Where the Crawdad's Sing Review Ft. Ivymuse
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- čas přidán 12. 09. 2024
- Ivymuse Chhannel: / @ivymuse
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Where The Crawdad's Sing amzn.to/31WPmyr
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► My Website: www.merphynapie...
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Just finished this book this evening. My wife is now reading it.
I loved it. Like you said, I've read this story structure before...and I knew the ending, BUT it didn't bother me at all. I gave it 4.5 Stars.
I actually cried a couple of times during the book. I practically read it in a day. So good.
Now, we are waiting for the movie to be released in July 2022 with Daisy Edgar-Jones as Kya. It looks SO good.
SPOILERS
The ending is very important. It flips the entire novel into a story about prejudice into a story about Kya, and how the feeling of abandonment by literally everyone breaks her to the point where she murders. Also, a meditation on how her not being raised by people lowers her moral standards to the point where she views murder as a right because animals (specifically fireflies) do it normally.
I never saw it this way, but I think you're right
Pearl In Its Shell yes, I agree with you. Kya was pushed into a corner by Chase and found the only way of self-protection was to murder him. Like Murphy, I also knew the ending before it happened.
Thank you for seeing it this way! The character was written so damn well
True. The part where the fly was having intercourse with male fly then killed her mate. That was creepy. 🤣
@@Deiaxy omg you just made me realise something. The fly killing the other fly after having sex with her literally reveals the whole plot and ending, it was amazing foreshadowing. Chase had sex with her, it was rape but technically it was still sex, and then kaya killed him. Kaya copied what the fly did. That’s genius of the author
Currently reading this book and just saw a character's name "Napier Murphy" and immediately came here.
Hah! Same
Who is Napier Murphy?
@@BookShook A character in the book she's reviewing in this video.
Thank you!
I know I’m way late, but just finished the audiobook and wanted Merphy’s thoughts, and AGREED, lol I had to rewind and listen to it again and was like, “Did I hear that correctly??”
Yay for our Frankenstein video!! 😆 I really like how it turned out, thanks for buddy reading and reviewing this with me! ❤️
The whole interaction between Kya and Tate at the beginning of the book, when they were still young, reminded me of The Blue Lagoon with Christopher Atkins and Brooke Shields.
The atmosphere in the book was by far my favorite part! What great writing. Personally I was hoping for a story with a little more healing but I thought the direction it took was powerful in its own right. Loved the review! Keep up the good work
Great review! I disagree as I found this book perfect and super unique as I’ve personally never read such a flushed out coming of age story combined with the murder mystery. This felt first and foremost like a coming of age story and the murder just elevated it. But I liked the points you made!
Yes, exactly!
For me, I haven’t read too much historical fiction that doubles as a mystery so the structure was pretty new to me and I LOVED IT. The pacing didn’t bother me much, and I do agree the ending could have been left ambiguous and it would of been just as good, but apart of me likes the shift in narration and shift in character from Kya to Tate, the only person Kya truly knew and loved in her life and what he conclusions he has to make to finally put the chapter fully behind him after the fact
Interesting. I didn't think it was slow paced. I thought it tore along at breakneck speed. It's been a long time since I wanted to read a book from start to finish and dodge sleep. Great book.
I do think any time the book drifted away from Kya the narrative became a bit wooden.
My favorite part of the book was how the author developed the character as she matured and became more educated.
The ending? I expected the ending, but I really liked how the author mapped it (and the whole storyline) to the primary themes of humans as creatures of nature.
I read it in one sitting (I recognize this is a luxury) and never wanted to put it down.
Same here it was kinda predictable.I recommend this book if people don’t really care about plot twists and like the writing of background stories,characters,etc
Oh yay! 2 of my favorite booktubers are collaborating in a video !!
When the last con is the biggest pro for me, haha... I want my endings as closed as possible which is why those "years after..." epilogues are 👌👌👌 Anyways, so happy for this collab. I love both of your channels 💜
I agree with you I loved the ending!
Yes! I want a good ending that leaves me content to walk away from the story, and not worrying about the characters for the rest of forever. 🤦♀️😂
This book was a pleasant surprise for me. I actually lost interest around the middle, but it picked up again and I really liked how it all came together.
