In 1952, 6-year-old Kya is abandoned by her family and left alone to fend for herself in the marsh. She grows up, surrounded by the birds and fish in the area. Shunned by society, she is nicknamed The Marsh Girl by everyone who lives in town. Years later, the body of a popular young man is found in the marsh and the only suspect is Kya.
I am in the minority here, but I did not love this book. I didn't hate it but I thought it was just okay. I don't know if it's because so many people have told me that I HAVE to read this book and that it's SO good, that it got hyped up in my mind but I didn't find anything especially compelling about it. In fact, the only reason I read this book was because it was my book club's latest pick (we were trying to overcome a hatred of books about girls growing up in swamps because of a previous book club book - Swamplandia! - that no one liked).
I don't know, I still have a lot of questions about this book. Mainly, I don't understand how Kya grew up alone in a swamp/marsh, isolated and with no one around her, and yet still manages to be a well-adapted adult. I can pass off some of the stupid things she does as being because she didn't know better, but she sure is well-adjusted for being such a social outcast. I still don't understand how she grew up alone in the swamp - she never needed to go to the doctor? Her boat or house never needed to be repaired?
I also found the use of local dialect distracting to read. I spent way too much time trying to figure out what the characters were saying and I didn't feel the use of the local dialect added anything to the story. The author could have just told us that the characters have accents and it would have worked just as well.
If you like nature though, you might love this book. There are a lot of descriptions of the swamp and the animals and Kya motoring around in her boat. For me, it was a bit much and I could have done without all the long descriptive nature writing. I confess I got tired of reading about the marsh and the birds and the insects. I also got tired of reading all the poetry - fair warning, there is a lot of poetry in the book.
I thought the first half of the book was a bit boring. Nothing much happens other than Kya cooking grits, digging up mussels, and fishing. The second part does pick up a bit as it mainly focuses on the murder trial (although I had a lot of issues with the trial and murder investigation as well).
I may not have loved this book but everyone else did so don't take my word for it.
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