Where the Crawdads Sing (2022)

Kya is an endlessly resourceful young girl who grows up in a North Carolina marsh. She later becomes a suspect in the murder of a man who once pursued her.

We meet her as a child in the early ’50s, as she is abandoned by her parents and older siblings, and learns to survive on her own. She is taught to read and write by her friend Tate Walker and falls for him, but is left behind once again when he goes to college.

Chase Andrews is a quarterback who draws Kya into a tryst with promises of marriage that never materialize. After she ends their relationship, he attacks her and she narrowly escapes. Then, while she’s away, Chase is found dead and Kya is engulfed in a murder trial—and the evidence against her seems insurmountable.