Book: Where the Crawdads Sing, Delia Owens

Don’t you just love being absorbed by a book? It does however pose quite the conundrum, on the one hand you want to finish it as quickly as possible but at the same time you want to savour the beautiful writing. This tug of war gets even worse as you near the end of the book!

"Marsh is not swamp. Marsh is a space of light, where grass grows in water, and water flows into the sky.  Slow-moving creeks wander, carrying the orb of the sun with them to the sea, and long-legged birds lift with unexpected grace – as though not built to fly – against the roar of a thousand snow geese..."

The book had me at this beautifully descriptive opening paragraph. I absolutely enjoy Delia Owens' writing and the way she depicts things.  For example, how delightful is this?:

“Mad as a mule eating bumble bees”

One of my others, which did make me giggle:

“Female fireflies draw in strange males with dishonest signals and eat them; mantis females devour their own mates. Female insects, Kya thought, know how to deal with their lovers.”

This one too…

“Murky shafts of light streamed through the tiny window... She stared at dust motes, dancing silently in one direction as though following some dreamy leader. When they hit the shadows, they vanished. Without the sun they were nothing,”

If like me, you’ve had a spate of reading very uninspiring laborious books this one will definitely reignite your faith in the joys and magic of a well written book.