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4.21 AVERAGE
4.21 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I enjoyed the story and I really loved the setting and Kya as a character. But I found myself rolling my eyes several times over the author’s descriptions of fat characters, the dialogue choices for Black characters, and several other weak dialogue moments. Sometimes it felt like the author had a line they really wanted to write even though it didn’t make sense for the character to say. I also found the ending disappointing - I was very drawn in by the trial, but after that it felt rushed and some of the tying of loose strings felt forced.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, Abandonment
I thoroughly did not enjoy this book. Ooooph. I don't recall my view of a book ever being this far from the general consensus.
I found the story to be slow, absurd, and entirely uninteresting.
I made it a third of a way before having to abandon ship. This passage about Kya, a girl that essentially raised herself in the swamp, literally just learning to read was the last straw:
— — — — — — — —
Slowly, she unraveled each word of the sentence: "There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot."
"Oh," she said. "Oh."
"You can read, Kya. There will never be a time again when you can't read."
"It ain't just that." She spoke almost in a whisper. "I wadn't
aware that words could hold so much. I didn't know a sentence could be so full."
He smiled. "That's a very good sentence. Not all words hold that much."
— — — — — — — —
Barf. Most YA novels aren’t *that* heavy handed.
I found the story to be slow, absurd, and entirely uninteresting.
I made it a third of a way before having to abandon ship. This passage about Kya, a girl that essentially raised herself in the swamp, literally just learning to read was the last straw:
— — — — — — — —
Slowly, she unraveled each word of the sentence: "There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot."
"Oh," she said. "Oh."
"You can read, Kya. There will never be a time again when you can't read."
"It ain't just that." She spoke almost in a whisper. "I wadn't
aware that words could hold so much. I didn't know a sentence could be so full."
He smiled. "That's a very good sentence. Not all words hold that much."
— — — — — — — —
Barf. Most YA novels aren’t *that* heavy handed.
adventurous
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
So much hype, and it's... fine.
Kya is a great character, though she requires a healthy suspension of disbelief at age 6. Tate is a good character, as is his dad. They seem a little "born in the wrong era," but it's probably what made them likeable.
I like that we didn't find out what happened to some of her family members, that seemed like a realistic outcome. Is this a spoiler? The book has been out for a long time now, so maybe not a spoiler.
I'll mark this bit, though. I'm sure glad someone took out Chase, though I wish it hadn't been Kya. I was honestly hoping his wife grew a pair, or even Tate. I'm glad it wasn't Jumpin', that would have been pretty poor. I wasn't surprised that it turned out to be Kya, either.
Kya is a great character, though she requires a healthy suspension of disbelief at age 6. Tate is a good character, as is his dad. They seem a little "born in the wrong era," but it's probably what made them likeable.
I like that we didn't find out what happened to some of her family members, that seemed like a realistic outcome. Is this a spoiler? The book has been out for a long time now, so maybe not a spoiler.
I'll mark this bit, though.
adventurous
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
1. Writing:
-Though at times the writing is almost excessively poetic, I think that the marsh is well-explored to illuminate the intimate relationship Kya has with it.
-I found the writing during the courtroom chapters immersive.
2. Themes:
-Prejudice: I like the message that you shouldn’t judge someone by their cover, but that doesn’t mean that you can undergo trauma and emerge unscathed.
Kya experiences socioeconomic prejudice that often allies her with the black characters, who also experience discrimination for being different. But the racism and classicism of the times doesn’t seem contained to fiction. The book implies that you have to speak without your (generalized) southern dialect in order to be smarter or better. “Good” characters are able to lose their dialect and “bad” characters retain theirs.
-Coming of age: overall okay. I didn’t like the sexual scenes but that’s a combination of personal taste and the awkward, naive way they’re written.
-People imitate wildlife: sometime heavy-handed but I understand why Kya adapted that mindset. A childhood spent learning about people from animals adds nuance to her adult actions.
3. Plot:
-The mashup between literary fiction and murder mystery doesn’t really work until the second half of the book, when the two timelines coincide. Until then, the detective scenes are short, few and far between, and essentially forgettable.
-I expected
-Though at times the writing is almost excessively poetic, I think that the marsh is well-explored to illuminate the intimate relationship Kya has with it.
-I found the writing during the courtroom chapters immersive.
2. Themes:
-Prejudice: I like the message that you shouldn’t judge someone by their cover, but that doesn’t mean that you can undergo trauma and emerge unscathed.
Kya experiences socioeconomic prejudice that often allies her with the black characters, who also experience discrimination for being different. But the racism and classicism of the times doesn’t seem contained to fiction. The book implies that you have to speak without your (generalized) southern dialect in order to be smarter or better. “Good” characters are able to lose their dialect and “bad” characters retain theirs.
-Coming of age: overall okay. I didn’t like the sexual scenes but that’s a combination of personal taste and the awkward, naive way they’re written.
-People imitate wildlife: sometime heavy-handed but I understand why Kya adapted that mindset. A childhood spent learning about people from animals adds nuance to her adult actions.
3. Plot:
-The mashup between literary fiction and murder mystery doesn’t really work until the second half of the book, when the two timelines coincide. Until then, the detective scenes are short, few and far between, and essentially forgettable.
-I expected
Spoiler
the plot twist, because the book tries pretty hard to make it seem as unlikely as possible but does actually demonstrate that Kya has the capacity to become violent when angered (when Tate returns to the island, her first impulse is to fling rocks at him, not words). But that’s about it. We never see her do anything particularly premeditated, we know she learns things quickly, but that doesn’t automatically translate to cleanly planning out a crime and convincing the town that she’s innocent.
adventurous
inspiring
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A