“ Go as far as you can- way out yonder where the crawdads
sing.”
Let me be honest with you, first few pages with all the
natures description and Little Kya’s life in the marsh, the plot was
getting monotonous for me. I felt at times this book might not be the one for
me.I skimmed many areas of the
natures description in the beginning (almost about 100 page)s, as there was nothing happening in the story.
The dialect distracted me immensely. Until I came to the part where the book
was unputdownable. Yes it is, believe me
.
You will either hate it or love it
The story is set in a marshland North Carolina 1950-1970, and the entire plot is about Abondonment.
The story begins with the survival of a six yrs old girl Kya who was abandoned by her mother, and then her siblings . She was left with her abusive / alcoholic father until one day her father too left her in the marshes. They live in the marshes away from humans and there main source of transport was boat. So you can feel how it would be for a little girl to survive in the marsh all alone . Her solitude life in the marsh and how she learnt to survive with the nature, among the gulls and herons, insects and marsh tides fabulously described. From cooking, cleaning, to learning to drive the boat, Kya had no other choice but to learn for survival this also made her distrustful to others. ‘ Slowly with little bit of -learning about using boat and catching fishes and mussels she started going to the town to sell them and get food and gas for her boat. Here she was loved by a couple and whenever she had trouble she would seek there help. The town people hated her for no apt reason, called her marsh girl, and many a times people made stories about her. This made her stop going to school. The discrimination and hatred was beyond words. They hated her alternative lifestyle.
Let me tell you she was not a black girl.
Kya in her growing up years had 2 people whom she loved immensely Tate and Chase. May be more than her parents who abandoned her.
“ Everygirl probably remembers her first love , She let out
a long breath then rowed back the way
she came….”
The book moves to the part where she is a teenager and meets
Tate. Slowly her life changed, she was
been taught to read and write, and Tate too loved the marshes and so there
chemistry was so adorable but will it end here, I guess no. More pains where
written for Kya. The murder scene changed the whole tone of the story and Kya
was suspected. Chase was murdered.
Trial room scene, trauma, loneliness , loosing loved ones, betrayal and lot of hope to anchor the solitude life and lastly an unforgettable ending. A book full of emotional rollercoaster ride, a beautiful one.
