The Where The Crawdads Sing Movie Is Great Because Of Its Book Changes

screenrant.com:

Although Where the Crawdads Sing’s movie adaptation differs from Delia Owen’s 2018 novel, the changes from the book help make it an entertaining film. To adapt a book in a way its author and readers won't hate, filmmakers condense hundreds of pages into a 120-page script balancing staying faithful to the book and creating a compelling film. As novel adaptations go, Where the Crawdads Sing – an exploration of the coming of age of Kya Clark, a young girl abandoned by her family, living in the North Carolina marshlands – is striking for its alignment with its source material.

After years of solitude, Kya opens up her world to Where the Crawdads Sing characters Tate Walker and Chase Andrews. The latter soon turns up dead, and Kya, or «the Marsh Girl,» is condemned as his murderer by the exclusionary town. However, Where the Crawdads Sing has been unpopular with critics, chastised for its reductionism of the intricate novel. Yet, as shown by Rotten Tomatoes’s audience score, audiences aren't perceiving this adaptation as a failure and the changes from the novel produce a great, if different, rendering of the story.

Related: The Gray Man: Biggest Changes From The Book

Through alterations to the novel – the order of events, Kya, and other characters – the film adjusts, but emboldens, the story and Kya’s character, making for an enrapturing film. Where the Crawdads Sing admittedly falls into the trap of condemning some plot points, depth, and the original tone to remain in the book's pages. However, the changes also exploit the use of the cinematic medium to deliver a more digestible, compelling version of the story; the film has already become an underrated movie adaptation.

The film diverts heavily from the novel’s chronology,