Wonderful, coming of age story of a girl who goes through life bearing more than children should. A gripping tale of life in loneliness and how true grit prevails.

No matter what else is written in 2019 this will always be among my top three fiction books of the year. Through the eyes of Kya Clark, an abandoned child. Delia Owens gives a new perspective to the lowlands and this almost uninhabitable portion of North Carolina. At times i felt as I were floating through the marshes with Kya and seeing for the first time the intricacies of the aquatic life in the marshes. I loved the way the author drew analogies between the behavior of the townspeople toward Kya and the behavior of the insects in their respective habitats. Ms Owens has created a mystery, a love story, and a brilliant environmental study of the beautiful marshes of North Carolina neatly packaged in about 360 pages.

Story of an abandoned child that grew into a self-sufficient marsh girl/woman. Murder mystery - beautiful descriptions of the marsh.

Loved this book! After the ending have to read it again!

Loved it. Easy to read. Original plot. Well developed characters came across as believable people. In the time frame set, all the discriminatory thoughts and acts are believable and realistic. Yet the book is not judgemental not does it try to form the reader’s opinions, as I find in so much modern fiction. It also does not find “fault” or “blame” for the character’s situation. How refreshing to have a book where folks are troubled, yet find satisfaction with their situations in life. Although justice is vigilante, the reader is held to keep reading to find out the conclusion.

WOW! Just WOW! This is a great book. Murder, abandoned child, growing up alone, nature, young love, sex, ecology, love, poetry, betrayal, education, redemption, forgiveness, treachery -- it is all here. Well written with strong characters and even stronger biology, Owens debut novel is clearly a winner.
The North Carolina coastal region and the animals, birds, flowers, grasses, etc. are as much a character as the human in this book. Kya, Chase, Jumpin’, Mabel and Tate are the main humans in this beautiful elegy to nature and the human spirit.
Saying too much more will spoil the “mystery” in the book, so just know that is a book that should not be missed. Book groups will find much to discuss and ponder. Biologists and sportsmen/women will appreciate the accuracy of the science.

Wonderful book.

Seldom does a book leave you with a warm and completed feeling. Especially one revealing a murderer in its closing paragraphs. But this is the book that managed to do just that.

Delia Owens introduces you to a wonderful list of characters. Then she sends them on their way to circle around one little waif of a girl, as she tries to circumvent isolation and loneliness. Kya, known to others as the Marsh Girl, lives a lonely life in an old marsh cabin, left on her own from an early age, trying to understand and accept her solitary existence.

Long after I have put this book down I will be thinking of the characters and setting of this book. Both were exquisitely written. Within just a few pages you are drawn into this world. You are set down in a marshland, taken back, where things were, as they always have been. Space, time and distance melt away and you are there, silently moving alongside the characters, bringing them to life. Smelling the brackish water, hearing the drone of insects, watching the birds fly. The author gives you the visual, the characters give you the familiarity.

This is a book that will take your breath away. Not one to be missed.