25 Books Like Where the Crawdads Sing

Book Summary

If the Creek Don’t Rise is set in the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina. It’s another area of the United States that shares some of the same struggles of the low country where Kya is raised. 

Sadie Blue quickly realizes that her marriage is a mistake, but doesn’t see a way out until a stranger arrives in town.

Some readers find the local dialect distracting or difficult, but once they are absorbed into the story find it hard to put down.

Book Summary

Ada comes from a hard life on the swamp, and Matilda is a sharecropper’s daughter. So it wasn’t likely for these teenage girls to end up connected through a murder. 

Set in the 1920s Mississippi Bayou, you’ll follow the teens deep into the world of bootleggers and corruption as they try to stay safe and come to terms with their complex past.

Book Summary

Head back to 1960s North Carolina for another coming-of-age tale. Jessie is 16 and wants no part in her family legacy – the business of moonshine. She believes that moonshine is the reason her mother died when she was four, but her dad refuses to talk about it.

Jessie’s desire for the truth turns into looking for control in other places – like food. As an eating disorder flourishes, Jessie comes up with a scheme to eliminate the moonshine stills, which accidentally brings old rivalries and grudges back to life.

Book Summary

The impoverished residents of Troublesome Creek struggle for nearly everything, but thanks to Roosevelt’s Kentucky Pack Horse Library Project, they aren’t lacking books.

Book woman Cussy Mary Carter is not only Troublesome Creek’s own traveling library but also the last living female of the rare Blue People ancestry. But not everyone approves of Cussy’s family or the government Library Project. Cussy wants to bring the joy of books to the hill folks, but she has to confront prejudice and suspicion as old as the Appalachians.

Book Summary

The summer of 1961 started out full of hope and innocence in New Bremen, Minnesota – a new young president, the Twins baseball team playing their debut season, root beers at the soda counter, and comic books on the barbershop magazine racks. But the summer soon turned grim, with multiple deaths. Accident? Natural? Suicide? Murder?

When the tragedies occur in town, 13-year-old Frank Drum is thrust into adulthood overnight. The novel is part mystery and part coming-of-age story, told by Frank himself as a 40-year-old adult looking back on that fateful summer.

Book Summary

This book is based on the true story of Georgia Tann’s “adoption” agency that claimed to help orphans, but instead kidnapped poor children and trafficked them to wealthy families.

Twelve-year-old Rill Foss and her four younger siblings have a wonderful life on the Mississippi River aboard their family’s shanty boat. But on a stormy night when their father has to take their mother to the hospital, Rill is left in charge. Unfortunately, strangers arrive, and the kids are thrown into the Tennessee Children’s Home Society orphanage. They are assured that they will soon be returned to their parents – but quickly realize the dark truth.

In present-day South Carolina, Avery Stafford returns home to help her father during a health crisis. When she stumbles upon the possibility that her grandmother may be harboring a dark family secret, Avery becomes obsessed with her mission to uncover the truth.

Book Summary

In this memoir, Tara Westover shares the story of her upbringing in rural Idaho. Born to survivalist parents, she grew up stewing herbs for her midwife healer mother and worked in her father’s junkyard. Her father forbade doctors and hospitals, even when she and her brothers suffered serious injuries.

She was also kept from any formal education. Although she didn’t step foot in a classroom for the first time until the age of 17, Tara worked hard to educate herself in mathematics and grammar. She was ultimately able to gain admission to BYU, where she studied history and learned about major world events, like the Holocaust and the civil rights movement, for the first time. From there, she went on to opportunities at Harvard and Cambridge.

This coming-of-age memoir details how she struggled to lift herself up and dealt with the struggle between family loyalty and the grief that comes with severing those ties in search of something more.

Book Summary

When a 6-year-old girl appears from the rugged terrain of the Olympic National Forest, she is alone and unable to speak. No one knows where she came from or who she is.

Dr. Julia Cates is a child psychiatrist who returned to her western Washington hometown after a scandal that destroyed her career. She is determined to discover the truth about the mysterious little girl’s past, and to help her heal and prepare for a better future. Unfortunately, that means working with her estranged sister, a police officer, along the way.

