Fiction Review & Interview: Where the Crawdads Sing

I have been waiting until I could tell you about a wonderful novel I reviewed this summer, and now it's finally been released!

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens is a moving, suspenseful, immersive novel set in the North Carolina coastal marshes that I absolutely loved. Its heroine, Kya, is a kind, strong girl forced to grow up on her own when all of her family abandons her. The novel also jumps ahead in time to when Kya is a woman and accused of murdering a local man, so the story combines mystery with family drama, nature, romance, and a lovely coming-of-age story.

Besides reviewing the debut novel for Shelf Awareness, I also had the opportunity to interview the author, who is known for her nonfiction books about wildlife in Africa. I thoroughly enjoyed talking with Delia and hearing about her background and why she wrote this lyrical, poignant novel.

You can read both my interview with Delia Owens and review of Where the Crawdads Sing (scroll down a bit for the review) at this link.

I highly recommend this newly released novel and here is what Delia told me about her next novel, which she is working on now:

"I want to stay with this theme of a sort of socio-biological thriller. I bring the socio-biology into it, but I want a fast-paced story that brings people in on the first page and doesn't let go. The next book I'm writing is based in North Florida, which is also a beautiful, wild habitat that most people don't know about--it's not the sandy beaches and palm trees. The novel features another strong female character, but she's not isolated. She has a group, and the story is going to focus on the dynamics of a female group. All the female groups evolved for survival reasons, not for camaraderie. You look inside those groups, and there's as much conflict as there is camaraderie. So, the dynamics of a female group can be very interesting."

I can't wait to read that one, too!