kya on that bus and no more hard evidence, so the jury finds her not guilty.

Freed from all charges, she returns home to find Tate waiting for her. They are finally able to be together, build a life in the marshes and live happily ever after. In fact, it's not until Kya dies of old age that we (and Tate) find out the truth about Chase's murder.

Yes, she did! The truth is revealed at the very end of the movie, decades after the main story.

After Kya's death, Tate goes through her things and finds a notebook filled with her poems and drawings. He smiles as he goes over the pages, enjoying his lost partner's words and artistry, until he finds something hidden in one of the corners of the book. His smile freezes.

In a secret compartment, Kya hid Chase's missing shell necklace, which means she did kill him and Chase's mother was right – she did want to keep the necklace afterwards.

There is no doubt this was a deliberate murder, given that Kya went to the trouble of finding herself an alibi (staying out of town) and knew how important it was to keep that necklace hidden.

Her reasons are never explicitly explained but it is clear that Chase was becoming abusive and didn't want to leave Kya alone. Growing up with an abusive father, Kya was probably tired of being prey and became predator instead in order to ensure her own survival.

When Tate discovers the necklace, he is visibly shocked, but he ends up throwing it in the marshes so nobody ever finds out the truth.

The movie adaptation of Where the Crawdads Sing is pretty faithful to Delia Owens' original story, including the ending.

"We never considered changing the ending. For me, the ending is the story. That ending is everything to understand who Kya is and the choices that she was faced with," director Olivia Newman told The Wrap in 2022.

"You have to have that ending. That was always incredibly important to me."

In the book, Owens explores Kya's childhood in more detail, as well as her poetry work, which becomes an important narrative device throughout the story. Most of the poems in the story are signed by local published author Amanda Hamilton.

At the end of the book, Tate not only realises Kya murdered Chase but he also finds out that Amanda Hamilton is a name Kya has been using to publish her own work.

The book ends with one of her compositions, called 'The Firefly', which revolves around how female fireflies attract male mates through false signals in order to lure them to their deaths. It symbolises her own strategy to kill Chase.

"We did discuss shooting a slightly more explicit version of the ending," Newman added.

"The book leaves so much to the imagination – you get to understand who Kya is, but never fully. That's part of what's mysterious about her. We wanted to maintain that there's a mystery to it."

Where The Crawdads Sing is available to watch on Netflix in the UK and Ireland.

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Deputy Movies Editor, Digital Spy  Mireia (she/her) has been working as a movie and TV journalist for over seven years, mostly for the Spanish magazine Fotogramas . 

Her work has been published in other outlets such as Esquire and Elle in Spain, and WeLoveCinema in the UK. 

She is also a published author, having written the essay Biblioteca Studio Ghibli: Nicky, la aprendiz de bruja about Hayao Miyazaki's Kiki's Delivery Service .    During her years as a freelance journalist and film critic, Mireia has covered festivals around the world, and has interviewed high-profile talents such as Kristen Stewart, Ryan Gosling, Jake Gyllenhaal and many more. She's also taken part in juries such as the FIPRESCI jury at Venice Film Festival and the short film jury at Kingston International Film Festival in London.     Now based in the UK, Mireia joined Digital Spy in June 2023 as Deputy Movies Editor. 

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ISBN: 0735219109

ISBN13: 9780735219106

Where the Crawdads Sing: Reese's Book Club (a Novel)

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Book Overview

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE--The #1 New York Times bestselling worldwide sensation with more than 12 million copies sold, hailed by The New York Times Book Review as "a painfully beautiful first novel that is at once a murder mystery, a coming-of-age narrative and a celebration of nature." For years, rumors of the "Marsh Girl" have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found... Read Full Overview

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Is Where the Crawdads Sing based on a true story?

A strange story may have inspired the film.

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*Warning: Spoilers for Where the Crawdads Sing ahead*

The movie adaptation of Delia Owens's best-selling novel Where the Crawdads Sing garnered plenty of buzz when it hit theatres in 2022.

