Delia Owens is as assured a first novelist, as I have come across in some time. "Where The Crawdads Sing" is a lyrical blend of two genres--Southern Gothic and whodunit thriller. Chapters are written from different ends, until the whole thing begins to come together.
Kya, the Marsh Girl, aka Catherine Danielle Clark, is one of the strongest, and most fascinating characters in American fiction. Right on the heels of Carson McCullers, and Harper Lee, Kya is an individual, both proud and yearning, who will have no pity from anyone. She is to be admired.
Things start to become murky, when town Golden Boy, Chase Andrews, who has been seen, at times, with Kya, goes missing, and is found dead at the bottom of a fire tower, within the marsh. No footprints, or evidence whatsoever.
Who did it? I won't tell you, but Chase deserved it. The means of revelation is priceless, and the book ends as lyrically as it began.
Despite its similarity to other themed works, it has its own sense of lyricism which makes it stand out. And Kya, one of fiction's best characters in quite awhile.
Those readers, such as I, who squirm at snakes and bugs, can vicariously enjoy jaunts in the marsh, with Kya.
Much safer on the printed page, than in the actual marsh, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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