If You Loved 'Where the Crawdads Sing' You'll Love 7 Similar Books
You'll fall in love with these incredible novels!
Books Like 'Where the Crawdads Sing'
Delia Owens' Where the Crawdads Sing is an incredible novel, which you probably know if you're reading this article! If you haven't read it yet, stop what you're doing and read it first before you proceed! Just kidding, that isn't actually necessary, but I can't recommend it enough!
There aren't many books like Where the Crawdads Sing simply because the book is so unique, but we did manage to find a few books you're sure to enjoy. Obviously they won't be exactly the same, but you'll find similar elements, themes, settings, and more with each of the books and, best of all, they're all excellent reads in their own right!
Without further adieu, books similar to Where the Crawdads Sing!
1. Where the Line Bleeds by Jesmyn Ward
Jesmyn Ward's Where the Line Bleeds is about twins Joshua and Christophe. They were raised in Bois Sauvage on the Mississippi Gulf Coast by their blind grandmother and extended family. Life gets even more difficult after Katrina. Joshua manages to find a job working on the docks and Christophe begins to sell drugs. He spirals, made worse by his parents' sudden reappearance: Cillie, the mother who left them to find a better job, and Sandman, their father who is a mean, dangerous person. Sandman "taunts Christophe, eventually provoking a shocking confrontation that will ultimately damn or save both twins."
Get Where the Line Bleeds here.
2. Once Upon a River by Bonnie Jo Campbell
In Bonnie Jo Campbell's Once Upon a River, sixteen-year-old Margo Crane is alone after her father's violent end, a death in which she is complicit. With just a biography of Annie Oakley and limited supplies, Margo traverses the Stark River in a boat in search of her missing mother. The river turns out to be more dangerous than she ever imagined and, ultimately, Margo will discover her journey will lead her to a point in which she'll be beyond self-preservation, a place in which her choices may finally catch up with her.
3. Cavedweller by Dorothy Allison
Dorothy Allison is known for her Southern fiction and Cavedweller doesn't disappoint! For the last ten years, Delia Byrds life has been filled with dreams of rock and roll and becoming and singer and songwriter. That all ends when her boyfriend dies in an accident and Delia has no choice but to return home to Cayro, Georgia with her daughter Cissy and face the two daughters she left behind.
4. Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
Weaving together three different stories, Barbara Kingsolver presents an incredible, memorable novel in Prodigal Summer. Reclusive wildlife biologist Deanna Wolfe stays put at her cabin isolated in the mountains. She meets hunter Eddie Bondo and is immediately caught off gaurd. Just a few miles from Deanna lives Lusa Maluf, a farmer's wife who finds herself in a strange predicament, and not far from her live elderly neighbors. They feud about about everything from pesticides to God. During one summer, they will find unexpected connections with on another and to the land in which they live.
5. Swamplandia! by Karen Russell
At thirteen, Ava Bigtree has lived her entire life at the gator-wrestling theme park her family owns in the Everglades. Her mother is Swamplandia's headliner, so things change when she becomes ill. Ava's father withdraws into himself. Her sister falls for a creepy character called the Dredgeman. And Kiwi, Ava's big brother, starts working for their rivals. Ava takes it upon herself make things right, setting out on mission into the swamps themselves to save her family.
6. Let's No One Get Hurt by Jon Pineda
In Jon Pineda's Let's No One Get Hurt, Pearl is fifteen and living in an abandoned boathouse with her father and few other grown men in the swamps. They do what they can to survive, scavenge. Surprisingly, Pearl "feels at home" with her little family. The three men all care for her and each have something unique to teach her. While Pearl is scavenging the woods, she meets Main Boy, an affluent boy from a nearby neighborhood. He reveals his father bought the land they're squatting on and so begins a very "unbalanced" relationship between them, one that will end in "violence and humiliation."
Get Let's No One Get Hurt here.
7. Southernmost by Silas House
A flood devastates a small town in Tennessee and, in the aftermath, evangelical preacher Asher Sharp shelters two gay men. It changes his life, but it also puts him at risk of losing everything. His wife is set in her prejudices and his congregation effectively shuns him after he preaches tolerance. Meanwhile, his son Justin get caught in a custody battle. With no way out, Asher takes Justin and heads to Key West to his brother Luke. Years ago, Asher turned his back on Luke when he came out, but Asher is not longer the person he once was.
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