There are a number of questions (about the ending, explanations, other spoilers, etc.) that get asked pretty frequently about this book, so I thought I’d just answer them here.
For the full review and a detailed summary of the plot, see the Summary and Review for Where the Crawdads Sing.
Where can I find a full plot summary of Where the Crawdads Sing?
Right here! Summary and Review for Where the Crawdads Sing. There’s a short/quick version and a longer, more detailed version.
What is the meaning of the title of the book “Where the Crawdads Sing”?
The meaning of the title “Where the Crawdads Sing” comes from Delia Owens’s childhood experiences (something her mother used to say). It’s also a phrase that the character of Tate says in the book.
In Chapter 17, when Tate and Kya are looking for a place to hang out, Tate suggests that they go somewhere “where the crawdads sing.” He explains to Kya that it means “far in the bush where critters are wild, still behaving like critters.” In other words, he’s suggesting they go off somewhere far from other people, deep into nature.
From the book: “Well, we better hide way out there where the crawdads sing. I pity any foster parents who take you on.” Tate’s whole face smiled.
“What d’ya mean, where the crawdads sing? Ma used to say that.” Kya remembered Ma always encouraging her to explore the marsh: “Go as far as you can—way out yonder where the crawdads sing.”
“Just means far in the bush where critters are wild, still behaving like critters.”
Throughout out the book, Delia Owens’s writing shows a great fondness for the natural world. Her past work (as a wildlife scientist in Africa), as well as the title of this novel, are a reflection of this.
Delia Owen discusses the origins of this phrase and how it relates to her life in an interview with Hello Sunshine. “When I was a young girl growing up in south Georgia, my mother encouraged my girlfriends and me—whether we were exploring on foot or riding our horses—to venture as far into the oak forests as we could go. She wanted me to experience true nature, to find that place where the deer and foxes still behaved as they always had in the wild. She’d say, “Go way out yonder where the crawdads sing.” And we did.”
What happens at the end of Where the Crawdads Sing? Does Kya kill herself in Where the Crawdads Sing?
At the end of Where the Crawdads Sing, Kya is acquitted for the murder, and Kya realizes that she loved Tate all along. They start a life together and turn the shack that Kya lives in into a nice cottage.
As the years pass, Jumpin’ passes away, and Jodie gets married and has kids that he brings by. The village grows into a city, but Tate and Kya never visit either way.
Kya does not kill herself. Instead, she passes away at 64 while she’s out in a boat collecting stuff (“her heart had quietly stopped”). Tate has “The Marsh Girl” inscribed on her headstone.
As Tate goes to look through her possessions he finds a hidden compartment with poems by a local author (these are referenced throughout the book). He realizes the poet was Kya, writing under a nom de plume all these years. There is one poem about murdering Chase, and with it is Chase’s missing shell necklace, tying her to his murder.
Who Killed Chase Andrews? Did Kya (“The Marsh Girl”) Murder Chase in Where the Crawdads Sing? How did Chase Andrews die? And why was he killed?
Yes, Kya was responsible for the death of Chase Andrews. Basically, at the end of the book, we find out that Kya has been writing and publishing poems under a pen name. Tate, her husband, finds one of these poems (that Kya wrote) along with the necklace that ties Kya to the murder.
If you read the poem (see the full text of it below) that’s with the necklace, you’ll see how it clearly describes the situation with Chase and what happened. She lured him to the tower and then she left the grate over the last stair open so he could fall through. (“The last step, a trap. Down, down he falls, His eyes still holding mine / Until they see another world.”)
The necklace ties Kya to the murder because Chase was supposed to have worn it all the time, but it was missing from the scene of the crime. Instead, Tate realizes that Kya has had the necklace all along.
I think the question of “why” Kya chooses to kill Chase (and whether it was justified) is something that’s up for book clubs to debate. Obviously, legally it was definitely not justified. Kya had a lot of reasons to dislike Chase. He dated, tricked and cheated on Kya (he was seeing someone else so he wouldn’t introduce her to people and got engaged while he continued letting her believe he wanted to marry her). Then after all that, he later goes back to see her and attempts to sexually assault her.
