Reviews

The Marsh King's Daughter by Karen Dionne

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roochel's review against another edition

3.0

read for book club. granted, i haven't been in the mood for thrillers lately, so maybe that played a part here, but i found myself really just meh about this one. it was fine. nothing to write home about, but also nothing about it was bad. i didn't really love that the majority of it took place in the past, although i understood why it did. i think a lot of interesting psychological points were on the verge of being made here, but never quite completely.

i originally bought this book because alicia vikander was attached to star in the film version, so i guess i'm glad that she's not anymore, because it will probably be a movie that i'll pass on. (no offense, daisy ridley! still a fan, just not to the extent where i need to see every film you've been in!)

hebeshebewebe's review against another edition

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5.0

N.b.: I received a copy of The Marsh King’s Daughter as a giveaway from Goodreads. I am reviewing the book as a response to that gift.
I will preface my review by stating that I don’t normally read suspense/thriller type stories; I’m wound tight enough as it is, and was as such slightly apprehensive when I received this book. However, the story, the characters and the pacing was outstanding and once I began, I couldn’t put the book down!
Helena is the child of a Native man and his kidnapped young wife. She grew up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, in a remote marsh with her parents. The book moves along her timeline from her childhood, to her escape and return to the “real” world to her life as a grown adult with children of her own. Her father, the so named Marsh King, is a deeply nature attuned individual who teaches her how to hunt and forage and take care of herself in the wilderness. He is also sometimes a carelessly cruel man who abuses Helena and her mother. The main focus of the book, in my opinion, is Helena’s battle between her two natures; the fiercely independent and wilderness bound propensities of her father and the desire inherited from her mother to have a “normal” family and life.
I liked this book for a variety of reasons. The first, most surface based reason is that both of my parents are from Michigan, and the setting of the remote and independent Upper Peninsula (or U.P. as the locals call it) rang very true. Helena has a hard time shaking her upbringing, even once she is married and has children of her own, and I loved the accounts of her hunting trips and solitary sojourns into the woods.
Another thing that drew me into the story was Helena’s depth as a character. She grew up with her father as the center of her world, and a lot of the things that she learned as a child still ring true to her as an adult. The author doesn’t seek to make her into a hero or a victim; she’s simply who she is, good or bad. Finally, the story’s pacing was beautifully completed, jumping from tense moment in the present to related childhood memory gracefully. The result is a book that steals your focus without relying on cheap cliffhangers or emotional fake-outs. For a non thriller reader, The Marsh King’s Daughter was a knockout!