Book Summary

In this memoir, the author’s grandparents fully embraced 1960s counter-culture, including moving from California to the Canadian wilderness.

Cea was raised off the land without running water, electricity, or heat, mostly in isolation outside the hedonistic parties thrown by her grandparents and mom. As Cea gets older, she has to decide if she will embrace the unconventional (and less-than-ideal) world she was born into, or if she can thrive making choices for herself.

Book Summary

Like Crawdads, A Land More Kind Than Home is part family drama and part suspenseful mystery. In this case, the main character is Jess, who is very protective of his mute older brother, Christopher. Their mom is involved in church, but this isn’t a normal church and the boys aren’t allowed to go inside. 

When Christopher, who is called Stump, is caught snooping and sees something he isn’t supposed to, Jess is thrust into adulthood before he’s ready. Suddenly danger, evil, freedom, and deliverance are all within his grasp.

Book Summary

Like Kya, Birddog Harlin is a girl trying to make the most of a dysfunctional family in a rural area. This fictional coming-of-age story brings all the feelings, often painful and sad but tempered with love and hope. 

You’ll cheer for Birddog and be angry at her mom while being absorbed by the poetic and descriptive language throughout.

Book Summary

Set in the marshlands of upper Michigan, The Marsh King’s Daughter is a thriller about Helena Pelletier, who was raised as a survivalist by her criminal father. 

Helena’s mother was kidnapped as a teen and hidden away in a cabin deep in the marsh. Two years later, Helena was born. She loved her home and even her father until his brutality reached new heights one day. 

Twenty years later, her father escaped prison and disappeared into the marsh. Helena is the only person with a chance to find him.

Book Summary

Set in 1927 in the tiny town of Hobnob, Mississippi, this book tells the story of two federal agents who arrive in town to investigate the disappearance of two other agents who had been chasing a bootlegger. At a crime scene, they discover an abandoned baby boy, and Agent Ingersoll is determined to find the boy a good home as he was also an orphan. 

A new challenge arises amid their search for the bootleggers, other agents, and a home for the boy. The banks of the Mississippi River are rising and threatening the town. 

Similar to Crawdads, both the characters and the environment evoke all the feelings as you read this historical mystery.

Book Summary

Adunni is a 14-year-old girl living in poverty in a Nigerian village. She loves school and knows that learning all she can is the key to achieving a better life. But, despite promising to allow Adunni’s schooling to continue after her mother’s death, Adunni’s father makes a decision that ends her education in the village and changes the trajectory of her life.

You’ll be moved to both tears and cheers as Adunni endures and overcomes heartbreaking challenges while remaining focused on her dream of an education, much like Kya.

Book Summary

Abandoned at birth by her mother, Victoria Jones spent her childhood in no fewer than 32 foster homes. At age 9, Victoria wanted nothing more than to be adopted by a woman named Elizabeth, but something went terribly wrong. Nine years later, having aged out of the foster care system at age 18, Victoria finds herself homeless on the streets of San Francisco.

All those years before, Elizabeth instilled a love of flowers and their meanings in Victoria. While Victoria is unable to get close to anyone, she finds that she can communicate through flowers, and she gets a job working for a florist named Renata. When Victoria meets a flower farmer named Grant, her past and present begin to collide. She is forced to confront some painful secrets for a second chance at happiness.

Book Summary

This is a moving coming-of-age novel about how fragrances connect us to our memories and help us share our lives. Emmeline grows up on a remote island with her father, who teaches her about the world through her sense of smell. Throughout her enchanted childhood, the one thing her father won’t explain, however, are the mysterious scents stored in the drawers that line the walls of their cabin, or the origin of the machine that creates them.

As Emmeline gets older, her curiosity gets the better of her and she finds herself vaulted out into the real world, with all its ups and downs – love, betrayal, ambition, and revenge.

