I do have it on my nightstand, in the TBR stack. I might move it down a couple notches now.

I had the same reaction/bewilderment when I read 'All the Light We Cannot See'. Great premise, considering it's set during WWII, and that's been done, and done, and done. But the author did find a new way to see it & I loved that. Loved the characters. BUT - hated the 100-150 word long sentences. Some were so convoluted, I had to go back and analyze what the heck was going on.

And - the author seemed to phone in the ending. It was awful. A terrible let down. More of a quick summary, really - almost as if the author was up against a deadline and just didn't know how to end it. So, like you with Crawdads, I cannot figure out why this book was sooooo raved about.

Sigh. Rant over.

I relish in well written sentences.
I feel the same way about the ending

Yes, clearly unbelievable circumstances, but it did make for a good tale.

As a retired librarian, I obviously read quite a bit. I get that it's fiction but I just could not relate to anything in this book. I too am shocked that it became a best seller.

Bridges of Madison County.

that. So unrealistic.

I grew up in central Florida at a time when most homes didn't have a/c. The snakes, the mold, the insects, the disease resulting from them are very real. Yes, it's fiction, but it isn't science fiction.

What sealed it for me was closer to the end of the story the man that she liked, noted that "she feels life more closely because there are no layers between her & the planet." When her family was there, they didn't buy much from the store at all - they fished, hunted, & had a garden. They lived closer to the land than most of us do.

But I thought the end was great! I was not expecting that! I thought Alwayswearspearls was the murderer. She was mentioned a few times early in the book & I think she was a vic's wife. I was so sure of it.

I was given this book by my friend. She loved it and thought I would since I grew up along the NC coast at that time. Wrong! I hated it; only finished it because of her. Almost nothing in this book factually represents coastal NC during that time. Every page or two there is something so glaringly wrong it made me question whether the author had even visited the region.

First of all, the coast described is unlike anywhere in NC, the vegetation is wrong, and the barrier islands are missing. It seems more like Georgia. And she mixes up freshwater and saltwater species and has the habitats wrong.

She fails geography, too. People keep running over to Asheville like it was the closest city. It actually was 7-8 hours from the nearest place on the coast. There is a trip to Greenville, NC. From the hotel names it seems she had it mixed up with Greenville in SC. None of the bus routes would work with appropriate timing from anywhere on the coast. And BTW guys rarely took a bus to Chapel Hill; we all hitchhiked.

No one would build a fire tower on a point into the ocean. Usually placed about ten miles inland

Getting electricity and indoor plumbing would have taken a much bigger effort. And the boat would have needed a license. And so much more.

But the big things that are missing are hurricanes. The book starts in 1952. As 1954 arrived, I expected a dramatic event. Nothing. No mention of Hurricane Hazel! Hazel is an iconic event in NC, destroying everything in its path. It would have destroyed the cabin and most everything in the village. There were three more hurricanes in 1955.

None of this addresses the incoherent behavior of the characters in this mess. This book has many flaws typical of a first novel: a too-clever-by-half plot, the alternating time settings, and an ending one can see for half the book.

Oh, we mostly call them crayfish or crawfish, not crawdads.

And that Didn’t even occur to me about the hurricanes – – but you are so right. I remember hearing of Hazel. But the one I really remember is Gracie 1959. Knocked down several trees and knocked our power out for three days and I’m guessing we were about 40 miles inland as the crow flies.

Hazel is a vivid childhood memory.

down along the Gulf Coast.

we did spend time in many other parts of the state including the Outer Banks. Even if I hadn't lived there, I would have found the book totally unbelievable for exactly the reasons you mentioned. A friend of mine who lived in the region that was the setting for this book had the same reaction. Even fiction needs to feel believable unless it's fantasy or sci-fi. And even those books that have a magical imagining, such as those of Alice Hoffman or Sarah Addison Allen, need to seem/feel like it could happen.

Interesting take on a book that the critics seem to love.