DubaiReader

This book has received a lot of hype, so my book group decided to read it and decide for ourselves. It was certainly beautifully written and the narration by Cassandra Campbell was excellent, but I found the first part of the book a bit slow going. I'm also not much of a fan of court cases in my reads and although this one wasn't overly detailed, it was still a court case.

Set in the 1950’s and 60’s, the narrative follows Kya, a "Marsh Girl", who is brought up in a shack on the shores of the marshes. She is the youngest in her family but feels happy and loved, until one by one, all her family leave and just she and her father remain. She tries to cook and clean, but at the age of 7, she doesn't have a lot of experience. Her father is a drunk and a bully but she persuades him to teach her to use his boat and they appeared to form something of a bond, until he disappears too and finally, she is all alone.

As she grows into a woman she finds herself attracted to a couple of the men who sometimes frequent the marshes. Will she find love or just sorrow?

I Googled images of the marshes of the North Carolina Coast and they were really quite beautiful, well deserving of the poetic language of this book. Even though Kya was so poor, she appreciated the beauty and grew to love the loneliness of her surroundings. Her detailed observations of the flora and fauna were impressive for a child who had never attended school.

I don't know what I was expecting, I hadn't done much research before starting this book. I'm certainly glad I read (listened to) it but for me it wasn't quite a five star read.