How the book??
This is the first time I've read this story structure and my mind was BLOWN! 😱
Characters and writing style are the things I care about most so this sounds perfect 😍
I got tired of waiting for the library book (I’m like 745 on the waiting list). So I ended up buying the book today. Great review!
Not sure if you saw this or mentioned in the video, but look at page 105 in the book!!! I think it has your name!!! It says something like "Napier Murphy" in the book I think
I loved your opinions! I recently did a review on this as well and I feel like, while our opinions differ, I really enjoyed hearing your thoughts, like how character driven it is. I feel like it did have major plot points, but since it was so slow-moving and drawn out, the plot kind of disappeared into the background. But totally agree in that the end seemed rushed and would have been better categorized as an epilogue! Thanks for sharing!
SPOILER ALERT:
One other CON is that a child being able to raise themselves in this situation seems very unlikely. One other PRO is that so many of the side characters, police, townspeople etc are realistic - not just stereotypes. The trial was well done also. I loved the characters of Jumpin' & his wife Mabel, Tate and her brother.
Good point. Didn't really think of Kya that way. I love those characters too.
Wow, so I've been wondering why I haven't seen any booktube videos in over a year ... CZcams UNSUBSCRIBED me?!? Well, I've subscribed again and can't wait to watch your reviews again!
A fantastic review! Love reviews like these: focused, organised, passionate- and on one book! It sounds like a real, rich Bildungsroman. Love the dual effort on the review too! Keep up the great work. THIS is the kinda BookTube content I love / we need! X
I just finished this book and saw that you did a review of it and immediately came here.
How was it??
@@monicakushwaha475 I loved it. Gave it 5 stars⭐️
I really liked the description of the landscape, the birds and the plants. As a former zoologist, Owens is really good at that. Unfortunately she´s less good in writing credible dialogues... some of them are sylistically terrible with way too much sugar on top. Besides Kya, most characters in this book are actually quite shallow and I´m still suprised so many people loved that book. Too kitchy for my personal liking...
Spoiler.
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I actuarlly thought it wasn't Kya, or Tate, because I thought it was way to obvious.
I thought it was either going to really be an accident, or I thought it was going to be Jumpin or Mabel.
They both would have had motive if they knew what Chase had done, but because they were side characters they weren't gonna be the center of attention.
But like I said, that's not because I didnt suspect Kya, but because it was so obvious I was sure it was a cover up.
I just finished reading it. I had to stop myself from thinking "this isnt realistic".
I am picking it apart. I was picking it apart from the start. I did like how descriptive it was, the setting and how she described boating around the marsh and towards the ocean.
I wish they gave us more in the book about her learning to read but then maybe it would be too long. As a teacher I know that this isn't feasible, just fantasy. The investigation was very silly, the fact they didn't turn over every nook and cranny for the necklace. Her home was left perfect, no they'd have ripped the walls open to find that necklace.
As for the end, I had hoped it was Jumpin or Tate. Like maybe Tate send her away to do the murder and Jumpin caught wind and did it himself. I mean there is a whole bunch of ways they could have played this out.
And finally I do not believe she'd have been so warm and welcoming to her brother. I expected more push back, her to question him more. Also the mother not coming back to get her daughter because the father threatened her again. I just don't believe that the aunt or anyone who knew how abusive he was would just sit back for years. In fact if Kya had found her moms bones, I'd have believed that more than her mom just up and leaving all her kids.
The Aunt knew her sister was in a poor state, physically, mentally, financially.... it is just unconscionable as a mother myself. If I was dying, I'd want to see my kids one last time at the very least.
As much as I love the characters Jumpin and Mable, they'd have called the cops on her to get her into a home.
One of my favorite parts of this book was exploring how Kya navigates her need for love and connection against her history of loss and betrayal. I think its so easy for people to not understand someone's guardedness, but this book did such a great job of connecting her actions with her past.