Beyond that, after the sexual assault, she worries that he will feel the need to have the “last word” after she left him sprawled on the dirt, and she doesn’t want to live in fear waiting for him to come at her again (“She’d learned over and over from Pa: these men had to have the last punch. Kya had left Chase sprawled on the dirt. The two old fishermen had probably seen her flatten him. As Pa would have it, Kya had to be taught a lesson.” “Chase would not let this go. Being isolated was one thing; living in fear, quite another.”).
The assault happens on August 30th and a month later he’s dead.
How is Kya able to contact Chase to lure him to the fire tower?
It’s not really stated how exactly she lures him to fire tower. We know that she does because it’s referenced in her poem, the Firefly (reproduced below).
As one of the commenters below (thanks Lindsay!) points out below, it may have been via phone because during the trial, the hotel manager, Mr. Lang Furlough, mentions that she was oddly unfamiliar with how to use the telephone. That seems to indicate she may have asked him how to use it in order to contact Chase.
Otherwise, she could have left Chase a note or something.Was Kya in a disguise as the man on bus #1 or the old lady on bus #2 that’s mentioned in trial? Could Kya have gone back and forth from Greenville to Barkley Cove in that timeframe?
The answer to all of these questions is a (tentative) yes. It’s the most plausible answer to how Kya could have been able to kill Chase, though there’s not a firm confirmation of it.
Kya’s alibi is that she was in Greenville, meeting with her publisher, on the day Chase was killed. This is confirmed by her publisher. She traveled there by bus (Jumpin’ had to explain to her how to buy a bus ticket). However, the detectives determine that it’s possible to travel by bus from Greenville to Barkley and back in one night.
Larry Price (the bus driver for the 11:50 P.M. bus from Greenville to Barkley Cove) says there was no one on the bus that resembles Kya. But Price also says there was “a skinny passenger on that bus who could’ve been a tall woman disguised as a man”. It was a young white man, approximately 5′ 10”, kept his head down.
John King (the bus driver for the 2:30 P.M. bus from Barkley Cove to Greenville) also says there was no one on the bus that resembles Kya. But King also says there was an older lady who was “tall like Miss Clark, who had gray hair, short with curls, like a permanent wave.” King, too, acknowledges it could have been Kya in a disguise.
In terms of whether the timing works, at the trial, it’s mentioned that the 11:50 bus was 25 minutes late. It ended up getting in at 1:40 P.M. at night (meaning, it’s an 1 hour and 35 minute bus ride). The return bus departed at 2:30. So, that means there was a 50 minute window for Kya to get from the bus station to the fire tower, kill Chase and return.
At trial, there’s a discussion of whether this was feasible in 50 minutes. The gist of it is that, depending on factors such as her method of travel or the water conditions, it could have been possible.
What happened to the red hat? How did Kya end up with the red hat?
The infamous red hat. I have gotten so many e-mails and comments about this red hat that (a full year after reading this!) I have finally gone through the book and found all mentions of the red hat and red fibers so everyone can have a definitive answer instead of having to individually e-mail me. I don’t entirely understand why this hat has inspired so much curiosity, but here goes.
So, the red hat mostly serves to provide intriguing but not definitive evidence at the trial and during the investigation. Here’s everything we know about the hat:
In Chapter 43, Tate offers Kya his red hat because it’s cold. Kya initially declines, but Tate tosses it into her boat. They end up passing it back and forth, but it’s not explicitly stated who ends up with it at the end of the exchange. (“Then they stopped laughing and simply looked at each other as they lobbed the cap back and forth until she motored around the bend.”)
Later, there are red fibers found on Chase’s jacket after he is dead. And there is a red hat found in Kya’s place later. It’s confirmed by the detectives who send it to a lab that it’s an exact match (between the fibers on Chase’s jacket and from the hat in Kya’s place).
