SPOILERS here SPOILERS!
I made myself finally finish this book, and I’m furious. It was not just a waste of time, but it was so horrendous, it feels like it took part of my soul with it as I closed the cover. I have literally NO idea why it is so popular. The more I think about it, the angrier I get. It was truly awful. How so?
- The slow pace of the novel, then the final 1/10 that was insanely rushed.
- The characters. Absolutely unrealistic and annoying. And I hated all of them.
- Far-reaching plot threads the reader is just supposed to believe. Sure, a CHILD grows up in the marsh by herself and then becomes a bestselling author and expert. Sure Jan.
- Stereotypical portrayal of Southerners.
- There is NO WAY any Southern Baptist church lady would allow a child to be raised alone in the 1960s.
- Alllllll the horrendous, gratuitous dropping of bad poetry. The main character escapes an attempted rape. And what does she do? Recite poetry. It’s cringe-worthy. I’m talking Junior-high type of cringeworthy writing. It’s like the author is saying “look at me! I’m so talented I can spin a novel AND write poetry! I’m a Renaissance Woman!” No. Plus, she shows off all her botanical knowledge talking in great detail about the environment and fauna of the marsh. Is this a novel or a natural science textbook? All these flip flops took me out of the novel’s pace and felt disjointed and fake.
- The ending and “surprise” plot twist—ugggg. It’s not even a shock. It just leaves a bitterness in the reader because the author spent so much time convincing us this wasn’t the case…and then it was. It left me feeling lied to and conned by some half-baked con artist and now I’m just embarrassed I fell for it.
- Just to be nit picky…Kya lives in a MARSH, and has never seen a doctor or a dentist or even a regular shower. Yet supposedly she has men fawning over her and drooling over her incessant beauty. All I could think about was how she must desperately need a toothbrush and maybe a bar of soap. This did not conjure up images of sexuality or beauty.
The whole thing was such a disaster. I cannot imagine how people liked it. It makes me think the NYT was bribed to endorse it. It also makes me weep for the state of literature and literacy in this nation. If THIS is what people think is the pinnacle of novel writing, we’re screwed.
EDIT: I should have said “worst book I’ve READ in my life.” There’s plenty of junk written every year and always has been, but I am usually pretty spot-on with my book choices and I avoid the garbage. Not this time. Thanks everyone for the feedback! I almost didn’t write this because I felt like I was a lone wolf out there with my hatred for such “highly acclaimed literature.” You’ve restored my faith in the literary world! 😉
by 1yogamama1
26 Comments
Agree. I pretty much skip all books supposedly based in the South as I’ve yet to read one that gets it right. I made it two chapters in and nope’d it right off the list.
And that author’s history is weird af tbh.
([Her wiki page](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delia_Owens))
>I have literally NO idea why it is so popular.
I haven’t read the book, so I can’t comment on the quality of it, but what I will say is that for a period of about two months last year, I got an ad for it on virtually everything I did, whether it was youtube ads, mobile games, etc. This book was *everywhere*. They obviously sank a lot of money into it.
Are you Southern? I’m literally from the swamp where we eat crswfish weekly and the entire premise sounds tacky and cringe to me.
To me a lot of the reasons you don’t like it are kind of the point of it. It’s fanciful and unrealistic and unrestrained. That doesn’t take away from emotional aspect of the story for me. I’ve spent my entire life in the South and agree it’s not how actual Southerners are or how anyone actually is. However, it did remind of how older Southern people tell stories where some elements are maybe true but have been stretched for entertainment and effect.
It’s like when people criticize superheroes for not being great films. Sometimes I’m just in the mood for an easy cathartic experience.
Definitely agree it is not good for anyone looking for a serious read though. I also agree that the poetry was super cringe.
It was the WORST!! I call it “poverty porn”. Middle/upper class white women like to read about poor people so they can romanticize it. Ugh! As a kid who grew up poor,, without running water or electricity, there is nothing romantic about about being cold and hungry and it is also does not promote the best learning environment.
Anne Rice and Fannie Flagg write Southerns well. (Source: am from Texas.)
