Where the Crawdads Sing – Let’s Talk About the Book

I. Could. Barely. Put. This. Book. Down. It moved me. It inspired me. It was beautiful. It was raw. It is now my favorite book of all time. If you loved the movie, you’ll love the book even more. It’s a little over 400 pages and took me about a week to read.

Reading Where the Crawdads Sing allowed me to connect with Kya’s character better and really understand her (even though it’s in third person). That’s usually how it works though. Books are more detailed. They make you feel like you’re best friends with the main characters. You can connect to the characters in a deeper level through a book.

Spoilers

For the most part, the film and book were similar BUT there were noticeable differences as well.

A big difference I did notice between the book and movie— Tate loved poetry and Kya does too after he teaches her to read and write and shows her some of his favorite poems. She even writes her own poems. But for some reason, they left that out of the movie. Plus in the book, poetry ends up being very important especially with a big twist at the end having to do with it.

There were a few other things that were changed— like Kya finding out Chase is engaged in the newspaper, while in the film, she finds out from Chase and his fiancée, Pearl, right in front of her. Kya narrates and tells her life story in the movie up until her trial. In the book, it’s completely in third person. And another significant difference, Mr. Milton, the kind lawyer that decides to help defend Kya, has more of a role in the film than the book. In fact in the book, you’re not introduced to his character until closer to the end of book when he decides to come out of retirement to help her.

A few other differences you’ll notice between the two but these are definitely a few major ones!

I loved both the movie and the book (ESPECIALLY THE BOOK). It’s so rare when you ABSOLUTELY LOVE a book and movie and just get butterflies in your stomach talking about how much you enjoyed both.

A Few of My Favorite Quotes From the Book ( In No Particular Order)

1) “Autumn leaves don’t fall; they fly.” ( pg. 145)

2) “The words in poems do more than say things. They stir up emotions.” (pg. 133)

3) “I wadn’t aware that words could hold so much. I didn’t know a sentence could be so full.” (pg. 121)

4) “Out here, in the real remote, she was free to wander, collect at will, read the words, read the wild. Not waiting for the sounds of someone was a release. And a strength.” – (pg. 212)

5) “Nature seemed the only stone that would not slip midstream.” (pg. 253)

6) “Standing in the most fragile place of her life, she turned to the only net she knew— herself.” (pg. 338)

7) “Marsh is not swamp. Marsh is a space of light, where grass grows in water, and water flows into the sky.” (pg. 1)

8) “Life decays and reeks and returns to the rotted duff; a poignant wallow of death begetting life.” (pg. 1)

9) “Most of what she knew, she’d learned from the wild. Nature had nurtured, tutored, and protected her when no one else would. If consequences resulted from her behaving differently, then they too were functions of life’s fundamental core.” (pg. 430)