'Where The Crawdads Sing' Review

THIS IS HOW YOU MAKE A MOVIE BASED ON A BOOK.

Spoilers Ahead, obviously.

I am a huge fan of this book, a friend lent it to me years ago and I read it over 48 hours. Yes, it took be six months to find the time and energy to read it but once I picked it up I could not put it down. It's a murder mystery wrapped in the story of a girl who's an outcast in her hometown, yeah there's also a love story mixed in with abandonment issues but we'll get to that in a minute.

Right now, I'm going to rave about Daisy Edgar-Jones. I only recongized her from the trailers I saw for a movie called 'Fresh' starring her and Sebastian Stan. My first thought was 'lucky girl' and then I saw that Stan was a cannibal serial killer in that movie, and honestly I still haven't seen it because I am in love with Bucky Barnes. DOn't need to see everything Sebastian Stan does.

I'll be honest, once I saw that she only had 12 projects listed on her IMDB profile, I was skeptical. I noticed the other two main Characters for the story Evil Chase Andrews played by Harris Dickinson and Idiot Tate Walker played by Taylor John Smith. Dickinson played Prince Philip in Maleficent Mistress of Evil and Conrad in The King's Man. Smith will be in the new Liam Neeson movie Blacklight, or maybe that already came out? Honestly Neeson hasn't released a new concept for a movie since the 90's.

Yeah, there's a love triangle in this story but it's not the main focus of this story.

It's not just a beautiful story but the scenery is absolutely stunning. The way the marshlands lead into the sea with white sandy beaches and groups of colorful birds and fish. The natural landscape of the film is breathtaking, you'll be looking up beach houses to rent on the Carolina coast after this movie.

The main focus is a woman named Kya, who against all odds carved out a world of her own and didn't lose.

Spoilers Ahead.

If you've read the book, you're already familiar with the characters and plot. The movie does shine a bit more light on the lawyer, which makes sense as I did wonder why this lawyer fought for her so passionately.

I do also wish that Tate was more adament about Kya not being a murderer, which might've led the audience to think that maybe he did it when we see him in the red knit cap.

The one thing I wish they showed flashes of in the end when her husband Tate finds Chase's necklace, I wished they showed how Kya committed the crime.

That was the part in the book that shocked me, that Kya DID actually murder Chase. She lured him away and up to the tower, maybe she did push him, maybe he was drunk and fell easily. There are a lot of maybes but she was involved with it, and I truly miss that little scene of her putting on a disguise and taking her boat and leading him astray. Even if it was a far away silhouette of a man falling from the tower only for the camera to change to an up close shot of Kya clutching the necklace in her fist, I would've loved it.

As Kya says, nature keeps prove that the strong survive.

While I kept confusing the boys because they looked so much alike, I don't think they actually mattered that much.

This is Kya's story, hers and hers alone. They are merely side notes.

Kya looked after her siblings, Kya was left alone, Kya fought a peace with her Father for a short time, Kya survived by selling mussels, Kya painted, Kya sold her book. Kya fought back.

Kya killed Chase Andrews.

Kya was in the right.

While this story is unique and beautiful on its own, the tale of domestic violence is not. I have my stories about it, so does my mother, and hers, and my best friend, and so many others. I don't know a woman who hasn't experienced it at least at one point in their lifetime.

While domestic violence is still a grave issue, but at least today we do have resources to help those affected.

IF you haven't seen this movie yet, I beg you to go see it.

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If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline today at: 800-799-7233

Hours: 24/7. Languages: English, Spanish and 200+ through interpretation service.

Or visit their website: https://www.thehotline.org/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=domestic_violence