2.5/5
Although I liked the story and I liked Kya and Tate and the descriptions of nature throughout the novel, there are many, many things that bothered me and which lead me to question why this book was such a hype?
1. The dialogue is terrible. Surely no one talks like that? If they do, I wish they would just shut up. Owens can describe the flora and fauna in the marsh very well, but she cannot write realistic conversations. The accents made me want to stop reading after about 70 pages. I decided to push through because I never not finish a book, but it was a huge ordeal to push through. Everyone sounded like a dumb southerner which I resent because I don't believe everyone in the US of A can be that thick.
2. Why are the characters so black and white? Tate is good because he speaks decent English, Kya's father and Chase are bad because they speak with a southern drawl, Jumpin' is good although he doesn't speak correct English but he's a terrible cliché as well. There just a big imbalance between the descriptive writing and the character building.

There are a whole load of other things which I find hard to make sense of but I'll rest my case. Luckily, I enjoyed the ending, which makes me lean more towards 3/5 but still...