“She laughed for his sake, something she’d never done. Giving away another piece of herself just to have someone else.”–Delia Owens, Where the Crawdads Sing
After being abandoned by the various members of her family, Kya Clark, aka the Marsh Girl, has survived for years by herself in the marshes of North Carolina. She craves friendship but is roundly rejected by the locals. As she becomes a teenager, she attracts the attention of two very different boys– one who genuinely cares for her and builds a tenuous friendship and then romance with her, and the other who admires her beauty and spirit but will never allow her to be part of his world. When one of the boys is found dead, possibly murdered, Kya becomes the prime suspect.
This is a heart wrenching yet beautiful coming of age story with twists and turns that will keep you keep you guessing until the very end.
Content Advisory: Some language, sexual assault, references to sex, abandonment