Oh man you guys, this book really threw me for a loop. I picked it up on impulse from my book club because a few of the ladies had liked it and I totally spent the first ten pages thinking I had made a grave mistake. I felt like it was too literary and I was going to get lost in it and why did I think this was going to be enjoyable when I don't even usually read Adult in the first place? And let me tell you, I was wrong. I got so hooked into it that I totally ignored my family last night so I could finish it and I am not ashamed to tell you all that I cried a little. It got me so good!
This book is about a girl named Rya who is abandoned by her family in the North Carolina swampland and has to learn how to take care of herself, all while hiding from the townspeople that make fun of her and call her 'marsh girl' and avoiding the truancy officers that come looking for her because she doesn't want them to find out her parents are gone. This book talks a lot about being abandoned and feeling lonely and it just resonated so deeply in me. I don't think there's anyone who grew up without feeling lonely and being worried about what people were thinking when they saw you and it instantly made Rya's character relatable to me.
As she grows, you learn about her family, her four older siblings that left her, her mama that left, and eventually her father too. You watch her figure out how to make her own money and how to preoccupy her time. She is so in love with the marsh around her, that you can't help loving it too (heads up to anyone who might be surprised if I move there now haha). It stayed literary in just the right ways to make you really see and love the settings like Rya does. Through her eyes you're also able to navigate the tricky waters of love and trust after abandonment, something that seems to perpetually happen to her as she lets people into her life.
One of the best parts of this book is the murder mystery that is sprinkled in from the very beginning. The dates are on the top of every chapter so you know the murder happens in the future, yet I was still surprised when I caught up with it. I really don't want to ruin the surprise on this one, so I won't go into it too much, but it is a trip!
All in all, I loved this book which is so crazy because I really didn't expect to. I'd give it 5/5 stars and a rating of PG-13 (and maybe a little on the older side of that).
Comments