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I seem to be finding myself in the minority a lot these days. The first half of this book was pretty close to marvelous, and then it went south on me (that is a pun). Anyway, after my attempt at weak humor, let me resume in a serious note to say I was expecting so much more than I got here.

Kya is a mere ten years old in 1952 when she is deserted, albeit gradually, by all the members of her family and left to make it alone in the marsh country of North Carolina. She forms a real attachment and understanding of her environment, which would be a necessity to survive in such a place, and she mostly works that to her advantage. When a young man who was once a friend of her brother finds her alone and begins to offer some help and company, she learns to read and her life begins to take a turn toward something more than isolation and running barefoot through the woods.

That part of the story was interesting to me. I was interested in how she would survive, whether she would connect with the outside world, and of course how she would tie into the parallel story of the 1969 murder of a young man from the neighboring town. Then, in what seemed an abrupt change of tone, the story devolved into what I would deem chick lit. The plot became shallow and the author seemed to me to have lost the thread of her story and veered into another realm.

I am sorry this didn’t work for me. I wanted it to, indeed I thought it was going to. Perhaps it is me. Since it is a group read, I am anxious to see what the other members of the group saw that perhaps I did not.

I had originally rated this a 3-star read, but after reflection I find that I strongly feel it was only "OK" and therefore I have revised the rating to 2-stars. I think I felt shy of giving it only 2 when so many of my respected friends had given it 5...but truth should prevail.