Considering it starred Normal People's Daisy Edgar-Jones, was produced by Reese Witherspoon and featured a Taylor Swift original song in its soundtrack, it's no surprise.

The drama, which has recently become available to stream on Netflix , is set in North Carolina in the '50s and follows Kya Clark (Edgar-Jones), a young girl who must learn to survive by herself in the marshlands after she's abandoned by her family.

As an adult, Kya becomes involved with two men from her town. When one of them is found dead, she becomes the main suspect. Despite eventually being cleared and going on to live a long happy life, it is revealed at the end that Kya did in fact kill her ex-lover after he attempted to assault her.

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But are the events depicted in the movie based on a true story? Well, it's complicated.

Where the Crawdads Sing isn't based on a true story . However, some people have drawn similarities between elements depicted in the movie (and the book it's adapted from) and author Delia Owens's own life.

In fact, Owens, her ex-husband Mark and her stepson Christopher are all currently wanted for questioning by Zambian authorities in connection to the murder of an alleged poacher that took place in 1995.

The controversy was extensively covered in a New Yorker Piece by Jeffery Goldberg, in which he details how Owens and her husband worked as conservationists in Africa decades before she moved back to the States and became a best-selling author.

They were the subjects of an ABC special titled Deadly Game: The Mark and Delia Owens Story, in which an alleged poacher is shot on camera after entering a campsite. His identity was never revealed and his body was never recovered.

The Owens family have strongly denied any involvement. No charges have ever been brought against them.

But how does this relate to Kya's tale? Well, Laura Miller pointed out in a Slate piece that it's "strange and uncomfortable to be reading the story of a Southern loner, a noble naturalist, who gets away with what is described as a righteously motivated murder in the remote wild".

Of course, that doesn't confirm anything, but it certainly explains why there was so much controversy surrounding the release of the film.

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’ on Hulu, a Period Melodrama That’s Based On The Best-Selling Novel

Where to stream:.

• Where the Crawdads Sing

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7 movies like ‘where the crawdads sing’, where was ‘where the crawdads sing’ filmed top filming locations.

Now available on Hulu (in addition to rental or purchase on VOD services like Prime Video ), Where the Crawdads Sing was a rock-solid late-pandemic box office hit, grossing $122 million worldwide, proving that medium-budget Movies For Adults may still have life beyond streaming. It helps that it’s based on Delia Owens’ bestselling novel – 15 million copies sold – set in the East Coast swamplands, where a local creep turns up dead, and all fingers point at the local loner woman, played by Daisy Edgar-Jones (who’s having quite the year, considering we’ve already seen her in the horror-comedy Fresh and prestige-TV series Under the Banner of Heaven ). But will the film offer anything to audiences who haven’t already been wooed by the book’s pageturner charms?

WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: BACKLEY COVE, NORTH CAROLINA, 1969. It’s a wild place. Swampy. Humid. Remote. Beautiful. Two boys spot something – a body. A man. Dead. In the mud. At the foot of a rickety old fire tower. Near where the Marsh Girl lives. The Marsh Girl, real name Kya Clark (Edgar-Jones). We hear her voice via narration: “A swamp knows all about death,” stuff like that. She lives way out here all by herself. The townsfolk snicker at her. Bet the weirdo in the woods did it. Who else would do it? The cops investigate the death, and their comments telegraph all sorts of things. Of the dead man: “Best quarterback this town ever had.” They visit Kya’s house, see her collections of feathers and wildlife drawings: “She a scientist, or a witch?” Are they cops, or just a-holes?

