Where the Crawdads Sing. Finished audio 2-8-19, 4.5/5 stars, fiction, pub. 2018

Unabridged audio read by Cassandra Campbell.  12 hours 12 minutes.

For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life–until the unthinkable happens.

Perfect for fans of Barbara Kingsolver and Karen Russell, Where the Crawdads Sing is at once an exquisite ode to the natural world, a heartbreaking coming-of-age story, and a surprising tale of possible murder. Owens reminds us that we are forever shaped by the children we once were, and that we are all subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.  from Goodreads

Down in the North Carolina low country there was a girl the locals called the marsh girl.  Abandoned by her mother, her siblings and then by her abusive father, before the age of ten she fended for herself trying to survive.  Jumpin’ and his wife Mabel take pity on her by providing her a way to earn money and giving her a few necessities and friendship. Kya was truly isolated in extreme poverty at a very young.  The social workers came around and they even got her to school one day, but never could find her after that.  She knew the marsh better than anyone.  Tate, who worked in the waters with his dad befriended her and taught her to read, but too soon he was off to college and Kya was alone again.

This is a beautiful debut novel.  The writing was therapeutic to someone holed up for the winter, say, someone like me.  Kya was a great character and one made richer after you’ve finished the novel and had time to reflect.  Her extreme isolation and poverty gave way to her extreme self-sufficiency and loneliness and all of this led to the prejudice that landed her as a murder defendant.  In what could have been just a sweeping coming of age story, there comes a turn that puts her in town and on display for all of those who have shunned her for years.

I loved it and Kya will surely be sticking with me for a while.