Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge discussion

This is the November Monthly Group Read discussion for Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. This will satisfy the 27th prompt "#22 Read a book by or about a woman in STEM.

A huge "Thank You!" to Trish for leading this discussion!

Every person reads at a different pace, so please use spoiler tags if you are sharing any plot-related surprises. This allows others to decide whether this information might reveal surprising information they have not yet read. It can also be helpful to other readers if you post the chapter/and or page number with the spoiler. That way, if someone else has read that far they can go ahead and open the spoiler, but if not, they'll know to skip it for now and return later...

TO ADD SPOILER TAGS:

Use this for spoilers, just remove the spaces:
< spoiler > write your spoiler here and close with < / spoiler >

Posts here should only be contributions to discussion about this book.

So I haven't read this one and I'm on the fence about it. I saw an interview with the author and she made it sound like a slow pace of life story about the American South. But then I see rave reviews. Which makes me curious if my initial impressions are wrong?

It's a beautiful read, but it is true that there is lots of description and a fairly slow pace. I wasn't a fan of the ending so much, but I loved the rest of the book. And I'm not usually all gaga about descriptive writing, but this was great.

Hi all. I should probably start with some "expectations" questions!

1. The book has been shelved in a number of categories. Which ones attracted you to it?

In my case, I always like a mystery, and I do read a fair amount of historical fiction.

2. Like Jennifer, I've not read this yet. I have heard positive things about it. Has anything you've heard from previous readers made you more or less likely to read it.

More when I've managed to start the book!

Jennifer W wrote: "So I haven't read this one and I'm on the fence about it. I saw an interview with the author and she made it sound like a slow pace of life story about the American South. But then I see rave revie..."

I listened to it on audio and didn't notice the pacing being too slow. Most readers had strong opinions on the ending... Personally it was exactly what I was hoping for. ;) Hope you try it!

Trish wrote: "Hi all. I should probably start with some "expectations" questions!

1. The book has been shelved in a number of categories. Which ones attracted you to it?

In my case, I always like a mystery, an..."

As far as the "shelves" labels for this book, I read very little mystery and almost no romance, but plenty of fiction, historical fiction, coming of age, etc. I mainly picked it up because of all the buzz it was getting and wanted to see what the fuss was about. It's been over a year since I read it, so I don't remember everything, but I gave it four stars. I remember enjoying the ending but I had seen that many readers liked the story despite the ending.

I enjoyed the descriptions and the slow pace. I did not like the ending, it was inconsistent. Not the result, but with the lack of explanation of how. I reviewed it on our website, I'll put a link to the that review below. It has major spoilers in it, so don't look at it if you don't want spoilers. It explains why I didn't like the ending, without me having to type out a huge post here.

Review (with spoilers): https://readingproject.neocities.org/...

I've been reading this one for a while - I have the audiobook on my waterproof mp3 player for swimming, although I think I'll need to find another time to finish it off as our pools have been closed for a month!

I honestly didn't know much about it when I picked it up and was quite surprised to come across the mystery. Like Lauren said, the pacing doesn't stand out as slow on the audio - I guess the timeframe jumps around a fair amount.

I've obviously not finished it so not really sure if it lives up to the overwhelming positive reviews or what quite yet but enjoying it well enough so far. Very interested to hear how others are finding it.

I've been a bit slow getting going with reading this, as last week was pretty crazy. However, after the first three chapters, I'm very impressed with the sense of place I've got so far. That may be because even though its set in North Carolina, the descriptions remind me of parts of Florida which I've visited.

How is anyone else doing at visualising the scene? Is that something you do and has the author succeeded for you?

So I may be an outlier, but I like to let my imagination fill in the scene in my mind's eye, and sometimes it's handy to have something to hang that on to draw me into the story. The prologue did a good job of setting it for me. Two pages, and I felt I was there.

More when I get a bit further in.

I love description, mystery, and historical fiction, so this book was the jam for me. And I adored the ending. She was so clever... One of my absolute favorite reads! Hope everyone enjoys it.

Trish wrote: "So I may be an outlier, but I like to let my imagination fill in the scene in my mind's eye, and sometimes it's handy to have something to hang that on to draw me into the story. The prologue did a good job of setting it for me. Two pages, and I felt I was there.

More when I get a bit further in."

That was exactly how I felt as well...

I've read to the end of Part 1, so time for a few more thoughts.

First, back to the marsh, as it's key to everything else. I'd even say it's a character in itself. Did anyone else get that idea?

Instead of her parents, to me what makes Kya "Kya" is the marsh. To me that makes it the second-most important "character" in Part 1.

