Book Review: “Where the Crawdads Sing” by Delia Owens

Nov 8

Håfa adai! Welcome to my review of Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens.

This book review consists of two parts: a spoiler-free plot summary and my thoughts on the story. In the second part, I give my personal rating and break down the setting and worldbuilding, storytelling, cast of characters, and themes. There may be some lightweight spoilers—such as how characters interact with each other and the world around them—but I will not give away any major plot twists or endings. I want to share my opinions of the book and maybe encourage you to purchase a copy of your own.

Click on the tags at the bottom of this post to see all reviews with the same tags in the Mystery bookshelf.

Spoiler-Free Plot Summary

The marsh throughout the coastal fishing community of Barkley Cove, North Carolina, is an unforgiving ecosystem where death begets life. Any that call the marsh home must find their own way to survive. In 1952, Kya was only 6 years old when her mother packed a bag, put on a pair of alligator skin heels, and walked out the front door of her family’s home in the marsh, never to be seen again. In the year that followed, Kya’s two older sisters, two older brothers, and father would walk out that same door, leaving Kya all alone in that house in the marsh.

Forced to find her own way to survive, Kya would be harshly judged and rejected by the larger community of Barkley Cove. Although she yearns for community, there are only three people who know her by her name. To everyone else in Barkley Cove, she is just “the marsh girl.” So, in October 1969, when the body of former high school football star Chase Andrews is discovered at the base of a condemned tower, the town suspects only one person: the “marsh girl.” Although Kya can survive the harshness of the marsh, she is now forced to face an environment in which she has no experience.

Important Trigger Warning for Where the Crawdads Sing

Where the Crawdads Sing depicts domestic violence, child abandonment, substance abuse, and racial slurs. Chapter 39 briefly depicts a violent sexual assault. These scenes and themes are essential to the plot. And, on a speculative note that ties to the real-life controversy following Mark and Delia Owens, is she equating the judgement and treatment she has received due to what (allegedly) happened in Kenya in 1995 to the treatment of African Americans during the Jim Crowe era? Please prioritize your own mental health before engaging with any work of fiction or non-fiction. If these would cause you distress or discomfort in any way, then make sure to take necessary steps to prepare and protect yourself before and after reading this book.

Was It All Fiction? The Controversy Surrounding Mark and Delia Owens.

Delia Owen’s novel about a murder in a coastal North Carolina swamp caught the attention of readers all over the world, as well as investigators in Zambia. Reported by The New Yorker in 2010 and in 2022 by The Atlantic, Today, ABC News Australia, The New York Times, and E! News, Delia Owens and her then-husband Mark Owens spent decades studying elephants and other large mammals in Deception Valley of Botswana’s Kalahari Desert before moving to North Luangwa National Park in Zambia. From a glance at some quotes from the Owens’ writings and interviews over the years, there is a lot to be said about settler colonialism in Africa and the romanticization of “living primitively” among Indigenous communities, but that is conversation I will reserve for if I ever decide to read any of the Owens’ published non-fiction works.

In 1995, after 20 years of living and working in Africa, an ABC news crew visited the couple in Zambia to film an episode of “Turning Point”. In the 1996 episode, Deadly Game: The Mark and Delia Owens Story, a man identified as a game scout wearing a green uniform (whose appearance outside the uniform is digitally edited to make the person unidentifiable) approaches and fires a single shot at an unidentified man suspected of being a poacher wearing a gray jacket and brown pants, killing the unidentified man.

Mark and Delia Owens left Zambia shortly after Deadly Games aired as questions rose surrounding the identity of the suspected poacher. It seemed unclear from the footage if the man was a poacher to begin with or even armed at all. The ability of Zambian officials to investigate was completely sabotaged by the absence of human remains to analyze. According to what was said in the episode, the man’s body was left in the field to be eaten by animals. Other allegations would arise later stating that the man’s body was relocated to a nearby lagoon, not unlike how the fictional Chase Andrews’ body was left in the swamp in Where the Crawdads Sing.

