Too many genres at once

Where The Crawdads Sing

by Delia Owen

Rating ⭐⭐⭐ 1/2

I have such mixed feelings about this book. It's a huge bestseller, and thousands of people say it's "the best book I ever read." I enjoyed reading it, and the ending was heartwarming. But it has some issues.

The main character, Kya, is born in 1945 into a family of "marsh trash," uneducated people who live in a shack in the North Carolina coastal marsh. Her father is abusive, and her mother leaves when Kya is small. Her older siblings all leave shortly thereafter. Kya, the youngest, is left with her alcoholic and neglectful father. Eventually, he leaves too, and Kya is all alone as a small child.

She is forced to dig and sell mussels in order to survive. She exchanges her mussels for grits and other food items at the tiny store owned by a black family. The owner, who is called Jumpin', and his wife Mabel are some of the only people who show any kindness to Kya. 

She hides when anyone comes near. She successfully avoids the truant officer for a long while, but finally goes to school. The other kids unmercifully bully her, and she never goes to school again after that first day.

Over the course of several lonely years, Kya gets to know some people who come to the marsh. A boy named Tate befriends her and eventually teaches her to read. Inevitably, she falls head over heels for Tate. 

This is where the book goes off the rails. With Tate's encouragement, Kya publishes several books with her drawings and observations of the shells, insects, and plants of the marsh. I found this hard to believe. Kya goes from illiterate to acclaimed author in very short order. She becomes incredibly accomplished as an artist, poet, writer, and naturalist. 

I couldn't figure out what genre this book was trying to be.

 - Nature text - Author Delia Owens is a naturalist. This is her first novel, but she has written many nonfiction books about nature and ecology. It feels like the author superimposed her own life onto Kya's.

 - Woman's fiction - The majority of the plot is about Kya coming into her own as a woman. She learns how to provide for herself, first at a subsistence level, and then with her writing. She learns how to stand up for herself and how to trust other people in her life. 

- Romance - The other major part of the plot is Kya's attempt to bond with young men she encounters, with some terrible results. Finally, Kya's romantic dreams are realized. The "happily ever after" ending was sweet but felt like it came out of a harlequin romance.

- Courtroom drama - There's even a murder subplot with the related jail and courtroom scenes. 

The weird thing is that any one of these could have been a great book. With all these things smashed into one book it just turned into a big jumble.