At trial, expert evidence is given that the fibers could have been transferred at any time and just remained stuck on there for years (even if washed), so they aren’t definitive proof that Kya was with Chase the night he died. So, in the end, the hat doesn’t really prove anything.
So, the answer is, we don’t know how Kya ends up with the red hat. I think you can assume that either a) Kya ended up with it when she and Tate were tossing it around or b) Kya ended up with it at some other point that she was hanging out with Tate.
Why did Kya keep the shell necklace?
The book does not explicitly state Kya’s reasons for keeping the shell necklace. Presumably though, she saw it as some symbol of her relationship with Chase, possibly a representation of her “taking back” something (her dignity, her pride, her sense of safety, her sense of self worth, etc.) from him.
It’s important to remember that it was originally a gift from Kya to Chase, and it only ends up back in Kya’s hands when she murders him. In killing him, she likely wanted revenge, but also to reclaim some sense of power or something like that. So, you could see it as her taking something back from him when she killed him. At that point, it becomes a symbol of Kya taking herself back or taking back the power in their relationship (or her dignity or something else) which could be the reason she would want to keep this symbol of her reclaiming something she feels he took from her.
Another way to look at it is that it’s a memento of an experience that shaped her as a person for better or for worse, so she wanted to keep it.
Of course, another perfectly legitimate explanation is that she keeps it because it was a necessary literary device to provide affirmative evidence of what happened at the end of the story. :)
Is the town of Barkley Cove, North Carolina a real place? What city was it based on?
Where the Crawdads Sing is set in the fictional coastal fishing town of Barkley Cove in eastern North Carolina. (See the map at the end of this post.) From the trial in the book, we know that it is a 1 hour and 35 minute bus ride away (when traveling in the middle of the night with presumably no traffic) from Greenville, NC.
It unknown what city Barkley Cove was based on. (If you google this question, the city of Asheville sometimes comes up as the answer, but that is not accurate. Asheville is not a coastal town; it’s simply a large city that gets mentioned a few times in the book. Incidentally, it’s also the city where Delia Owens lives.)
What is the poem (The Firefly) at the end of Where the Crawdads Sing?
The full text of The Firefly is below.
The Firefly
Luring him was as easyAs flashing valentines.
But like a lady firefly
They hid a secret call to die.A final touch,
Unfinished;
The last step, a trap.
Down, down he falls,
His eyes still holding mine
Until they see another world.I saw them change.
First a question,
Then an answer,
Finally an end.And love itself passing
To whatever it was before it began. A.H.
Is Where The Crawdads Sing based on a true story?
No, Where the Crawdads Sing is a work of fiction.
Delia Owens may have been indirectly involved / associated with a murder in Africa, but it is unrelated to the story in Where the Crawdads Sing. The incident in question is only very tenuously connected to Delia Owens, but if you are curious, feel free to read the discussion of Slate’s Delia Owens expose.
Let’s talk about actual science. Do Crawdads Sing? Like the actual animals?
Yes! Well, sort of. Crawdads don’t exactly sing, but they make noises if you want to count that. According to this aquarium, “Crawdads (also known as Crayfish) make produce sounds through their scaphognathite, which is a thin appendage that draws water through the gill cavity. They move the scaphognathite and produce sound and air bubbles.
They will produce a series of pulse trains that is believed to signal an individual’s presence to other crayfish. It is also believed that they produce sounds to alert other crayfish to predators, or to attract a second predator to prey upon the predator.”
What is the “Marsh Girl” / Kya’s full name in Where the Crawdads Sing? Why is Kya called the “Marsh Girl”?
Kya’s full name is Catherine Danielle Clark. She is nicknamed the “Marsh Girl” because she lives in the nearby swampy marshes on the outskirts of town.
What race is the character of Kya in Where the Crawdads Sing? Is Kya black or Native American?
