I have heard some rave reviews of this book and it became available all of a sudden on my library's Libby app so I picked it up. Man... almost an hour in and I just have no interest. The writing style sounds like someone trying to sound like Charles Dickens but failing so badly. The author's focus (Owens brought it up on multiple separate occasions in just what I read) between the difference between a marsh and a swamp felt elitist somehow... just weird and over-the-top. But the biggest turn-off was the clear "blackcent" writing that was being used to convey the characters are poor, uneducated, and black... and then the author couldn't for the life of her call anyone black. She just kept writing "tanned skin". 

Idk, feels like an old white woman trying too hard to sound like a superior writer while failing and being unable to authentically and respectfully write her black characters.