I finished Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens and it is excellent. It’s a lesson in writing for anyone who wants to break rules about flittering about in time and bouncing between multiple points of views, but way more importantly it’s a great book.

It follows Kya, who’s family leave her one by one, until she is growing up alone in the marsh near Barkley Cove, NC. She has to hide from the social workers, try to fish and sell her catch all the while pretending she’s not a kid living alone in a shack. The local kids make fun of her, from her one day at school and they taunt the ‘Marsh Girl’, daring each other to run up and knock on her door. She’s very alone, and the novel follows her meeting others as she grows. When she falls in love, when she gets her heart broken.

On the time flittering, the story bounces from 1952 when Kya is six, and following her growing up, to 1969 when the local quarterback is found dead and the murder investigation that follows.

Pick up this book, you won’t regret it.