By Delia Owens
Biologist Owens' book was the best selling novel of 2019, and I was not disappointed in this unique story - a coming-of-age tale about a woman growing up one in the North Carolina marshes, but also a book about marsh biology, along with a mystery.
While still a little girl growing up in a dysfunctional and poor family, Kya (Katherine) is deserted, one by one, by her mother, siblings, and father. She spends only one day in school, where she is mocked and friendless, where neither her fellow students nor teachers see the hurt or the potential in the lonely, poor "marsh girl". She grows up, fiercely independent, a true survivor, but could not have survived alone without the help of a friendly shopkeeper and his wife, and a boy who shares her love of the plants and creatures that inhabit North Carolina's swampy marsh.
But underlying this tender story is the mysterious death of a young man at the fire tower in the marsh. Chase grew up in a parallel world to Kya: he was the same age, but the son of a well-to-do couple and a well-known football star in the local high school. Owens begins the novel with the discovery of Chase's body then tells the story of Kya's growing-up years, and intersects her story with Chase's over the years.
I read this novel as an audiobook while driving, and it was one of those rare books that made me miss a turn or two because I was so absorbed in the story.
Biologist Owens' book was the best selling novel of 2019, and I was not disappointed in this unique story - a coming-of-age tale about a woman growing up one in the North Carolina marshes, but also a book about marsh biology, along with a mystery.
While still a little girl growing up in a dysfunctional and poor family, Kya (Katherine) is deserted, one by one, by her mother, siblings, and father. She spends only one day in school, where she is mocked and friendless, where neither her fellow students nor teachers see the hurt or the potential in the lonely, poor "marsh girl". She grows up, fiercely independent, a true survivor, but could not have survived alone without the help of a friendly shopkeeper and his wife, and a boy who shares her love of the plants and creatures that inhabit North Carolina's swampy marsh.
But underlying this tender story is the mysterious death of a young man at the fire tower in the marsh. Chase grew up in a parallel world to Kya: he was the same age, but the son of a well-to-do couple and a well-known football star in the local high school. Owens begins the novel with the discovery of Chase's body then tells the story of Kya's growing-up years, and intersects her story with Chase's over the years.
I read this novel as an audiobook while driving, and it was one of those rare books that made me miss a turn or two because I was so absorbed in the story.
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