I actually predicted how it would be revealed in the end (and the who from very early), and was surprised at my having done so correctly when I saw it, because I'm normally pretty terrible at these things and quite easily duped. I didn't love the story any less for it though. I'm not sure if it's an indication of being too predictable, and I can't disagree with some criticism among Goodreads reviewers about how some stuff in the story is a bit too inconceivable, difficult to buy, geographically inaccurate, etc. etc. But I'd still give it either a 4 or 4.5.
Thanks Merph (and Theresa). I picked this one up a few weeks ago because you girls were going to read it and I loved it. I do agree with your cons and I do have some of my own (although, I went the audiobook way and the narrator was amazing, so I might have a different perspective there). Thanks for pushing me to pick and practically eat this one down in a few days You are both awesome!
Been watching book reviews for the last couple of months, and yours are the only ones that I've liked, 100% of the time.
I am really excited to pick this up. Interesting I love when they jump ahead
The trial and the ending were my favorite parts. I couldn’t put the book down the last 72 hours 🙈💕
That's interesting cause I actually loved that they stuck to their guns they way they did, I thought for sure that because they were pointing so much in that direction they wouldn't follow through with it, so I loved the ending
aaaaah this is amazing! LOVED this review, two of my favourite channels, perfect ❤️
I like that you did something different from your usual sci-fi books etc...do more of these ...Thank you for the great reviews and videos....
Could we talk about Merph's hair though?!
Hi, correct me if I’m wrong but your name is in the book. It’s in chapter 16. Do you know the author? Isn’t that a weird coincidence
Overall I enjoyed it, I thought it was well written and the themes shined through, but there was quite a bit of cliché and a bit of awkward dialogue imo. Now I can't fully commit to some of my dialogue gripes because this does take place in a region of the U.S. I'm not from and it's during the 1960s so maybe people did just talk like that, but I felt it was unnatural or over-revealing, at times feeling too much like written dialogue and not what real people would say. I thought the large amount of environmental description worked well. In other books that are more plot driven I may criticize this, but Kya's entire life is in the marsh, she only knows the marsh and she was often there alone, so constant description of the environment is very good, and it drives home that feeling we all have of memories of home. We often remember the environment; the smells, sounds, colors, etc. Which is also a reason I love the use of food in this novel.
I thought the ending reveal was quite obvious and expected with all of the foreshadowing, and I thought the reveal with the poems was interesting, but I don't know if it was needed and it did feel a bit out of place. I agree that the murder plot wasn't necessary to the soul of the novel but at the same time my want to just find out what actually happened is what kept me turning the pages. 7.5/10
It sounds like we share a lot of the same opinions of this book! I was actually surprised by the ending and it didn't feel all that formulaic to me, but that could just be because I haven't read many other books that follow the same structure. Or maybe I'm just easily surprised!
What is this? A crossover episode.
This book was wonderful!!!! I loved it!
Just finished the book. I agree with Ivymuse’s con. It felt sooooo rushed at the end. Like oh Kya needs to do this. Oh this needs to happen. Blah blah blah. I would have loved the book to have ended less rushed. It’s almost like the editor told the author to cut a bunch of stuff out.
The overly-detailed prose reminded me of the fanfiction "My Immortal" but much more eloquent 😆
Spoiler
Where was Kya’s testimony? Did they not question her? I’m so confused why that part was left out, it was disingenuous in my opinion. The narrator leaves it out so we can see at the end? That was my biggest pet peeve and what made it obvious (although that was made clear to me early on anyway) if it was meant to be obvious and a story about how her circumstances and experiences shaped her and made her into who she was and therefore, her actions (murder) why leave that part out?
Actually, it is very likely she didn't testify. It's quite common for the accused to not testify. As a former juror, I remember being really frustrated about it, but that's the way it is.
Nicholas Medich wow! I have never heard of that, it goes against my logic and would certainly frustrate me too! Thanks for your insight
This books sound like to kill a mockingbird to me. I haven't read it yet but want to.
@@nicholasmedich7493 what??? I was outraged. If you're going to accuse someone of something and speculate on their motives and actions the least you can do is give them a turn at the stand to answer questions like all the witnesses. All the more with death penalty or a life sentence at stakes. I almost stopped reading there, I found it super unrealistic and then hoped to whatever it wasn't realistic. Now I'm doubly peeved.
