Books: Where the Crawdads Sing

I've been trying to get my hands on this book for a long time, and finally was able to get it via the e-library. I heard so many things about this book; how wonderful it is; it was Reese Witherspoon book club pick, and subsequently it's been reported that she's making a movie of it. Anyway, after all the hype for the past couple years, I was dying to read the book. So....did it live up to the hype? Yes and no. Delia Owens is a wonderful writer, and her language and story telling is beautiful. The story is initially heartbreaking, and then very intriguing. The nature description is gorgeous. But I don't know if the story itself was always that believable. A girl lives alone in a shack with no electricity, no running water, almost no human contact since she's around 9 or 10 years old. She never gets ill, never sees a doctor, the community makes a feeble attempt to get her to go to school but then abandons her. She's shy and introverted, but doesn't go crazy from the loneliness. At times I couldn't help myself but wonder if this is really plausible in real life. Maybe I'm just too naive. But, despite this doubt, I was totally sucked in by the story, and enjoyed the book very much.