I can deal with authors stumbling over stereotypes, but I LOATHE “I swear it’s not X… jk, it’s totally X – fooled you!” storytelling. It’s not smart, cute, and it ain’t funny.
Haha I didn’t like either and enjoyed this rant.
My book club *hated* this book. The stupid ‘twist’ ending particularly. Apparently the audio book has some dreadful attempts at Southern accents.
I actually just read this book about a month ago to see what all the hype was about. I wouldn’t say it was the worst book I’ve ever read, but it was underwhelming.
Thank you all! I find that I frequently hate books that are supposed fantastic. I felt like that about The Goldfinch.
Your post saved me some reading time.
Yes! I was not a fan of it, either. I actually haven’t run across anyone else who didn’t like it, so thank you for this post!
I enjoyed Crawdads. More importantly, for anyone who was born before 2011, Fifty Shades of Grey is (and will be) the worst novel of your lifetime. That book is an embarrassment to the English language.
My wife threw the book across the room when she finished it. She gave it a rating of “flaming garbage.”
The second half of point #6 is why I enjoyed it. For no other reason than I absolutely LIVE for the intersection of nature writing and fiction.
Such a relief,to see another person with this opinion. I loathed it so much.
I couldn’t finish it…
I agree with you on all the points you made. The pacing was bad, Kya’s character in particular was unrealistic, and my add on to your nit pick about the marsh thing – who would wear WHITE shorts in a marsh? They would get so dirty!
I stopped reading this book about a quarter way through and I’m glad I did lol
I really liked the storyline and the nature descriptions but i fully agree with you about that ending!! What a disappointing ending and it seemed so rushed. Like the author wrote the last few chapters in one night. I also skipped through all the poetry pieces lol
I’m told that reading Ready Player Two will change that opinion.
I loved the book, but also love hearing how others DIDNT like it. Its so interesting to see how things I loved sat different with others. I loved the slowness, and really enjoy the daily pitter patter of rural life. Many others don’t!
I didn’t think the dialouge was great, but I very much appreciated the scenery. I am a big nature person so for me, reading it and imagining myself being alone in nature like that was great.
I don’t think I had a fantasy of growing up poor, more like a survival fantasy. It reminded me of being like 11 and reading “babysitters island”, which is about some teenagers and babies and kids who get shipwrecked on an uninhabited island with no adults. It was so fun to read.
It’s certainly a fantastical book, which is why I enjoyed it. I dont think it was ever meant to be taken literally.
Also, I loved that she was able to become a successful naturalist. To me, it is a testament to how brilliant and inevitable some people are at naturalist work. Some people are born with eternal curiosity for all things nature, and it can play out in the most creative and brilliant ways.
I don’t hate this book, despite its many flaws:
1. The descriptions of nature were fantastic.
2. I felt deep empathy for the main character.
I’ve ready many, many imperfect books, some of which Reddit adores. I’d trade a flawed book with great parts over a generally shallow or dull novel .
But that’s me. To each his own.
I’m a big fan of the podcast: Mean Book Club. They did this book for one episode and they had a LOT of very bad things to say about it.
“4. Stereotypical portrayal of Southerners.”
“5. There is NO WAY any Southern Baptist church lady would allow a child to be raised alone in the 1960s.”
Did you just…. condemn the book for being too stereotypical, and then criticize it for not fitting your preferred stereotype??
Like, I know the novel isn’t perfect, but your list of issues seems a little, uh… problematic lol
I actually really liked this book. But I have heard people say that you either love it or hate it, which seems to hold true in most cases. I’ve also heard similar arguments about the premise being unrealistic. I guess that didn’t bother me much because I don’t necessarily need a book to be *realistic* to enjoy it. I sort of view it in the way that I would a sci-fi or fantasy. It’s a fictional story so the plausibility of it occurring in real life is usually irrelevant.
What does irk me though is when people think that their opinion about a book is superior to another person’s opinion. If you like something, great! If you don’t, then you don’t. But no need to knock people that liked something that you didn’t or vice versa. That is just pretentious.