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scastricato1's review against another edition
3.0
Maybe more of a 2.5. This book had a lot of great visual imagery, however, it lacked intense plot. I feel like the factor of visual imagery will be good for the upcoming movie. But, in terms of a book, it was a tad bit boring. The book did a good job at building a connection between the characters and the reader, as well as introducing the big reveal at the end. I was also a big fan of the emphasis placed on the beauty of nature. However, overall, one read was enough for this book.
erinn119's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
ness_9's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This was one of the best books I’ve ever read
niendewinter's review
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Vanaf p. 274 hooked, heeeel trage opbouw.
slawlereads's review against another edition
4.0
This book had me fairly hooked. I love resilient women, but there was also enough mystery to keep me intrigued.
mco123's review against another edition
5.0
Oh my word! Wow! Really enjoyed this one. I’m always a sucker for a plot twist!
kellygoesgeocaching's review against another edition
5.0
Fascinating characters, a good story that thankfully ended satisfyingly.
peculiarjoreads's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
daja57's review against another edition
2.0
Kya, also known as Marsh Girl, is an outsider in the remote North Carolina swamp town, so, when a local sporting hero is found dead, she gets the blame.
It's a romantic novel (girl meets her first love, he breaks her heart, she takes up with the bad boy, he abuses her and she has to find herself in time for the final reel), mingled with a murder mystery culminating in a classic courtroom battle, mingled with a biology text.
This is a book which has been adored by many readers. I didn't hate it. There are moments of well-crafted and even lyrical prose: "Kya stood and walked into the night, into the creamy light of a three-quarter moon. The marsh's soft air fell silklike around her shoulders. The moonlight chose an unexpected path through the pines, laying shadows about it in rhymes. She strolled like a sleepwalker as the moon pulled herself naked from the waters ..." (Ch 23)
But I couldn't believe in the motivations of the characters and I found the dialogue clunky.
I think the fundamental problem with this book is that the plot drives the characters rather than the characters driving the plot:
In order to be suspected (without evidence) of the murder of Chase, so setting up a 'To Kill a Mockingbird' type courtroom battle, the protagonist has to be an outsider: the character of 'Marsh Girl' is evocative and mythic. She is, in effect, an updated Tarzan.
And just as Burroughs made Tarzan an aristocrat to avoid the 'primitive' stereotyping, so 'Marsh Girl' must be hugely intelligent: she starts to learn to read from Biology textbooks in less than a year; her first sentence, puzzled out on the day she learns A, B, C, is: "There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot." Yeah, right. Credible.
Of course, like Tarzan, Kya is perfectly at one with nature. She also spends large parts of her wandering around the marshes quoting poetry.
To be a properly mythic outsider, she also needs to be fundamentally alone: which is why she is deserted by her Mother and no less than four siblings ("What she wondered was why no one took her with them" thinks Kya in Chapter 2; even her adored brother Jodie leaves her, abandoning his adored little sister to an abusive father because ... well, because the story needs this to happen) and her father (who disappears, presumably dead). When her boyfriend, the ever-loving Tate, leaves her without a word, the whole abandonment thing becomes utterly unbelievable.
The dialogue is clunky. Although some of the ignorant characters speak in dialect (Pa, the lawmen, the black citizens), Kia herself, as befits an autodidact who hardly ever talks to anyone, mostly speaks in standard American English, well punctuated and grammatically correct. Her spoken prose is invariably well formed and sometimes sounds as if she is quoting from the textbooks with which she learned to read.
I simply couldn't suspend my disbelief long enough to enjoy this novel.
Tarzan for millennials.
It's a romantic novel (girl meets her first love, he breaks her heart, she takes up with the bad boy, he abuses her and she has to find herself in time for the final reel), mingled with a murder mystery culminating in a classic courtroom battle, mingled with a biology text.
This is a book which has been adored by many readers. I didn't hate it. There are moments of well-crafted and even lyrical prose: "Kya stood and walked into the night, into the creamy light of a three-quarter moon. The marsh's soft air fell silklike around her shoulders. The moonlight chose an unexpected path through the pines, laying shadows about it in rhymes. She strolled like a sleepwalker as the moon pulled herself naked from the waters ..." (Ch 23)
But I couldn't believe in the motivations of the characters and I found the dialogue clunky.
I think the fundamental problem with this book is that the plot drives the characters rather than the characters driving the plot:
In order to be suspected (without evidence) of the murder of Chase, so setting up a 'To Kill a Mockingbird' type courtroom battle, the protagonist has to be an outsider: the character of 'Marsh Girl' is evocative and mythic. She is, in effect, an updated Tarzan.
And just as Burroughs made Tarzan an aristocrat to avoid the 'primitive' stereotyping, so 'Marsh Girl' must be hugely intelligent: she starts to learn to read from Biology textbooks in less than a year; her first sentence, puzzled out on the day she learns A, B, C, is: "There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot." Yeah, right. Credible.
Of course, like Tarzan, Kya is perfectly at one with nature. She also spends large parts of her wandering around the marshes quoting poetry.
To be a properly mythic outsider, she also needs to be fundamentally alone: which is why she is deserted by her Mother and no less than four siblings ("What she wondered was why no one took her with them" thinks Kya in Chapter 2; even her adored brother Jodie leaves her, abandoning his adored little sister to an abusive father because ... well, because the story needs this to happen) and her father (who disappears, presumably dead). When her boyfriend, the ever-loving Tate, leaves her without a word, the whole abandonment thing becomes utterly unbelievable.
The dialogue is clunky. Although some of the ignorant characters speak in dialect (Pa, the lawmen, the black citizens), Kia herself, as befits an autodidact who hardly ever talks to anyone, mostly speaks in standard American English, well punctuated and grammatically correct. Her spoken prose is invariably well formed and sometimes sounds as if she is quoting from the textbooks with which she learned to read.
I simply couldn't suspend my disbelief long enough to enjoy this novel.
Tarzan for millennials.
urani_a's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0