I finally did it, after actively avoiding this book ever since my director recommended it to me a year ago and tried to make me read it every month since then, I have finally read the book. I wasn't going to read it but since apparently it's all we read in the instagram book community I gave up and read it. I realised when I was done after a few hours that I probably could have read this a year ago, but I didn't know it would only take a few hours to finish!
Where do I start with this book? I had not read anything about it when I started reading it, I just opened the first page and went for it. I thought it was some sort of love story, instead it's this sad story about a girl being left behind by her whole family and her one true love and then suddenly the book just jumped into murder and the ending was cut so short and weirdly that I feel like while this book could have been better it was still a good comfort book. I'll walk through the steps here.
Kya ends up in court because of the murder of Chase Andrews, but there is nowhere in Kyas personality where we get to see her being aggressive, Kya is good at hiding and covering her tracks like when she hides from social services as a child, but there's no real depth into her personality in a way that I would have preferred it. If I am supposed to balance between her being guilty or not guilty for a murder, I want a more in-depth description of what she is like, what thoughts go through her head when she's not just thinking about being abandoned or the world disappointment, is she capable of harming anyone or anything?
I don't know, you don't see that part of Kya and the second part of the book really makes you wonder if it was written in a hurry. Especially the last 8 pages or so, they are so cramped that it did not give me the satisfactory ending I was searching for, no matter what the ending is (i don't want to write spoilers) there wasn't really any satisfaction in it, it just didn't excite me like the rest of the book had, while I was still happy with it, it wasn't what I was searching for.
Let's talk about Kya as a character though. She is the saddest, cutest and most heartbreaking little child I've ever read about. All she does is try her hardest and when she's left all alone she just breaks my heart when she starts eating her sad grits and crackers. Her character development is also wonderful, her accomplishments and the way she manages through life got me thinking about how I would have managed if I was put in the same place as her, and while it's slightly exciting to think of living a lonely life and surviving the way she does, I can only imagine the lonely life that leads when your whole family abandons you.
Despite the aspects I don't enjoy of the book, I did enjoy the whole book. The writing was easy and the pages just flew by when reading. The chapters were short and full of events all connecting to each other. If this book has become nothing else, it has at least become a sort of comfort book for me. When I finished the book I immediately thought of how this is something I would want to read when I need to go somewhere familiar. What's more familiar than the marsh and the old bayou?
I do enjoy the book, there's no question about that aspect. It's just that I feel like there could have been more. Something other than just this. I wished the ending was fuller, more filled with the life-full ways of Kya and less of just "the book needs to end now".
It's a very enjoyable book, so I fully recommend it if you love some romance, nature and murder mystery.
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