By this time you have read all the reviews on this book...heard all the talk show hype...listened to all your friends gush about it. Too often, those over-raved books turn out to be a major disappointment. This time you can believe it all. OK, so the story begins with the implausible idea of a 6-year old girl, abandoned and raising herself in a North Carolina Marsh. Just accept it and move on.
Owens' writing lures and lulls. She invites us into the marsh where we hear the lapping water, smell the wood fire and live with Kya in a quiet place. We experience the dangers, the beauty and the mystery of marsh life. But, beneath her sensitively painted backdrop a rumble quivers and eventually erupts.
We also witness how, as the author tells us "...the marsh became her (Kya's) mother." This is a story that tells us we are all shaped by the child we once were, and because of that, the ending is both believable and acceptable.
Kya is the most developed character in this book, the rest are one dimensional, but it doesn't matter; it is Kya we need to know, and it is Kya we need to side with. There is a murder and Kya, being an outcast and strange in the eyes of the townspeople, becomes the most reasonable suspect. I did say the ending is acceptable, but I continue to struggle with the path to that ending. Can a black or white stance be taken on the issue? What wins - ethos, pathos, logos? Oh to be back in philosophy class again where dilemmas like this were regularly discussed, debated, and fumed over. What will my book discussion group think, I wonder?
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