Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

Where the Crawdads Sing is a difficult book to pin down in terms of the main storyline at least in my estimation.  The main character, Kya, is abandoned by her whole family as well as the small town people who openly call her swamp trash and do little to help her either as a child or adult.  Kya’s family includes a father who is a dangerous drunk, her mother who is battered and driven to mental illness, and her older brothers and sisters who can only think of their own survival and escape.  Unbelievably, by the age of 10 Kya is living alone in the swamp, surviving by selling mussels and salted fish.  This plot line could well have been the story, but there is so much more.  Nature and all that we can learn from it is a huge part of the novel.  Kya’s innate connection to the swamp and all of nature became the underpinning to Kya’s life and the only thing that never harmed her.  Teaching herself to paint, Kya begins collecting specimens (feathers, nests, grasses) and then creating beautiful pictures detailing little known insects and plants of the marshy terrain.  This too could well have served as the central theme, but again there is much more.  The cruelty of humans to other humans and the cold reality that most people will do anything to foster their own desires is perhaps the most disturbing element of this narrative. The reader observes the harsh reality of the treatment people receive  if they are different or deemed untouchable.  Living as a wild, feral girl Kya’s interactions with society are few but in many cases painful. Likewise, her fear of abandonment heightens her “flight’ reaction when people try to draw near to her.  The few times that Kya makes a connection to other people seem to prove to her that most people cannot be trusted.  In the end, Kya survives and thrives despite the obstacles the world throws at her.  This is another book that shows us the people are so easily harmed by others, but that resilience of spirit triumphs much like in nature.  The strong survive.