Kya is not black or Native American. Kya refers to herself as “white trash” at one point, so I think we can safely assume that she and her family are white.
Also, commenter Si Aspen adds: On pg 222, there is a conversation between Kya and Jumpin. It states, “In another time and place, an old black man and a young white woman might have hugged. But not there, not then.” So that confirms that Kya is white.
Is there a Where the Crawdads Sing movie or film adaptation?
A movie adaptation of Where the Crawdads Sings is in active development. For all the details, see Everything We Know about the Where the Crawdads Sing Movie.
Where can I find the map of (the fictional town of) Barkley Cove?
Right here! This map of (the fictional town of) Barkley Cove, North Carolina is from the e-book version of Where the Crawdads Sing.
Still confused over something? Drop a comment below and I’ll try to answer if I can! :)
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FAQs
What does the ending of Where the Crawdads Sing mean? ›
It is revealed through a poem titled 'The Firefly' that Kya was in fact the one to kill Chase. After Chase attempted to rape Kya, she realized that she would never be safe from him and decided to take his life and make it look like an accidental fall from the abandoned fire tower.
Is Kya the killer in Where the Crawdads Sing? ›It's eventually revealed Kya is responsible for the death of Chase Andrews. She is the murderer in both the book and new movie but let's focus on the events of the film and explain what happens in the ending.
Does KYAS mom ever come back? ›No, Kya's mom never came back as she suffered a mental illness and died of leukaemia. Kya's ma ran away to New Orleans when she left Kya's home. Kya's brother Jodie breaks the news of their mother's death which took place two years prior, when he returns from the army.
Who does Kya Love in Where the Crawdads Sing? ›In the book, after Kya dies, her lifelong love Tate discovers the seashell necklace Kya gave Chase and a poem she wrote, albeit under a pseudonym, that indicates she was the one who killed Chase. In the film, Tate (Taylor John Smith) discovers the necklace, but Kya's poetry doesn't make it into the movie.
Do Kya and Tate have kids? ›Kya and Tate are unable to have children. Kya's connections are to Tate and the natural world. At the age of 64, Kya has a heart attack in her boat and dies.
Do Tate and Kya end up together in the book? ›Things take a turn for the better when he uncovers enough evidence to convince a jury that Kya is not guilty. The exhausting trial is over, and Kya ultimately reunites with Tate and begins a life with him back at the marsh. They grow old together, with Kya dying in her sixties from a heart attack.
Why did Kya keep the shell necklace? ›Tate had just as much motivation to murder Chase and rip the necklace from his body. It's possible that the shell-collecting Kya merely found the necklace after Tate attempted to dispose of it in the marsh and kept it hidden to protect Tate.
Why did Tate not come back to kya? ›The sad thing is, that he chose his work over his love... thats why he didn´t come back or didn´t wrote a letter. even if Tate taught Kya how to read and write, she lived for the day that he would come back to her that 4th July.
Does Kya marry Tate? ›Due to a weak case against her, she's found to be not guilty. When the book skips to the future, Kya and Tate get married and grow old together before she dies in her 60s.
Does Kya ever see Jodie again? ›Finally, Kya was surrounded in the shack by family. In Where the Crawdads Sing, Jodie was Kya's closest family for a long time, and she was devastated by his abandonment. He had taught her everything she knew about the marsh. Later in Where the Crawdads Sing, Jodie and Kya become a family once again.
How did Kya get Chase necklace? ›
Chase Andrews has been pursuing Kya aggressively, and she finally gives in to his advances. One day, Chase takes her to the fire tower, and she gives him a shell necklace as a gift. He promises to marry her, but Kya soon discovers that Chase is actually engaged to someone else.
Does Kya get pregnant? ›She and Tate consider having children, but Kya never gets pregnant, which doesn't particularly bother her. Instead, she focuses on her life in the marsh and her relationship with Tate, who has finally convinced her that “human love” is worthwhile.
