Adapting a novel for the big screen has always been a tricky task. Delia Owens’s murder mystery coming-of-age novel “Where The Crawdads Sing,” which has sold over 12 million copies and was chosen for Reese Witherspoon’s book club selection, set expectations high. Though the movie vividly reflected the book through its talented cast, setting and amazingly composed soundtrack, it omitted some important plot details. Owens’s book tells the story of Kya, played by Daisy Edgar-Jones, who suffers the maltreatment of her alcoholic father that drove her mother and siblings away. When her father disappears, she’s left to survive in the marsh, alone and shoeless. Kya eventually learns to read and write from her lover Tate, portrayed by Taylor John Smith, and later publishes a book. She’s mocked as the “Marsh Girl” for her wildness, a label that ultimately affects her trial for the murder of Chase Andrews, her former lover. While ever faithful to its source material, the film version of Where the Crawdads Sing does diverge in a few places. So, if you’re wondering what details you may have missed in the film vis a vis the book, you’ve come to the right place! But of course before we proceed on that, make sure first that you subscribe to our channel and you smash that notification bell for more updates on this. Now, here are some of the most pressing differences between the book and movie.
Kya’s Childhood
As with any book-to-screen adaptation, some of the novel’s more detailed story lines must be condensed. The section that gets the most chopping is Kya’s childhood, which takes up several chapters in the book but only about 20 minutes of the movie. This means much of the context for Ma’s exodus from her family, and the maltreatment by Pa that forces all of his children but young Kya to leave, is erased. As the book explains, the couple’s marriage was ravaged by the Great Depression, which led to Pa’s gambling addiction and alcoholism. The film doesn’t provide a reason for Pa’s abusive nature, nor does it flesh out the close-knit bond Kya shares with her older brother Jodie. Kya’s arrest in the murder of Chase Andrews also happens far earlier in the movie, which frames her childhood anecdotes as flashbacks told to her lawyer rather than its own segment.
Kya’s Literary Career
“I wasn’t aware that words could hold so much,” Kya says in both the book and movie after Tate teaches her to read. In the months after becoming literate, Kya begins drawing and writing about the nature that surrounds her in the marsh. Both the novel and movie have Tate provide Kya with a list of potential publishers so that her work can be seen. In the book, Tate shares this list after he’s already left for college and returned as a means of reconciling with Kya. The film has Tate making this gesture - one that Kya doesn’t consider until she needs the money to pay back taxes on her property - before he heads to school. Facing foreclosure, Kya is motivated to get her novels published for her own financial security rather than simply as a means of sharing her insights with the world.
Chase’s Engagement
When Tate leaves for college, his and Kya’s relationship (temporarily) ends, providing an opening for Barkley Cove’s most problematic bachelor.
The Details Of Kya And Chase’s Romance And Falling Out
In the movie, it makes it look like Chase Andrews completely pursued Kya and she just went for it over time because she didn’t want to be alone, but in the book things happen differently. Years after Tate leaves and Kya remains heartbroken, she notices Chase, someone she is attracted to and curious about.
How The Investigation Of Chase Andrews Is Presented
Book readers of Where The Crawdads Sing were likely the most thrown off the most about the fact that the movie begins with Kya being pursued by the police soon after Chase Andrews’ lifeless body is found.
Kya’s Age Gap With Tate
The movie has a lot of ground to cover, from Kya’s childhood to adulthood and while it signifies which year it is throughout, how old Kya is when she meets and starts to become romantically involved with Tate is not clear to audiences. It feels like this might have been ignored on purpose, because in the book, Kya is 14 and Tate is 18 when their first cute feather back-and-forths take place. At the point in the novel when they almost have intercourse, Kya is 15. Daisy Edgar-Jones most certainly does not look 15 during those scenes.
The Ending
Don’t fret, book purists - the surprising twist ending of Crawdads, in which it’s revealed that an exonerated Kya did, in fact, murder Chase, remains intact. However, the way that an advanced-age Tate discovers this revelation shifts.
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