With the recent release of the movie Where the Crawdads Sing, the book has been in high demand as anticipation builds up to see how the movie turns out.

Throughout the month of June, I started and finished the book Where the Crawdads Sing. Since I knew the movie was coming out I wanted to finish the book before going to see the film.

In the first few chapters it was hard to get hooked. Although the second half of the book was difficult to put down. I wanted to stay up all night in hopes of finishing the book. Although it is 368 pages long, after reading, I wished there was more. 

The novel focuses on Catherine Clark, a young girl also known as Kya. Throughout town, Kya was called the “marsh girl” and was shunned by everyone due to where she grew up. As Kya grows up, she has to learn how to live on her own and deals with having her guard up due to abandonment. The book begins with a body found in the marsh. The body is identified as the local football star and the town’s best quarterback, Chase Andrews. While officials search for answers about the body mysteriously appearing, the townspeople create different theories on what happened to Chase and the accusations begin. 

The description the author used to describe each scene made it so much easier to visualize what was going on during that moment. The author strategically uses smaller vocabulary to emphasize that most of the characters didn’t have an education or had very little education.

The movie is over two hours long and was released on July 15, 2022. From reading the book first, I visualized what each character looks like and the movie brings the pictures to life. Each actor’s physical characteristics match the role they play. Actress Daisy Edgar-Jones plays the character Kya and actor Taylor John Smith plays Tate. The duo’s chemistry makes the love story look more realistic. A downfall to reading both the book and then watching the movie is I saw all of the different parts that they left out. Most of the details left out of the movie were not key parts but it is the little details that make the book so good and kept me drawn in. The acting was pretty good but there were some parts that were cringey. Some of the parts when Kya was younger were odd because it isn’t what I am used to seeing a child do and her strong southern accent just adds to the unusualness. Due to abandonment Kya had to take care of herself and learn how to live on her own.

Since the movie does not have as many small details as the book does, I recommend reading the book before seeing the movie. Even if you aren’t a big reader, the book is easy to keep up with and the constant action keeps readers wanting more.