Review: Where the Crawdads Sing (2022)

I loved, loved, looooved the book. It’s not very often when the book is good enough that you are constantly trying to have more free time so you can read more. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens was published in 2018 and became an instant global phenomenon that up to July 2022 has sold over 10 million copies. The book is a coming-of-age fiction story, following Kya from childhood to adulthood, going back and forth between her growing up to the present day where the murder of Chase Andrews is being investigated.

From the simple things described in Kya’s childhood and life, to the sadness of her ending up alone, not fitting in at school, to her finding comfort in the wilderness of the marsh – “way out yonder where the crawdads sing.”. One of my favourite scenes from the book was completely missing from the movie – and I’m getting to that in a minute – but I wanted to point this out, because I found it to be the most intimate and beautifully crafted scenes that I think I’ve ever read. When Kya gets her period and has no clue what is going on, Tate explains everything with the outmost sensibility, respect, and love. I won’t do it justice, because it’s just perfect in the book, therefore I really encourage everyone to read not just this scene, but the entire novel.

The movie was released in July 2022 in some countries and because I live in England, I was able to watch this before its premiere in Romania, just a week ago. Although I said that a very important scene (for me) was missing from the movie, the other changes that are reflected in the script are not to alter the story or its outcome, which in the end gives us a very good movie, but not a perfect one. Some of the changes take away from the magic of the story somehow, but I believe these were made to fit as much as possible in 2 hours.

People forget about the creatures that live in shells.

Daisy Edgar-Jones leads the cast and she does it beautifully, being the perfect Kya, alongside Taylor John Smith, Harris Dickinson, Michael Hyatt, Sterling Macer, Jr., and David Strathairn. Where the Crawdads Sing was produced by Reese Whiterspoon‘s company Hello Sunshine, marking its debut in movie production, alongside Lauren Neustadter and Olivia Newman who directed. From beautiful cinematography and accents, the movie doesn’t excel, but doesn’t dissapoint either. It can be slow for somebody that may not be familiar with the story, but it delivers in the end and the outcome will leave audiences speak about it for a while. The production is a little over 2 hours long, making you wanting to stay in the cinema’s seat for another few minutes because the end credit scene’s song was written and composed by Taylor Swift who managed to tell Kya’s story in her new original song, Carolina.

Survival, coming-of-age, braveness, dissapointment, trust, family and love are some of the words that make up Where the Crawdads Sing. If you want to escape into the nature to witness how the wilderness is always there for us, then read this book and watch this movie because both can make such an impact on how we appreciate our surroundings. Or how we should.

Trailer:

Where the Crawdads Sing will premiere on 19.08.2022 via InterComFilm.