They haul Kya in. She speaks barely a word. A kind man visits her cell. A lawyer, Tom Milton (David Strathairn). He says he’ll help her. Flashback: 1953. Kya (Jojo Regina) is maybe eight, nine years old. Her Paw (Garret Dillahunt) is a horrible, horrible man who viciously beats her, her mother and her gaggle of siblings. Everyone leaves, and she’s stuck with boozing, miserable Paw, treading tenderly until he leaves too. She’s resilient, though. Fends for herself. Finds a knife, harvests mussels, sells them to the local shopkeeps, Jumpin’ (Sterling Macer Jr.) and Mabel (Michael Hyatt). They’re warm, kind. Mabel suggests that Kya try school. She does. She’s shunned and ridiculed. She never goes back. She has no shoes or clean clothes. Does she have running water? Don’t think so. Will anyone in this plot do the right thing or the logical thing?

No, because if they did, the plot wouldn’t happen like its creators want it to. There’s a scene in which a man from Social Services asks Mabel and Jumpin’ about Kya, and they fib a little until he leaves. They deduce that a group home would just be worse for an eight-year-old with no shoes or supervision or education living all alone out in the marsh and shucking mussels to survive. I’m not so sure about that, but will concede that it’s a tough call. Mabel finds her a pair of shoes, though. Now we go back to adult Kya in the jail cell. Does she want to plea bargain? No frickin’ way. And then it’s back to 1962, when she’s in her late teens and meets the nicest guy, Tate (Taylor John Smith). They love watching the wildlife; they exchange feathers they find and smoosh lips amidst a swirl of falling fall leaves. He teaches her to read and write and they fall in love and he’s gentle, so gentle, but then he leaves too, for college, and reneges on a promise. Heart. Broken.

Forth we go, to scenes in a courtroom where Kind Lawyer Tom pokes holes in the prosecution’s case while sadfaced Kya doodles birds in a notebook. Then we’re back to 1968 – we’re catching up, see. She meets Chase (Harris Dickinson). We know who Chase is – he’s the best football guy ever in Backley Cove. Dunno about this guy, though. A little crass, but plays a mean harmonica. Tate was nearly perfect; Chase is decidedly imperfect. But as Kya narrates, “I was no longer lonely, and that seemed like enough.” Seem like too much to anyone else? We know a shitbird when we see one, don’t we?

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Crawdads doesn’t stir up the mystical vibes of the Deep South like Mud does, but it kinda tries. It’s also like The Notebook if its modest charms had been chomped off by a swamp gator.

Performance Worth Watching: Anybody buying Edgar-Jones as a semi-feral woman living in a secluded swamp shack? She plays the character like the school wallflower from an ’80s teen sex comedy who’s targeted by the mean jock and rescued by the nice guy, but with a little more mud between her toes. That leaves us highlighting Strathairn, who enjoys a couple earnest moments despite the screenplay doing him no favors.

Memorable Dialogue: Kya: “I know feathers. The other girls don’t know feathers.”

Sex and Skin: A couple light PG-13 sex scenes; a pretty heavy PG-13 incident of sexual assault.

Our Take: Burning question: Do crawdads – or to be non-colloquial about it, crayfish – make noise? The internet says they have an appendage, a scaphognathite, through which they make little clicky-bubbly noises. No singing, no humming, nary a note. But I’m being literal, and “where the crawdads sing” is a metaphor for Kya’s place of refuge, where she’ll escape cruel, violent men. Digging deeper into this awkward look-at-me-I’m-LITERARY device only makes these shallow waters muddier: Is where the crawdads sing an actual physical place somewhere deep in the marsh where all of Kya’s beloved birds and bugs live? A place within the mind of psychological safety or strength? Is it where she might allegedly murder one of those cruel men? Or is “where the crawdads sing” an attempt to fish a capital-S Symbol from the muck of half-considered faux-belletristic narrative swampland? (Be thankful: It could’ve been called Where the Humpbacks Hump .)