I could not for the life of my finish this book
My goodness it was slow and drawn out to the point that i could not find motivation or a purpose to keep going
Julia what kept me going is that I felt so bad for Kya. I wanted her life to get better so it pushed me 🤷🏻♀️
thanks for the spoiler free review. I am about to read it and do not want to 'know' anything.
When are you going to drop your skincare routine, though? I need some of that magic. 🙏😂
You remind me so much of the new Bachelorette, Katie! You look and speak a lot like she does. :)
Looking at this book right now in a bookstore >:) literally the first thing by the door
I felt it was slow but not a drag, the development was enjoyable, even the parts you ask yourself "why? why take so long to say this?". I felt awed because it's about a Biologist and how she overcame her odds. The end... I was making peace with not knowing who killed Chase and accepted the resolution. Like a bonus. Now I feel an idiot because I thought it was Tate and Jumpin who did it, taking the chance that Kya was out of town. I even thought of Jodie or the wife.
loving this review
Hi Merphy! I'm a newer subscriber, and I am really enjoying your videos! I would love to recommend The Dark Light series by Lisa Hofmann. There are two books so far, a third will be out soon, and she plans 4 total. The first book is called Stealing the Light. This is by an independent author and it is absolutely the best fantasy I have ever read! I think I remember you saying you read the books that are most recommended and that you are trying to save money as well, so you probably won't pick it up, but at some point you really should! I am completely in love with the writing style and the story and the female protagonist! This series completely excites and immerses me!
You look really nice in this video! :) Dark colors really suit you.
If it were me I would’ve put the mother or the wife as the murderer by accident. Chase was obssessed by kya. Maybe he went to her house then went to the tower cuz he went there with her but that angered the mother/wife and confronted him and killed him.
I liked the nature writing but the actual story was so damn cheesy. like i was actually kinda annoyed by the end of it even though i didn't hate it. It felt like it was trying to be deep but it just wasn't. ALSO the actual author is complicit to murder in south afriicaa!!!
I lovedddd this book such beautiful imagery. I wish the murder plot wasn't in it.
Thanks so much for your ace review. Really enjoyed hearing your thoughts. I’m in the process of doing an episode on Crawdads. Would it be okay to quote you in my responses section of my podcast? (With attribution). No worries if not poss. Thanks
This is a lovely book for all nature lovers out there. 🌿
Your videos give me life ❤️❤️
All the time it sounds like teresa is gonna start crying
I wasn't really interested in reading this, but I looked up some reviews and . . . I'm just disappointed at what I found. Apparently the author did little to no research on North Carolina. I saw someone say a character drives from the Outer Banks to Asheville for a bike? This is about a 6+hr drive ONE WAY! I actually laughed at this cause who's driving up into the mountains for a bike, especially in the 50s? Unless the character had some other agenda for doing this (PLEASE tell me there was some other agenda), it's just ridiculous. It has me concerned how inaccurate the rest is if the author didn't even do a basic google search.
So a dual recommendation for What the Crawdads Bring, then.
What're some examples of books with the same structure? I've never seen it before (although I've only read like 10 adult novels)
I just finished this book. It was fantastic!
u might want to put some "spoiler alert" on the video for those who havent read it yet.
:( :(
No the murder plot couldn’t be replaced with anything else. It’s integral to the theme of the book, which is about the human connection to the earth and all other creatures and how we are driven by ancient evolutionary blueprints in our actions just like the birds and insects and wildlife Kya observes. Geez!
Ohhhh I wanna read this so bad!
I watched the movie and it was so cool.
Murphy I didn't know you were a Napier
This sounds an interesting read.
Ah ha loved this!!
I can't help but imagine teresa from the maze runner😂😂😂😂
I suppose I should read the Maze Runner 🙂
Who else skipped all teresa scenes 😁😁
Loved the book. Rich prose and complex characters. Can’t wait to see the movie in July! Here's the trailer czcams.com/video/I15cwt2SX38/video.html. It looks amazing!
❤❤❤
I have four words for you. you are gorgeously beautiful