Where the Crawdads Sing

I've been trying to figure out what it is that I don't like about this book. Since it has been so wildly popular with other readers, I feel like I must be from another planet.

There were some details that didn't sit right with me, as well as bad dialogue and underdeveloped characters. There seemed to be no reason to set the story in the 1960s other than to not have to deal with cell phones or a more robust social work system. Certainly the time period wasn't used in the story.

However, if I was really into the story, I think I would have overlooked all of that.

At the beginning of the book, when Kya's mother walks out on the family, I was really invested in what was going to happen to her. As the book went on, I felt that most things were getting resolved pretty quickly. She solves all of her problems with relative ease and there is never any intense moment when her life is really in danger due to the swamp/environment. She is a “social outcast” but gets boyfriends and her social skills seem fine when she needs to pull them out.

I think the problem for me is that the writer wants us to sympathize and even worship Kya. Owens bends the events of the story around her, rather than let the story happen to Kya and see how she might deal with it. As a reader, I wasn't feeling any deep connection with this character and was really only reading to the end to see the resolution of the murder mystery. I think Owens expects the readers to think even the murder is justified. (Not legal, but justified.) Kya can do no wrong and there is no moral conflict and no risks taken that we won't like her.