I’m trying here, I really am. But there’s not much substance to this quasi-Gothic melodrama beyond vague squeakings about the cruelties of 20th-century American civilization. Toxic masculinity is a big one: Buncha creeps out there! Outsiderdom is another: Gossips and namecallers suck! There’s vaguely something about the ugly racial dynamics of the era: Mabel and Jumpin’ are Black, and they’re outsiders too! Women have to be strong: Look at Kya, she’s very strong! She also somehow knows how to apply makeup despite being isolated from society for a decade-and-a-half. Must’ve learned that off-screen, in between all those narrative time-hops. Maybe from Mabel, who’s like a mother to her, sort of, or at least it’s almost implied, or the movie wants it to be implied, but doesn’t try too hard to imply it, because there’s too much plot to work through.

Speaking of plot, Crawdads is a three-headed monster: Whodunit, romance, and courtroom drama. The first unfolds like a well-worn routine, not a suspenseful nailbiter. The second is Hallmarked schmaltz. The third is toothless and simplistic. Director Olivia Newman is all too comfortable with cliches: The cops find some fibers on the body matching a hat found in Kya’s house. Kya and Tate mash on the beach as the waves wash over them. The courtroom gallery gasps with every revelation. We roll our eyes and maybe even guffaw at some of this junk, all of it corny, melodramatic and vaguely maudlin. Yet we see it through to the end, not because we’re invested in the characters and their well-being, but just to see what happens, to see if the conclusion as unconvincing as every scene that came before it. And lo, it is. The crawdads are in misery here. They don’t sing, they just screech in pain.

Our Call: Beneath the marsh muck the crawdads click-bubble through their scaphognathites an instinctive and urgent primal message sourced from deep within their DNA: SKIP IT.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com .

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Inside Reese Witherspoon’s Literary Empire

When her career hit a wall, the Oscar-winning actor built a ladder made of books — for herself, and for others.

“Reading is the antidote to hate and xenophobia,” Reese Witherspoon said. “It increases our empathy and understanding of the world.” Credit... Jingyu Lin for The New York Times

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By Elisabeth Egan

Reporting from Nashville

• May 18, 2024 Updated 4:07 p.m. ET

“You’d be shocked by how many books have women chained in basements,” Reese Witherspoon said. “I know it happens in the world. I don’t want to read a book about it.”

Nor does she want to read an academic treatise, or a 700-page novel about a tree.

Listen to this article with reporter commentary

Sitting in her office in Nashville, occasionally dipping into a box of takeout nachos, Witherspoon talked about what she does like to read — and what she looks for in a selection for Reese’s Book Club, which she referred to in a crisp third person.

“It needs to be optimistic,” Witherspoon said. “It needs to be shareable. Do you close this book and say, ‘I know exactly who I want to give it to?’”

But, first and foremost, she wants books by women, with women at the center of the action who save themselves. “Because that’s what women do,” she said. “No one’s coming to save us.”

Witherspoon, 48, has now been a presence in the book world for a decade. Her productions of novels like “ Big Little Lies ,” “ Little Fires Everywhere ” and “ The Last Thing He Told Me ” are foundations of the binge-watching canon. Her book club picks reliably land on the best-seller list for weeks, months or, in the case of “ Where the Crawdads Sing ,” years. In 2023, print sales for the club’s selections outpaced those of Oprah’s Book Club and Read With Jenna , according to Circana Bookscan, adding up to 2.3 million copies sold.

So how did an actor who dropped out of college (fine, Stanford) become one of the most influential people in an industry known for being intractable and slightly tweedy?

It started with Witherspoon’s frustration over the film industry’s skimpy representation of women onscreen — especially seasoned, strong, smart, brave, mysterious, complicated and, yes, dangerous women.

“When I was about 34, I stopped reading interesting scripts,” she said.

Witherspoon had already made a name for herself with “ Election ,” “ Legally Blonde ” and “ Walk the Line .” But, by 2010, Hollywood was in flux: Streaming services were gaining traction. DVDs were following VHS tapes to the land of forgotten technology.

