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3.74 AVERAGE
3.74 AVERAGE
This book had me hooked from the beginning. I found this gem, after having it on my TBR list for a year, at the dollar store of all places!! I loved the wonder and died to know what would happen. The excerpts from the actual fairy tale had me so interested in the true fairy tale that I had to buy that book too! I hope she has more books for me to binge soon!
Set in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, the book flips back and forth between Helena's life hidden in the marshes... along with her mother and her kidnapper father.
Now an adult with a life so diligently re-worked that her husband doesn't know about her past, Helena learns her father has escaped prison and is on the loose.
She believe she alone can find him.
It is during that hunt that the reader gradually learns the rest of her backstory .
Fast read, authentic to the locale, compelling story with unexpected twists.
Highly recommend.
Now an adult with a life so diligently re-worked that her husband doesn't know about her past, Helena learns her father has escaped prison and is on the loose.
She believe she alone can find him.
It is during that hunt that the reader gradually learns the rest of her backstory .
Fast read, authentic to the locale, compelling story with unexpected twists.
Highly recommend.
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
(I received a copy of this from the publisher via GoodReads' First Reads in exchange for an honest review.)
I'm still thinking about this more than two weeks after I read it, which I think speaks well for it. It's part thriller and part survivalist novel that I loved as a kid -- see Swiss Family Robinson, Hatchet, My Side of the Mountain -- and Dionne fuses them together really, really fabulously. A little predictable in the ending, but the getting there, both in the flashback chapters and the current time ones, was fascinatingly taut.
I'm still thinking about this more than two weeks after I read it, which I think speaks well for it. It's part thriller and part survivalist novel that I loved as a kid -- see Swiss Family Robinson, Hatchet, My Side of the Mountain -- and Dionne fuses them together really, really fabulously. A little predictable in the ending, but the getting there, both in the flashback chapters and the current time ones, was fascinatingly taut.
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
I really enjoyed the plot and found myself unable to put this book down. I really liked how the chapters switched between history and current time.
Helena's idyllic family life with a husband who knows nothing of her past and her two little girls ends when her father escapes prison. She sets out to find him. While this happens, the story of her childhood in the marshes, is told in paralell. Helena grew up worshipping her father and disdaining her mother. She didn't realize for the longest time that her mother had been kidnapped and that her childhood was abnormal.
The method of weaving present and past story lines is popular and it really works here. There are constant little cliff-endings between timelines that makes this into a page turner. The story of a true wild child growing up learning to hunt and gather is fascinating in its own right. The psychological development is interesting.
So, can Helena save her family and herself, or will she end up at her father's tyranny again?
This is definitely one of the best thrillers I've read this year.
The method of weaving present and past story lines is popular and it really works here. There are constant little cliff-endings between timelines that makes this into a page turner. The story of a true wild child growing up learning to hunt and gather is fascinating in its own right. The psychological development is interesting.
So, can Helena save her family and herself, or will she end up at her father's tyranny again?
This is definitely one of the best thrillers I've read this year.
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Great novel - gives me the feels similar to The Great Alone, Room and Where the Crawdads Sing.
I enjoy the we seen the perspective from the child of a captor and victim, something different and insightful.