?Have You Heard??Audiobooks for Your Listening Pleasure?Where the Crawdads Sing Written by Delia Owens and Narrated by Cassandra Campbell?

Posted November 7, 2018 by RobbieLea in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
Published by Penguin Audio, G.P. Putnam's Sons on August 14, 2018
Genres: Literary Fiction, Coming of Age
Pages: 384
Format: Audiobook
ISBN: 0735219095
ASIN: B07FSXPMHY
Goodreads
five-stars

A novel about an young woman determined to make her way in the wilds of North Carolina, and the two men that will break her isolation open.

For years, rumors of the "Marsh Girl" have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. She's barefoot and wild; unfit for polite society. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark.

But Kya is not what they say. Abandoned at age ten, she has survived on her own in the marsh that she calls home. A born naturalist with just one day of school, she takes life lessons from the land, learning from the false signals of fireflies the real way of this world. But while she could have lived in solitude forever, the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. Drawn to two young men from town, who are each intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new and startling world--until the unthinkable happens.

Buy on Amazon

Buy on Kobo

Available on Google Play


#marshgirl #northcarolinacoastalmarsh #racism #environmentalissues #deliaowens #cassandracampbell #penguinaudio @cassandra_cass @PRHAudio

There is so much to say about Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens . . .  I hardly know where to begin. It is Ms. Owens’ debut into the world of fiction, but certainly not her debut as a writer. She is an award-winning author of non-fiction and, out of her study of nature and the environment as well as her observations of how animals interact, comes a book that reflects her interests and translates them into a story of love, hate, intolerance, and survival. The author introduces us to a variety of characters both simple and complex, but there is no doubt, this is Kya Clark’s book. Completely abandoned by her family by the age of 10, Kya shows remarkable strength as she learns to care for herself in the marsh which has been her only home and in the company of the wildlife she loves. There is almost a dream-like quality about the story as we become observers in Kya’s life and experience her solitary existence. For those of you who may get dings from your plausibility alarm, I will say as a child of the 50’s and 60’s who was raised in coastal Carolina, this story is entirely plausible. There were, and likely still are, areas which were very isolated from “city living” where I can envision a lifestyle similar to Kya’s. I know I’ve complained a bit recently about authors who jump around in the storyline, but Delia Owens makes it work for her as she alternates between the past and the present, effectively showing us with the past how Kya got to the present.

Cassandra Campbell sets the tone for the dream-like quality of Delia Owens’ words with her lyrical voices for the characters. While Ms. Campbell’s accents aren’t necessarily accurate for that part of the country, they are understandable and many of the authentic accents are like a foreign language to outsiders.

I highly recommend Where the Crawdads Sing. This is a book that will stay in your head long after the final word is heard or read.  There is a diversity of themes that I think will appeal to a variety of readers. The descriptive language of the marsh with its living things, the commentary on the inhumanity with which we sometimes treat those who are different, and the moral questions posed firmly establish Delia Owens as a storyteller of the first caliber. There is a murder mystery to be solved and a HEA with a twist that will leave you with something to ponder. I’ve never purchased a digital or hard copy of a book after listening to the audiobook — but this will be my first. If you listen, you will likely be able to figure out why I think the author’s words in the last few chapters just cry out to be read.

five-stars

About Delia Owens

Delia Owens lived in some of the most remote areas of Africa for twenty three years while she conducted scientific research on lions, elephants and others. Based on these expeditions and adventures, she co-authored three internationally bestselling nonfiction books about her life as a wildlife scientist.

She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in zoology from the University of Georgia and a Ph.D. in Animal Behavior from the University of California in Davis. She has won the John Burroughs Award for Nature Writing and has been published in Nature, Journal of Mammalogy, The African Journal of Ecology, and International Wildlife, among many others. She currently lives in Idaho.

Where the Crawdads Sing is her first novel.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.