Where the Crawdads Sing is storming the Netflix charts – and everyone's talking about the ending

Warning! This article contains major spoilers for Where the Crawdads Sing. If you've not yet seen the film or read the book on which it's based, turn back now.

Where the Crawdads Sing might have only landed on Netflix US a couple of days ago, but the drama is already causing quite the stir among subscribers. Since it arrived on the streaming platform on November 12, watchers have been rushing to social media to share their thoughts 

Adapted from Delia Owens' book of the same name, the movie – described as a coming-of-age murder mystery – follows Kya (Normal People's Daisy Edgar-Jones), as she fends for herself in the North Carolina marshes, having been abandoned by her mother, siblings, and, eventually, abusive father in the 1950s. Due to her isolation, Kya is regarded as a peculiar outsider to the locals, a fact that rears its head when she is accused of killing Chase Andrews (Harris Dickinson), a young man from town she was once involved with.

"The ending of Where the Crawdads Sing got me fucked up," one Twitter user wrote shortly after the film appeared on Netflix, while another tweeted: "Y'all, I just watched Where the Crawdads Sing, on Netflix. It was so good. I cried from the beginning till end. It's a drama but it just felt so real. You won't regret it." (Looks like they're enjoying it much more than critics did, given its 35% rating on Rotten Tomatoes).

Check out some more reactions, which are a little more mixed, below...

Their shock is kind of understandable. At the time of Chase's murder, Kya was supposedly on a trip, meeting with a book publisher in Greenville. But the police and prosecutor convince themselves that she could've disguised herself and made an overnight, round-trip bus ride to Barkley Cove, luring Chase to the top of a fire tower and pushing him in the layover. They also point out that a fisherman had overheard Kya threatening Chase one evening prior to his death, after he'd tried to force himself on her.

Kya protests her innocence, and highlights the locals' prejudice against in the run-up to her trial, before she is eventually found not guilty of murdering Chase. After that, she rekindles her romance with childhood sweetheart Tate Walker (Taylor John Smith). The pair grow old together, and you figure you've got the plot all worked out, but then Tate, now in his 70s, finds Kya lying dead in the boat at their dock. As he packs up her things, he finds a drawing of Chase inside one of Kya's journals, alongside statements that suggest it was "necessary" to kill him, and a shell necklace she'd once given to Chase, too. Deciding to keep his late love's secret, he throws the necklace into the marsh water.

"We never considered changing the ending. For me, the ending is the story. That ending is everything to understand who Kya is and the choices that she was faced with," director Olivia Newman previously told The Wrap. "You have to have that ending. That was always incredibly important to me."

Where the Crawdads Sing is streaming on Netflix US now. If you've already seen it, check out our list of the best Netflix movies for some viewing inspiration.