Where the Crawdads Sing is the debut novel of Delia Owens. Set in the marshes of coastal North Carolina from the 1940s to the 2000s, the novel is Southern literary fiction that tells the story of Kya, a little girl who comes of age alone after her family abandons her. 

Published in 2018 by Putnam, the novel was a New York Times bestseller and a selection of Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine book club. In 2022 it was developed into a movie starring Daisy Edgar-Jones and produced by Witherspoon’s production company, also called Hello Sunshine.

Content warning: The novel and this guide discuss domestic abuse, rape, and alcoholism.

Plot Summary

Two boys discover the body of hometown hero Chase Edwards in the marshes on the outskirts of Barkley Cove, North Carolina, in 1969. Suspicion immediately falls on the “Marsh Girl,” or Catherine “Kya” Clark, a reclusive young woman who has lived in the marsh alone since her family abandoned her.

A flashback recounts how Kya came to be the Marsh Girl. In 1952, Marie Jacques Clark, Kya’s mother, left the family to escape the physical and verbal abuse of Jake Clark, Kya’s father. Jake disappeared in 1956, leaving Kya to fend for herself. During this period in her life, Kya befriended and later fell in love with Tate Walker, a boy who also loved the marsh. Their romance continued until Tate abandoned Kya for college at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

In 1965, Kya was a beautiful 19-year-old. Kya was receptive when Chase, then a star football player, noticed her and aggressively pursued her. She made him a shell necklace that he constantly wore, and the two began dating after Chase promised to wait until Kya was ready to have sex with him. In 1966, Kya took her first trip out of town when Chase drove her to Asheville, where they stayed in a motel and had sex for the first time. After that, Chase disappeared for a few weeks, and then Kya found out that he was engaged to be married to another woman.

Tate contacted Kya and attempted to apologize to her, but she refused to accept the apology. She did, however, allow Tate to take several of her drawings to a publisher, who published them as a book in 1968, allowing Kya to buy her family’s land with her royalties.

The novel returns to the present, when the sheriff and the deputy begin closing in on Kya as Chase’s murderer. They have found clues and received information from the townspeople about a relationship between the two. When they discover that Chase assaulted Kya, they arrest her, believing that she killed him out of revenge.

Kya is tried for Chase’s murder. She refuses a plea bargain for a lesser sentence than the death penalty, even though the odds are stacked against her because the prejudice in the town against people from the marsh is so prevalent. Kya does have an alibi—she took the bus to Greenville, North Carolina to meet with her editor about another book—which puts her outside of town the night Chase was murdered. The fact that many townspeople saw her get on the bus and return, along with the prosecution’s shoddy evidence, convinces the jury to acquit her.

Kya eventually marries Tate. They live a long, peaceful life together on the marsh until Kya dies. After her death, Tate discovers a cache of poems written by “A.H.,” who turns out to be Kya. One of the poems is a description of Kya murdering Chase. Tate burns the poems.