Was Kya disguised on the bus? ›Larry Price (the bus driver for the 11:50 P.M. bus from Greenville to Barkley Cove) says there was no one on the bus that resembles Kya. But Price also says there was “a skinny passenger on that bus who could've been a tall woman disguised as a man”. It was a young white man, approximately 5′ 10”, kept his head down.
How did Kya lure chase to the tower? ›Though, there is a short window of time when she could have committed the murder. As shown in court, Kya chose a motel very close to a bus stop and after having dinner with her publishers, she must have taken the last bus ride home and lured Chase to the top of a tall lookout and pushed him off.
Does Kya go to jail? ›Things are looking dire for Kya when she's arrested and sent to jail for two months without a chance of bail. She does go to trial for Chase's murder. However, Kya is eventually exonerated, given the lack of strong evidence tying her to the scene of the crime. Kya is finally free to return to her home.
Is Kya white or black? ›What race is Kya in Where the Crawdads Sing? While it is sometimes assumed by Where the Crawdads Sing readers that Kya is black, we know that Kya and her family are actually white because the character refers to herself as "white trash".
Does Kya's dad return? ›For a while, it seemed as though Kya's father would remain in the marsh with her, if only because he didn't have anywhere else to go. In Where the Crawdads Sing, he simply never shows back up onscreen, with the story simply forgetting about him.
What do fireflies symbolize in Where the Crawdads Sing? ›The female firefly that Kya watches eat a potential mate represents the same kind of power that she herself taps into when she uses her own sex appeal to lure Chase into a death trap.
What's the meaning of crawdads? ›Meaning of crawdad in English
a word used in some parts of the U.S. to mean crayfish (= a small animal living in rivers that is similar to a lobster): You would scoop up the net and, hopefully, catch a crawdad.
But since the release of the movie adaptation this year, Where the Crawdads Sing controversy is being discussed a lot online. The coming of age novel is now leaving a sour taste in people's mouth as it has come to light that the author Delia Owens is reportedly wanted for questioning in relation to a murder case.
Is Where the Crawdads Sing a true story? ›
No. Where the Crawdads Sing is based on Delia Owens' fictional 2018 novel. The characters and plot are not based on real people or real events.
What do seagulls symbolize in Where the Crawdads Sing? ›The seagulls that Kya feeds and interacts with on the beach near her shack provide her with the only kind of connection she can count on no matter what happens. Because of this, they become a symbol of her intense and undying connection to the natural world, which is the only thing in her life that remains constant.
What are some symbols in Where the Crawdads Sing? ›- Feathers (Feathers = The Bond of Friendship) The feathers represent friendship. ...
- Seagulls (Seagulls = Family) The seagulls on Kya's beach represent family. ...
- The Marsh (Marsh = Home) ...
- Poems (Poems = Connection to the Outside World)
The title of Delia Owens' debut novel, "Where the Crawdads Sing," refers to a place "far in the bush where critters are wild, still behaving like critters." Indeed, the untamed North Carolina marshland setting is not merely a backdrop for the remarkable story that unfolds, but it shares center stage with the ...
Does Kya sleep with Chase? ›When Kya is 19 years old, she suddenly becomes attracted to a young local man named Chase Andrews. Chase begins visiting her often. Chase says that he loves her and is eager to have sex with her. Kya refuses at first, but after about a year, she consents to sex.
What is the age difference between Kya and Tate? ›Kya's Age Gap With Tate
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 sex, Kya is 15. Daisy Edgar-Jones most certainly does not look 15 during those scenes.
After that, Kya supports herself selling mussels to Jumpin', buying all her supplies from him and avoiding the Piggly Wiggly.
How old is KYA in Where the Crawdads Sing? ›The protagonist of Where the Crawdads Sing, Kya is a six-year-old girl at the outset of the novel. A curious and adventurous person, she lives in the North Carolina marshlands in a run-down shack.
Is there a second book to Where the Crawdads Sing? ›Now We Shall Be Entirely Free, Where the Crawdads Sing 2 Books Collection Set.