Book Summary

Set in 1932 during the Great Depression, This Tender Land follows four orphans, including 12 year old Odie, who have escaped the abusive Lincoln Indian Training School in Minnesota.

The kids set off down the Mississippi River and have to survive the environment while being pursued by the school. The group must decide whether to trust each stranger they encounter, and discover more about themselves along the way.

Book Summary

Joanna Teale has thrown herself into dawn-to-dusk work studying nesting birds in rural Illinois for her graduate program. It’s a great distraction from the loss of her mother and her own breast cancer battle.

Out of nowhere, a bruised girl named Ursa shows up. The girl claims to have been sent from the stars to witness five miracles, but provides no other background information. Concerned about the bruises, Joanna lets the girl stay while enlisting the help of her reclusive neighbor to solve the mystery of where the girl came from.

Over the summer, miracles occur, but as the end of summer and the 5th miracle approach, Ursa’s dangerous past also gets closer.

Book Summary

Harry has always loved trees, but he spends his days behind a computer as an analyst in a treeless US Forest Service office. After his wife dies suddenly and tragically, Harry can’t seem to move forward. One day he decides to follow his wife’s advice – he quits his job and escapes to the remote woods of northeastern Pennsylvania to be with the trees.

There he meets Oriana, a young girl who has suffered a significant loss of her own. She spends most of her time in the forest with her book in the treehouse her father bought for her. They bond over their love of the forest and the trees.

The octogenarian librarian in town gives Oriana a strange, handwritten book called The Grum’s Ledger. With this book as their guide, Oriana helps Harry believe in the magic, if only he’s willing to open his eyes and see it.

Book Summary

In The Snow Child, you’ll be transported to remote 1920s Alaska. Jack and Mabel are nearing 50 when they decide to move to Alaska. As newcomers to the harsh environment, it is a struggle for them. Between the intense physical labor required and the even more extreme loneliness, they’re not sure they’ve made the right decision with the move.

Then, during the first snowfall of the year, they decide to have some fun and build a child out of snow. In the morning, the snow child is gone, but they see a young girl running through the trees with the items they had used to dress the snow child. Is she real, or are they hallucinating and dreaming of the child they’ve always wanted?

Book Summary

Set in Branchville, South Carolina, in 1924—shortly after the Boll Weevil Infestation devastated southern cotton fields—this historical fiction novel tells the story of motherhood and womanhood. The story centers around three women at a crossroads: Gertrude, Retta, and Annie.

Gertrude, a mother of four, must make a difficult decision to save her daughters. Retta is a first-generation freed slave who comes to Gertrude’s aid. And Annie, the matriarch of the influential Coles family, offers Gertrude a job.

Despite having seemingly nothing in common, these three women unite to stand up to injustices long plaguing the small town. This book is a timeless story about the power of family, community, and the ferocity of motherhood.

Book Summary

This debut novel written by Ruth Emmie Lang is magical, both in story and language. Weylyn Grey was raised by wolves after being orphaned. After surviving on his own in nature, he has developed some supernatural abilities. He first realizes his powers when he single-handedly stops a tornado.

His powers, amazing as they may be, tend to manifest at inopportune times and places. In Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance, Weylyn’s story is told by those who have encountered him throughout many years.

Even if you’re not usually a fan of fantasy, we think you’ll love this interesting character!

Book Summary

Set in southern Appalachia, Prodigal Summer has been called a Hymn to the wilderness. Set over one summer, three stories intertwine into one nature-focused tale. 

Deanna Wolfe is a wildlife biologist on a mission to save a family of coyotes.

Lusa Maluf Landowski is a young, widowed scientist obsessed with insects.

Nannie Land Rawley is a 70-year-old apple grower. 

Separately, they all have challenges with the land and with relationships. Before fall, you’ll see their very different stories merge into one.

Book Summary

The highly-rated Late Migrations is a bit different than our other recommendations because it’s a series of short essays.

The author offers observations on the natural world, and it’s creatures while also exploring the cycles of joy and grief we all experience throughout life. 

The descriptions of the essays sound like something Kya would have written!