Finished: Where The Crawdads Sing (Owens) Beautifully written book about a young girl growing up alone in the marshland of North Carolina in the 1960's, deserted by her entire family by the time she is ten, left to fend for herself, living off the land, her only friends the birds and other animals of the marsh, and a nearby town who considers her to be dirty and feral and calls her the Marsh Girl. Kya is only six when her mother walks out on her abusive father, leaving her and her older siblings, never to return. As the siblings leave the abusive shack one by one, no one takes Kya with them, leaving her to deal with their father and eek out a living as best she can. When her father finally leaves for good as well, Kya starts driving his small boat, knowing all the ins and outs of the marshes leading to the town, figures out how to dig for mussels, and then sell them to the man who owns the gas store, Jumpin'. Jumpin' and his wife, Mabel, live in the "colored" section of town and are the only town people who are kind to Kya...until she meets Tate. Tate is a boy who is 3 or 4 years older, who had been a friend of Jodie's, the brother she was closest to. Tate is a friendly, compassionate young boy who ends up teaching Kya to read and write. They are both in sync with the marshes and as they grow older, their deep friendship blossoms into first love. Before Tate goes off to college, her promises Kya that he will be back, but then he breaks that promise. In her heartbreak, Kya ends up having a relationship with the richest boy in town, the popular quarterback, Chase. Chase pursues her and charms her and eventually tells her that he wants to build her a house and marry her someday. He basically gets her to trust him before he plans a trip for them to a motel where she loses her virginity to him. Though he keeps seeing her, Kya doesn't realize that he brags about his sex with the Marsh Girl to his buddies in town, and that he has a pretty blonde girlfriend. When she eventually sees an engagement announcement for Chase and his girlfriend in the town paper, she realizes that she's been made a fool of, and worse, left once again. When he's done with college, Tate comes back to be a wildlife biologist in the area and goes to see Kya to beg her forgiveness and explain why he never came back. She won't have anything to do with him, but when he sees her detailed drawings and descriptions of the intricate marsh wildlife, he convinces her to at least let him submit some of her work to a publisher since no books exist about the coastal wildlife like what she could create. Kya agrees, and though she won't see Tate, she goes on to have more than one successful book! The money from the books allows her to update the inside of the cabin and put some money aside. As the story opens, it has advanced to the year 1969 and the body of Chase has been found disfigured on the ground near the marsh fire tower. He has seemingly been pushed from the tower floor and the small town sheriff has a murder on his hands. Eventually, Kya is put on trial for his murder, but I won't give away what happens. She does end up with Tate and her brother Jodie, who has come back, rooting for her, as well as Jumpin', Mabel and her lawyer, who comes out of retirement just to defend her. There is so much beautiful prose in the book, and such detailed descriptions of the wildlife, and poetry is smattered throughout. I could feel Kya's pain every time she was shunned and every time she was deserted by someone she loved, but I can't begin to imagine the isolation and loneliness of being left at such a young age. The ending was a very nice surprise as the murderer of Chase was revealed. :-)