Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I read a lot, mostly historical fiction and romance/drama. This novel was highly recommended for my book club and I was very excited to read it. But I ended up horribly disappointed and I don't understand all the great reviews. I can tell this is the writer's first novel because her writing is so dull and flat. I didn't feel a connection to anything she described or between the characters. The story was incredibly boring up until the last 3 chapters then I was mildly surprised but the ending. This story line is also very similar to the story line of a book called Ruby by VC Andrews which makes me wonder if Owens is a fan and got her ideas from that book. The setting, time period, theme, and names are all too similar to be coincidence. I'll even go as far as saying Where the Crawdads Sing is a very water downed knockoff of Ruby because of how many similarities there are between the two books. If you like trendy books with no originality then you might like this but if you're a book snob like me and know what good writing is then I would pass on this book. I'm upset I had to spend the extra money on the hardcover copy.