What was the poem in Where the Crawdads Sing? ›“Amanda Hamilton poem: “I must let go now. Let you go. Love is too often The answer for staying. Too seldom the reason For going.
Why did Kya's family leave her? ›
In 1952, six-year-old Catherine Danielle Clark (nicknamed "Kya") watches her mother abandon her and her family due to violent abuse from her husband, Kya's father Paul.
How long was Kya incarcerated? ›Kya spends two months in jail awaiting trial before she finally meets with her court-appointed lawyer, Tom Milton, whom no choice but to trust. On the first day of the court proceedings, Milton asks to have the trial moved.
What does the shell necklace symbolize in Where the Crawdads Sing? ›The Shell Necklace Symbol Analysis. The shell necklace that Kya gives to Chase becomes a manifestation of the dissonance between her desire to be loved and her wariness to let other people into her life. When she and Chase first spend time together, he finds a shell and gives it to her.
What is the first sentence Kya reads? ›As they practice reading, he asks her to sound out the first sentence. She reads, "There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot." For the first time, Kya is able to read.
Where did Kya hide the necklace? ›Then he finds a shell necklace that Kya made for Chase hidden in her shack. Chase never took the necklace off after Kya gave it to him, but when his dead body was discovered, the necklace was gone.
What does Kya give to chase? ›The shell necklace Kya gave him, which he wore every day, is missing from the body, and red wool fibers matching a hat of Kya's are found on his jacket. As a result, Kya is arrested under suspicion of pushing Chase off the fire tower to his death. Kya is jailed without bail for two months.
What does Kya learn from the fireflies? ›Kya learns about human nature and how to relate to other people mostly through observing animals. Most notably, Kya observes female fireflies changing their flashes to communicate different things.
Who is Sunday justice in Where the Crawdads Sing? ›The jailhouse cat in Where the Crawdads Sing has the same name—Sunday Justice—as an African man who once worked for the Owenses as a cook. In The Eye of the Elephant, Delia describes Justice speaking with a childlike wonder about the Owenses' airplane.
Who wrote Where the Crawdads Sing controversy? ›Was she also involved in a murder? A conservationist, a murder, and a bestselling book.
What does manager Lang furlough testify about Kya's stay at the Three Mountains Motel in Greenville the night of October 29 1969? ›His name is Lang Furlough, and he says that Kya stayed in his hotel in Greenville from October 28th to October 30th. Furthermore, he says that he was working both nights and never saw her slip out of her room, making it impossible for her to have snuck back to Barkley Cove to kill Chase.
Who was the killer in Where the Crawdads Sing? ›
In the book, after Kya dies, her lifelong love Tate discovers the seashell necklace Kya gave Chase and a poem she wrote, albeit under a pseudonym, that indicates she was the one who killed Chase.
Why did Tate leave kya? ›He gives her his old text books from school and when Kya is 15 they go on to develop a romantic relationship but Tate insists that they don't have sex until she is older. He leaves Kya to go to college but he finds it hard to forget about her. Their relationship temporarily ends when he leaves.
How does Where the Crawdads Sing book end? ›At the end of Where the Crawdads Sing, years in the future and after Kya has peacefully passed away, her husband Tate uncovered Chase's necklace hidden in a book full of poems Kya had written. Alongside the necklace was a range of poems and drawings of Chase and in one piece of poetry, she describes Chase as her prey.
Did Kya and Tate have children? ›Kya and Tate are unable to have children. Kya's connections are to Tate and the natural world. At the age of 64, Kya has a heart attack in her boat and dies.
Where the Crawdads Sing plot summary? ›Where the Crawdads Sing is part bildungsroman and part crime drama, centered around Kya, a wild and unkempt girl. The book follows the ups and downs of her life. She lives a lonely life, but her story is a hopeful one as well. With a little help, she's able to survive and even learn to read.
