For both of my mom's book clubs (they each read this book separately a few months ago), this is where the book became completely unrealistic. They couldn't wrap their minds around the fact that a little girl survived out in the marshes on her own, and nobody in town even noticed or did anything about it. While I can see where they're coming from, it is, unfortunately, very possible. Think about how many children slip through the cracks of the foster care system every single day. Obviously, this isn't something we want to think about, as we'd like to think that the foster system does its job without any problems. My coworker and I were talking about this. We're both teachers, and she told me about a student she had last year. Nobody knew that this student and her sister were living completely on their own for two months until they were about to be evicted. Just like Kya, they went through the motions and hid the reality of their circumstances from everyone around them. With that being said, it really didn't seem out of the realm of possibility that Kya was alone, and nobody knew any better.
Kya's childhood is only part of the story. Interwoven with Kya's childhood and extremely unconventional upbringing, local police are trying to solve the mysterious murder of Chase Andrews, former star quarterback and all-around beloved member of the community. Locals found his body in the marsh underneath the fire tower, and suspicion immediately turned to Kya, who the locals refer to as "Marsh Girl". Their prejudice get the better of them as they try to figure out who killed Chase. It's easy to figure out why they zeroed in on Kya, as she was the quintessential example of an outcast, while Chase was the quintessential example of a town superstar. This story mostly takes a backseat to the story about Kya's childhood and upbringing, until they both converge, and the reader spends the rest of the story hooked on every word as they find out what happened to Chase and Kya.
Now that we've gotten the basics out of the way, it's time to dive a little more into the book. Just like before, if you haven't read the book or don't want spoilers this is where you should probably stop reading. There aren't any discussion questions for this post.
Wow, all I can say is wow. That ending was amazing! I definitely did NOT see that coming! I spent the entire book completely convinced that Kya was 100% innocent, especially the way she talked to her lawyer and made it abundantly clear that she would NOT have anything to do with any plea bargain that included jail time. I definitely knew that Chase raped her, but I thought he was going to rape her on the top of the fire tower, and then she pushed him off in self-defense. After that turned out to be incorrect, I thought she was going to be found guilty and executed. I have to admit, I was so relieved when that turned out to be not true. I read another book where something similar happened, and while the book was amazing (and the death at the end definitely helped contribute to the plot), I still didn't like it. After Kya was found not-guilty, I was so sure she was innocent and Tate actually killed Chase for Kya (we'll talk about Kya and Tate's relationship in a bit; I absolutely loved it!). I know that that was what Owen was going for with the chapter immediately following Kya's acquittal, and it definitely seemed plausible.
I absolutely loved Tate's relationship with Kya. Yes, he did her wrong by leaving her to go to college, but had he actually said goodbye and explained why he had to leave her (he really did think he was acting in her own best interest), then things would have been much smoother between them. Unlike Chase, Tate really did have Kya's best interests at heart, which is why I was so convinced he killed Chase. I was absolutely heartbroken when Tate left Kya (although I knew he had to spread his own wings and experiencing his own life for a little while), but he always looked out for her and did whatever he could to make sure she had everything she needed. Unlike everyone else, Tate was able to see Kya for who she really was and all the potential she had inside her. If everyone else in town had treated her the same way, then maybe she would have had a much different life.
I also want to take a little bit of time to talk about Chase. First of all, what a total creep! I hate to say it, but the guy really deserved what happened to him. He took complete advantage of a woman. To him, she was simply another notch on his belt. Not only that, she was an extremely exotic notch in his built, which he bragged about to his friends. I can't believe he even got married, what woman would want him!? On top of being able to get just about any woman he wanted in town (which he did...several times), he still had to try to rape Kya and then harass her after the fact. Kya absolutely did the right thing killing Chase, there was no way he was going to leave her alone. She had to do something, not only for herself, but for other women in town. Chase was known was a womanizer, but who's the say Chase hadn't tried to or successfully raped other women over the years. Kya refused to come forward and admit that she had been raped. No one would have believed her in the first place. In a way, Where the Crawdads Sing is a commentary of women's rights and how backwards the system was. On the other hand, had this happened today, and a social outcast accused the town's golden boy of rape, would she be believed? I'd like to say yes, but I know that the answer would most likely be no. There's still so much work to be done when it comes to women's rights, but that's not what I'm here to talk about today.
Like I said, both of my mom's book clubs read this book, but I just read it for fun. For that reason, I don't actually have any discussion questions for this book. I finished the book last night, but I'm still working on processing the book. If you have any great discussion questions you want to share, please leave them in a comment below.
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