Sitting down to write this, I suddenly feel like I am back in school and somehow want to time myself to ensure that I finish writing this in 15 minutes. Post traumatic English literature exams disorder is real. Also, I know I said that this is mostly going to be a bunch of romance books reviewed by a helpless romantic, and then I go and start it off with a murder mystery of sorts. Well too bad, it’s what I read on my recent trip to Nuwara Eliya, so here we go…

To put things in context, I was reading Where the Crawdads Sing at home, and had every intention of swapping it out for one of my feel-good romances for the trip. But this book was just so gripping, that I decided to skip my usual process of falling in love with a new fictional man each vacation and continued with the book. It’s that good people! Where the Crawdad Sings tells the story of Kya, the Marsh girl, who was at one time or another abandoned by everyone she knew and loved, raising herself as best she could. That’s all I’m going to say on the plot, I don’t want to spoil it for anyone.

Owens weaves such an enthralling story for Kya, that you almost forget that this story is about a murder. I say almost, because just as you become nearly entirely ensconced in Kya’s world and the marsh, Owen brings the story back to the present day, and feeds you just the tiniest tit-bit of information to keep you hooked on the murder. The writing pulls you in and snares you in its tale, reflecting the same pull that the marsh had on Kya, while tactfully drawing a parallel between the stories of Kya and her mother. The key divergence being the triumph of one woman breaking free from her abuser in the only way she knew how, before she turned in to the shell of a woman that her mother had been. It tells the story of how Kya broke the cycle, however unconventional and unethical her methods may have been, and despite her wild upbring, found the love and devotion that had escaped her mother.

The romantic in me must prevail even when reading a murder mystery and coming of age story all rolled in to one. And the romantic in me was squealing with delight at the introduction of Tate the boy with the golden curls. Gaaahhhhh, he’s flawed, handsome, quirky and definitely the kind of man you want to end up with. The man you root for Kya to end up with. In a life of abandonment, Kya deserves a Tate. All women deserve a Tate – the later years, teenage Tate was perhaps a little bit of an idiot (I say this to keep this blog PG-13). Again, Owens weaves such a compelling relationship between Tate and Kya, the slow burn, the vulnerability, openness and realness, that the romantic in me was compelled to take a sneak peak of the last few pages to see how the relationship ends.

The lawyer in me also enjoyed the depiction of Tom Milton, the equivalent of a small-town hot shot lawyer. But one with a heart, a conscience and an extraordinary gift for cross examination. I found myself admiring his approach; he kept it simple and therefore believable. Tom Milton, goes a long way in undoing the bad rap that lawyers get being the kind of lawyer you want on your side.

A word to the wise, if you are yet to read this book, have your phone on hand. You are going to want to google the more technical terms used when describing the marsh. Or if like me you have no idea what a crawdad is you may want to google that as well. Unlike, me do not wait till you’ve finished reading the book to do so.

All in all, Where the Crawdads Sing, is a compelling read. While it may not be a light and breezy read, it is a gripping novel and I still cannot get Kya out of my head. She was such a transfixing character. I highly recommend Where the Crawdads Sing, and honestly, for me it turned out to be a feel-good read nonetheless, even with its surprise twist at the end.