“When there’s a big economic shift in the media business, it’s not the superhero movies or independent films we lose out on,” Witherspoon said. “It’s the middle, which is usually where women live. The family drama. The romantic comedy. So I decided to fund a company to make those kinds of movies.”

In 2012, she started the production company Pacific Standard with Bruna Papandrea. Its first projects were film adaptations of books: “ Gone Girl ” and “ Wild ,” which both opened in theaters in 2014.

Growing up in Nashville, Witherspoon knew the value of a library card. She caught the bug early, she said, from her grandmother, Dorothea Draper Witherspoon, who taught first grade and devoured Danielle Steel novels in a “big cozy lounger” while sipping iced tea from a glass “with a little paper towel wrapped around it.”

This attention to detail is a smoke signal of sorts: Witherspoon is a person of words.

When she was in high school, Witherspoon stayed after class to badger her English teacher — Margaret Renkl , now a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times — about books that weren’t part of the curriculum. When Witherspoon first moved to Los Angeles, books helped prepare her for the “chaos” of filmmaking; “ The Making of the African Queen ” by Katharine Hepburn was a particular favorite.

So it made sense that, as soon as Witherspoon joined Instagram, she started sharing book recommendations. Authors were tickled and readers shopped accordingly. In 2017, Witherspoon made it official: Reese’s Book Club became a part of her new company, Hello Sunshine.

The timing was fortuitous, according to Pamela Dorman, senior vice president and publisher of Pamela Dorman Books/Viking, who edited the club’s inaugural pick, “ Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine .” “The book world needed something to help boost sales in a new way,” she said.

Reese’s Book Club was that something: “Eleanor Oliphant” spent 85 weeks on the paperback best-seller list. The club’s second pick, “The Alice Network,” spent nearly four months on the weekly best-seller lists and two months on the audio list. Its third, “ The Lying Game ,” spent 18 weeks on the weekly lists.

“There’s nothing better than getting that phone call,” added Dorman, who has now edited two more Reese’s Book Club selections.

Kiley Reid’s debut novel, “ Such a Fun Age ,” got the nod in January 2020. She said, “When I was on book tour, a lot of women would tell me, ‘I haven’t read a book in four years, but I trust Reese.’” Four years later, on tour for her second novel, “ Come and Get It ,” Reid met women who were reading 100 books a year.

Witherspoon tapped into a sweet spot between literary and commercial fiction, with a few essay collections and memoirs sprinkled in. She turned out to be the literary equivalent of a fit model — a reliable bellwether for readers in search of intelligent, discussion-worthy fare, hold the Proust. She wanted to help narrow down the choices for busy readers, she said, “to bring the book club out of your grandma’s living room and online.”

She added: “The unexpected piece of it all was the economic impact on these authors’ lives.”

One writer became the first person in her family to own a home. “She texted me a picture of the key,” Witherspoon said. “I burst into tears.”

Witherspoon considers a handful of books each month. Submissions from publishers are culled by a small group that includes Sarah Harden, chief executive of Hello Sunshine; Gretchen Schreiber, manager of books (her original title was “bookworm”); and Jon Baker, whose team at Baker Literary Scouting scours the market for promising manuscripts.

Not only is Witherspoon focused on stories by women — “the Bechdel test writ large,” Baker said — but also, “Nothing makes her happier than getting something out in the world that you might not see otherwise.”

When transgender rights were in the headlines in 2018, the club chose “ This Is How It Always Is ,” Laurie Frankel’s novel about a family grappling with related issues in the petri dish of their own home. “We track the long tail of our book club picks and this one, without fail, continues to sell,” Baker said.

Witherspoon’s early readers look for a balance of voices, backgrounds and experiences. They also pay attention to the calendar. “Everyone knows December and May are the busiest months for women,” Harden said, referring to the mad rush of the holidays and the end of the school year. “You don’t want to read a literary doorstop then. What do you want to read on summer break? What do you want to read in January?”