There were some points when I felt a suspension of disbelief was needed, and while I managed to get past that, I did notice it. Did anyone else feel that, and did it help or hinder your enjoyment of Part 1 (or the whole book).

(view spoiler)[When her entire family left in such a short space of time, with the exception of her father. I wasn't quite convinced that Kya would have survived at such a young age with no-one to really look to. On the other hand, I enjoyed her doing her best, and there were points when I forgot her father was even still around. (hide spoiler)]

What do people think of the jumps between Kya's past and the later mystery in Part 1?

I was so drawn into Kya's story and the life in the marsh, that I actually found myself getting annoyed when it jumped to the mystery. This surprised me, as going into the book, I thought it would be the mystery that interested me more than the setting. Now this may be because it only comes in snippets in Part 1, and therefore feels intrusive. On the other hand, maybe outside intruding on the marsh is the point...

Apart from Kya, herself, did any of the other characters we meet in Part 1 stand out to you? Who did you like? Dislike?

The relationship between her father and mother is obviously a complicated one, although its not until quite a ways into Part 1 that the book explains how they met, (view spoiler)[and perhaps, what went wrong, i.e. the implication that her father had PTSD from WWII, and came back a different person, like so many young soldiers (hide spoiler)].

I'd like to have seen Jumpin' and Mabel fleshed out a bit more, as I liked them as characters - of course, that may come in Part 2.

The first book that Tate brings Kya is a A Sand County Almanac, by Aldo Leopold, first published in 1949, which would have made it a new book at the time of the earlier parts of the story.

A pioneering environmental book, I read it about four years ago, and thought it was wonderful (5*!). Once it was mentioned, I immediately felt that the one informed the other. Has anyone else read both? Did you feel there were similarities?

Even though the settings are very different - Wisconsin and North Carolina - as I was reading Crawdads, I was reminded of Sand County. Tate obviously chose it because he knew of her love of nature, even though its not an obvious choice for a first book, so that needed a bit more suspension of disbelief, but I felt it did seem to fit.



More later.

Trish wrote: "What do people think of the jumps between Kya's past and the later mystery in Part 1?

I was so drawn into Kya's story and the life in the marsh, that I actually found myself getting annoyed when it jumped to the mystery. This surprised me, as going into the book, I thought it would be the mystery that interested me more than the setting. Now this may be because it only comes in snippets in Part 1, and therefore feels intrusive. On the other hand, maybe outside intruding on the marsh is the point..."

I would say you probably analyzed that correctly... :)

Not my usual read, but I really loved it!

Sorry, I'm having a bit of a nightmare week at work, so I'm being slow getting through part 2.

Trish wrote: "I've read to the end of Part 1, so time for a few more thoughts.

First, back to the marsh, as it's key to everything else. I'd even say it's a character in itself. Did anyone else get that idea? ..."

Great questions here!

1. Yes, I definitely found the marsh to be a character in itself in this story. Similar to the house in The Dutch House, and the setting in Cantoras really stood out to me as well.

2. Agreed, I just went with the flow of the story, brushing off the things that seemed far-fetched. ;)

3. I don't remember that part since I read it over a year ago.

4. Now that you mention it, I think Mabel (and maybe also Jumpin') were the reason I gave this four stars instead of five. Their descriptions (at least Mabel's as I remember) played to racist stereotypes and I wished the author had worked with a sensitivity reader to fix that part.

5. I haven't read the almanac, but I'm glad you had that connection!

So, I've finallly finished reading Where the Crawdads Sing, and I have to say, I really enjoyed the book. It was something different to what I usually read, and it drew me in from the very beginning. I don't give five stars that often, but I felt this earned them.

Personally, I liked the ending (view spoiler)[- both the life with Tate, and the discoveries about her poetry and also what happened to Chase (hide spoiler)], but I know various other people didn't so, first question

Did you like the ending, and if so, why; and if not, also why?

I have to say, I wasn't as surprised as I might have been about the key reveal. Perhaps I suspected it all along. (view spoiler)[ And I have to say, I'm glad she got away with it. Chase was a deeply unpleasent individual (hide spoiler)]

Right at the end, it did need that suspension of disbelief I mentioned in an earlier question, but you know, I'll take that for a what I felt was a satifying ending.

All the way through the book, I found myself drawn to the marsh, such that I'd love to go there and see it.

Have you ever read a book with such a sense of place that you wanted to be there?

When I was reading the trial section, I found my mind casting back to To Kill a Mockingbird, and I felt a similar feeling of predjudice from the people in the courtroom (view spoiler)[even if the verdict was the opposite (hide spoiler)].

Did that occur to anyone else?