Questions regarding who the individual was in the green uniform would cast more doubt as the possibility remains that that person may not have been one of the Zambian game scouts, but Mark Owens himself. Did Mark and Delia Owens’ choice never to return to Zambia after they left in 1996 reflect that they know more than they are willing to admit? To this day, Delia Owens denies any involvement with the shooting of the man caught on camera. That being stated, my choice to feature a review of Where the Crawdads Sing on the Bookmarks & Armchairs blog is in no way and by no means an endorsement of Delia Owens’ involvement or lack of involvement, or of Mark Owens’ guilt or innocence.

My Thoughts on Where the Crawdads Sing: 4 stars

I first listened to the audiobook of Where the Crawdads Sing in 2022—my attention immediately caught by the trailer for the movie based on this story—and so many aspects of the story have stuck with me since. But I learned about the controversy surrounding Mark and Delia Owens and the 1995 shooting of an unidentified man in Zambia shortly after finishing the book, so I was hesitant to include a review of it here. Yet, as someone who is an avid consumer of true crime, I could not help but dive down the rabbit hole of news reports, online articles, allegations, and speculations of what happened now-30 years ago and the comparisons between that and what is depicted in the novel. It was through that lens that I revisited the story. And it was after learning more about what may have happened in Zambia in 1995 that the story within Where the Crawdads Sing took on a different form.

Taking place from 1952 to 1969 and beyond in coastal North Carolina, on the eastern seaboard of the United States, Where the Crawdads Sing is part murder investigation, part ecology lesson, part coming-of-age amidst social ostracization. The juxtaposed worlds in the story can be sorted into two parts: the unjustifiably discriminatory social world of the 1950s-1960s United States, and the logically unforgiving ecological world of the North Carolina marsh. Delia Owens’ does not hide the fact that much of the story occurs during the latter years of Jim Crowe-era United States history, acknowledging that schools and communities in North Carolina were segregated on the basis of race. Owens also does not shy away from the way the marsh’s ecosystem only judges based on a single question: Can you survive?

Forced to balance these two worlds is Catherine Danielle Clark, or Kya. On one hand, Kya yearns for human connection and to belong to a community. On the other hand, Kya’s experience with abandonment and rejection cause her to retreat further into the marsh and into herself. Kya is complex and relatable, and Delia Owens draws the reader into Kya’s world in a way that makes you feel both admiration and heartbreak for her. But any sympathy the reader might feel for Kya is not exactly shared by the investigators tasked with solving the murder at hand and the community the victim belonged to. From my interpretation of the story after learning about the 1995 shooting of the unidentified man in Zambia, Kya’s struggles with others’ perception and prosecution of her, and how Delia Owens writes Kya, seem to have some biographical elements to the author.

My overall rating for Delia Owens’ Where the Crawdads Sing is 4 out of 5 stars. Although I was able to accurately guess “who done it” early on in the story, I could not predict how they did it, and the premise and details in the story were very interesting. Delia Owens paints a vivid picture of Kya’s life and experiences in the coastal North Carolina marsh, demonstrating her first-hand knowledge of living within the strict confines of a given unforgiving landscape. Although it is by no means an admission of any guilt or involvement, it is strange the ways in which Delia Owens’ fictional story has similarities to what may have happened in real life in Zambia in 1995. I recommend Where the Crawdads Sing to those who appreciate dense ecological descriptions woven into fiction as well as true crime buffs interested in seeing how a mystery novel reflects what (may have/possibly/allegedly) taken place in a real-life event.

Dångkulo' na' saina ma'åse'! Thank you so much for reading my review of Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens.

Rating Cheat Sheet

4.75 - 5.00 stars: Everyone should read this book! (If you’re into that sort of thing.)
4.00 - 4.50 stars: I appreciated many aspects of this book. I recommend it!
3.00 - 3.75 stars: I liked some aspects of this book. I won’t revisit it, but someone else might really like it.
2.00 - 2.75 stars: There were some things I appreciated about this book, but I do not recommend it.
0.25 - 1.75 stars: I do not recommend this book. I did not enjoy or appreciate the experience of it.

Post Date: 14 July 2025