Where the Crawdads Sing is a standalone book about a young woman named Kya Clark. Kya is the protagonist who raised herself in the marshes of North Carolina after she was abandoned by her family; One thing that didn’t abandon her, was nature. As she says, “Nature had nurtured, tutored, and protected her when no one else would.”

Kya was born into a dysfunctional family. Her dad beat her siblings and her mother which eventually led to her mom’s mental illness and abandonment of her family. One by one, her siblings also abandoned Kya until she was left with her Pa. Living with Pa wasn’t that bad when it was just her and him. Pa took her fishing and gave her some money to get groceries by herself in town. 

One day, a CPS worker came to Kya’s shack. Kya needed to go to school. In her whole life, she only went to school one day and that was because the kids in school bullied her. One of those kids was Chase Andrews who later becomes a main character in the book. 

Another important character is Tate; he helped Kya make her way back home when she lost her way in the marsh after taking Pa’s boat. Ever since then, there was little communication between them. One way Kya and Tate did communicate was through collecting feathers and exchanging them at their meeting spot. Kya and Tate accidentally meet at their spot one day where Kya reveals she can’t read and he offers to teach her. That’s where Tate and Kya’s romance starts…

Later, Tate graduates from high school. He’s going to college and promises to Kya that he would be back. When he doesn’t show up, she’s heart broken. That’s when chase returns … but is he actually good for her?

I loved this book! I loved everything about it— the writing, the plot, the setting, everything! I give this book a 5 stars out of 5 while Goodreads gives it a 4.4 rating. I give it a 5 out of 5 stars rating because I love how it showed how Kya had a hard life but made the best of it by spending time on her little beach, going fishing, collecting feathers and shells, and feeding her seagulls. It’s a story of hope and redemption.