Many stories that include
child neglect and abuse are so painful I just can’t read them. For some reason
that biting edge of hurt didn’t make me put this audiobook down.
More painful perhaps was the unabashed way she was treated by
the town’s people, being called “swamp trash” to her face. And the
poor naive soul didn’t realize when she was being cheated on. What bred her to
be so gullible?
And yet the child who couldn’t count change or read, with a
few peer tutoring sessions, went on to publish a series of academic-level
illustrated scienentific texts.
By the time she figures everything out, it is late, too late.
She has not chosen wisely and other decisions have not worked in her favor. She
is deeply hurt and angry. The way they treated her would almost justify murder.
Through it all she turns to the only other people who are
disparaged in coastal North Carolina in the 1960s. They rescue her in so many
ways. Do they also do away with the one who comes back to kill her?
Where the Crawdads Sing deftly handles the pain brought about
by isolation and lack of proper nurturning. The subject matter could have been
presented in a more heavy-handed way to make this book too much of a downer for
me to finish, but the progress of the book and the mystery of the murder more
than balanced my desire to keep listening. Four stars.
