Delia Owens is really good at describing nature, which isn’t surprising given her past works. I thought at times the writing was beautiful and poetic and the story overall was interesting. I liked the contrast between her descriptions of the marsh and the courtroom/jail. However, this book fell really short for me and I’m surprised by how much acclaim this book has received. I found Kya and Tate’s relationship to be cringe-worthy since Tate is a few years older than her and he also took on the roll of teaching and educating her. Because of this, I felt their relationship was kind of inappropriate. I also have a hard time believing that she was able to learn to read and write so quickly. Not only this. I mentioned before that Owens was able to write nature beautifully but I think her dialogue definitely needs work. I often thought that when characters were talking to each other, how stilted and unnatural it came across. Also, another major issue of mine with the book, were the racist tropes included in the book. Mabel and Jumpin’ deserved better.