When the Crawdads sing movie release date? › Why did Kya keep the shell necklace? ›The book does not explicitly state Kya's reasons for keeping the shell necklace. Presumably though, she saw it as some symbol of her relationship with Chase, possibly a representation of her “taking back” something (her dignity, her pride, her sense of safety, her sense of self worth, etc.) from him.
Why did Tate not come back to kya? ›The sad thing is, that he chose his work over his love... thats why he didn´t come back or didn´t wrote a letter. even if Tate taught Kya how to read and write, she lived for the day that he would come back to her that 4th July.
How did Kya lure chase to the tower? ›Though, there is a short window of time when she could have committed the murder. As shown in court, Kya chose a motel very close to a bus stop and after having dinner with her publishers, she must have taken the last bus ride home and lured Chase to the top of a tall lookout and pushed him off.
What is the controversy with Where the Crawdads Sing? ›But since the release of the movie adaptation this year, Where the Crawdads Sing controversy is being discussed a lot online. The coming of age novel is now leaving a sour taste in people's mouth as it has come to light that the author Delia Owens is reportedly wanted for questioning in relation to a murder case.
How did Kya get Chase necklace? ›
Chase Andrews has been pursuing Kya aggressively, and she finally gives in to his advances. One day, Chase takes her to the fire tower, and she gives him a shell necklace as a gift. He promises to marry her, but Kya soon discovers that Chase is actually engaged to someone else.
What do seagulls symbolize in Where the Crawdads Sing? ›The seagulls that Kya feeds and interacts with on the beach near her shack provide her with the only kind of connection she can count on no matter what happens. Because of this, they become a symbol of her intense and undying connection to the natural world, which is the only thing in her life that remains constant.
What do fireflies symbolize in Where the Crawdads Sing? ›The female firefly that Kya watches eat a potential mate represents the same kind of power that she herself taps into when she uses her own sex appeal to lure Chase into a death trap.
Does Kya sleep with Chase? ›When Kya is 19 years old, she suddenly becomes attracted to a young local man named Chase Andrews. Chase begins visiting her often. Chase says that he loves her and is eager to have sex with her. Kya refuses at first, but after about a year, she consents to sex.
Does Kya marry Tate? ›Due to a weak case against her, she's found to be not guilty. When the book skips to the future, Kya and Tate get married and grow old together before she dies in her 60s.
Does Kya get pregnant? ›She and Tate consider having children, but Kya never gets pregnant, which doesn't particularly bother her. Instead, she focuses on her life in the marsh and her relationship with Tate, who has finally convinced her that “human love” is worthwhile.
What does Kya give to chase? ›Chapter 24 (1965)
When they get to the top of the fire tower, Kya sees the whole marsh for the first time. Chase apologizes for what happened at the picnic and Kya gives him a necklace made out of the scallop shell.
Meaning of crawdad in English
a word used in some parts of the U.S. to mean crayfish (= a small animal living in rivers that is similar to a lobster): You would scoop up the net and, hopefully, catch a crawdad.
Both men, along with everyone in town, knew who Chase Andrews in Where the Crawdads Sing was. He was a charismatic child who grew into a popular teen. He was the star quarterback in high school and had joined his father at the auto shop business as an adult. He was married and lived a charmed life.
What kind of bird is a crawdad? ›Crawdads, which are also called crawfish, crayfish and crawdaddies, are aquatic animals that look like small lobsters and live in rivers and streams. They are technically crustaceans, which are cousins of lobsters, shrimps and crabs, per the Columbia Journalism Review.
What race is KYA in Where the Crawdads Sing? ›
What race is Kya in Where the Crawdads Sing? While it is sometimes assumed by Where the Crawdads Sing readers that Kya is black, we know that Kya and her family are actually white because the character refers to herself as "white trash".
Is where the crawdad sings Based on a true story? ›Is Where the Crawdads Sing based on a true story? No. Where the Crawdads Sing is based on Delia Owens' fictional 2018 novel. The characters and plot are not based on real people or real events.