Occasionally the group chooses a book that isn’t brand-new, as with the club’s April pick, “ The Most Fun We Ever Had ,” from 2019. When Claire Lombardo learned that her almost-five-year-old novel had been anointed, she thought there had been a mistake; after all, her new book, “Same As it Ever Was,” is coming out next month. “It’s wild,” Lombardo said. “It’s not something that I was expecting.”

Sales of “The Most Fun We Ever Had” increased by 10,000 percent after the announcement, according to Doubleday. Within the first two weeks, 27,000 copies were sold. The book has been optioned by Hello Sunshine.

Witherspoon preferred not to elaborate on a few subjects: competition with other top-shelf book clubs (“We try not to pick the same books”); the lone author who declined to be part of hers (“I have a lot of respect for her clarity”); and the 2025 book she’s already called dibs on (“You can’t imagine that Edith Wharton or Graham Greene didn’t write it”).

But she was eager to set the record straight on two fronts. Her team doesn’t get the rights to every book — “It’s just how the cookie crumbles,” she said — and, Reese’s Book Club doesn’t make money off sales of its picks. Earnings come from brand collaborations and affiliate revenue.

This is true of all celebrity book clubs. An endorsement from one of them is a free shot of publicity, but one might argue that Reese’s Book Club does a bit more for its books and authors than most. Not only does it promote each book from hardcover to paperback, it supports authors in subsequent phases of their careers.

Take Reid, for instance. More than three years after Reese’s Book Club picked her first novel, it hosted a cover reveal for “Come and Get It,” which came out in January. This isn’t the same as a yellow seal on the cover, but it’s still a spotlight with the potential to be seen by the club’s 2.9 million Instagram followers.

“I definitely felt like I was joining a very large community,” Reid said.

“Alum” writers tend to stay connected with one another via social media, swapping woot woots and advice. They’re also invited to participate in Hello Sunshine events and Lit Up, a mentorship program for underrepresented writers. Participants get editing and coaching from Reese’s Book Club authors, plus a marketing commitment from the club when their manuscripts are submitted to agents and editors.

“I describe publishing and where we sit in terms of being on a river,” Schreiber said. “We’re downstream; we’re looking at what they’re picking. Lit Up gave us the ability to look upstream and say, ‘We’d like to make a change here.’”

The first Lit Up-incubated novel, “Time and Time Again” by Chatham Greenfield, is coming out from Bloomsbury YA in July. Five more fellows have announced the sales of their books.

As Reese’s Book Club approaches a milestone — the 100th pick, to be announced in September — it continues to adapt to changes in the market. Print sales for club selections peaked at five million in 2020, and they’ve softened since then, according to Circana Bookscan. In 2021, Candle Media, a Blackstone-backed media company, bought Hello Sunshine for $900 million. Witherspoon is a member of Candle Media’s board. She is currently co-producing a “Legally Blonde” prequel series for Amazon Prime Video.

This month, Reese’s Book Club will unveil an exclusive audio partnership with Apple, allowing readers to find all the picks in one place on the Apple Books app. “I want people to stop saying, ‘I didn’t really read it, I just listened,’” Witherspoon said. “Stop that. If you listened, you read it. There’s no right way to absorb a book.”

She feels that Hollywood has changed over the years: “Consumers are more discerning about wanting to hear stories that are generated by a woman.”

Even as she’s looking forward, Witherspoon remembers her grandmother, the one who set her on this path.

“Somebody came up to me at the gym the other day and he said” — here she put on a gentle Southern drawl — “‘I’m going to tell you something I bet you didn’t hear today.’ And he goes, ‘Your grandma taught me how to read.’”

Another smoke signal, and a reminder of what lives on.

Read by Elisabeth Egan

Audio produced by Sarah Diamond .

Elisabeth Egan is a writer and editor at the Times Book Review. She has worked in the world of publishing for 30 years. More about Elisabeth Egan

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