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mjlewis's review
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
jessicamap's review against another edition
5.0
Awhile ago I was approved for the sample of THE MARSH KING'S DAUGHTER by Karen Dionne, and I needed more! So I was very excited to be sent a copy from Putnam. The synopsis was enough to get my attention, but I was hooked after reading the first chapter (from the sample). 'I was born two years into my mother's captivity. She was three weeks shy of seventeen. If I had known then what I do now, things would have been a lot different. I wouldn't have adored my father.'
The story begins with a news bulletin - notorious child abductor, known as the Marsh King, has escaped from maximum security prison and was last seen disappearing into the marshlands of Michigan's upper peninsula.
Helena seems like your average mother and wife in her small town. Little does everyone know, she was in fact born in captivity, had zero contact with the outside world until she was the ripe age of 12, and that she grew up in the marshes and taught how to kill. No one in her life, not even her husband, knows that she's the Marsh King's daughter. Now that he's escaped, Helena knows that she and her children are his next targets. She knows all too well that the Marsh King can survive and hunt in the wilderness better than anyone else - but can he outlast his daughter?
Reading the intro, about how Helena's mother was taken by Jacob Holbrook (aka Marsh King) at the age of 14 out into the wilderness, and then only two short years later she gave birth to Helena, was crazy. When they finally escape, their story becomes an International sensation and Helena did everything she could to keep her real identity a secret so she could lead a normal life.
This was a fantastic domestic/abduction thriller. I binged on this one when I finally was able to get to it. I loved Karen Dionne's writing style and her character development and story telling were amazing. We go back and forth from present to past. As Helena uses her childhood learned skills to track her father we get some flashbacks. Overall, the suspense was great, characters were complex, and the story telling was phenomenal. I'd highly recommend this to anyone that loves a fast paced, abduction thriller!
I give this 5/5 stars!
Big thanks to Putnam for the copy in exchange for my honest review!
The story begins with a news bulletin - notorious child abductor, known as the Marsh King, has escaped from maximum security prison and was last seen disappearing into the marshlands of Michigan's upper peninsula.
Helena seems like your average mother and wife in her small town. Little does everyone know, she was in fact born in captivity, had zero contact with the outside world until she was the ripe age of 12, and that she grew up in the marshes and taught how to kill. No one in her life, not even her husband, knows that she's the Marsh King's daughter. Now that he's escaped, Helena knows that she and her children are his next targets. She knows all too well that the Marsh King can survive and hunt in the wilderness better than anyone else - but can he outlast his daughter?
Reading the intro, about how Helena's mother was taken by Jacob Holbrook (aka Marsh King) at the age of 14 out into the wilderness, and then only two short years later she gave birth to Helena, was crazy. When they finally escape, their story becomes an International sensation and Helena did everything she could to keep her real identity a secret so she could lead a normal life.
This was a fantastic domestic/abduction thriller. I binged on this one when I finally was able to get to it. I loved Karen Dionne's writing style and her character development and story telling were amazing. We go back and forth from present to past. As Helena uses her childhood learned skills to track her father we get some flashbacks. Overall, the suspense was great, characters were complex, and the story telling was phenomenal. I'd highly recommend this to anyone that loves a fast paced, abduction thriller!
I give this 5/5 stars!
Big thanks to Putnam for the copy in exchange for my honest review!
apatrick1982's review against another edition
4.0
Helena is a normal wife and mother, raising two girls, selling homemade jams and jellies, and enjoying life with her husband. She then sees on the news that a man named Jacob- known child kidnapper and murderer- has killed guards and escaped from prison. Her world as she knows it is about to change drastically. What no one knows is that Jacob is her father, who had kidnapped her mother when she was 14 years and forced her to live amongst the marsh lands and heavy forest in the middle of nowhere. Helena was the biproduct of a grown man who kidnapped and raped a 14 year old girl and kept her captive in a downtrodden cabin. Helena knows that she is the only one who can hunt down and trap her father, using the survivalist tools and in the way that she grew up .
I really dug this story. I have read stories like this before- of child abduction, the claustrophobic nature of being in the middle of nowhere, of children telling the story of growing up in captivity- but this one felt different. We have all heard the stories of real life child abductions and if by some miracle the child is found years later, we discover they bore children from their abductor- JayCee Dugard comes to mind for me. We all know that the kidnapper is evil and sick and disturbed. But to that child born from evil, that's still their father. They may see instances of cruelty here and there, but Helena still sees lots of good in him. She sees a caring father at times who teaches her how to hunt deer, and make pelts, and survive in the wilderness.
I liked how we get to see both sides of Jacob in this story. You get some nice growing-up stories and memories, but then something happens that packs an emotional punch to the gut. The author NEVER lets you forget what kind of monster Jacob is or what he is capable of.
The book does have its slower parts, but the cat and mouse game as Helena is attempting to hunt down her father in the marsh makes up for it.
I really dug this story. I have read stories like this before- of child abduction, the claustrophobic nature of being in the middle of nowhere, of children telling the story of growing up in captivity- but this one felt different. We have all heard the stories of real life child abductions and if by some miracle the child is found years later, we discover they bore children from their abductor- JayCee Dugard comes to mind for me. We all know that the kidnapper is evil and sick and disturbed. But to that child born from evil, that's still their father. They may see instances of cruelty here and there, but Helena still sees lots of good in him. She sees a caring father at times who teaches her how to hunt deer, and make pelts, and survive in the wilderness.
I liked how we get to see both sides of Jacob in this story. You get some nice growing-up stories and memories, but then something happens that packs an emotional punch to the gut. The author NEVER lets you forget what kind of monster Jacob is or what he is capable of.
The book does have its slower parts, but the cat and mouse game as Helena is attempting to hunt down her father in the marsh makes up for it.
kirasgirly's review against another edition
3.0
I liked this. It was a little hard to keep track of her as a child and as an adult in the sense of the story progresses, but as I got near to the end it started to click together like a large puzzle that you're literally putting pieces together but can't make out the picture. Then it's just there and all fits.
katyisreading's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, and Animal cruelty
vanessaw's review against another edition
4.0
Had to know how she got out. All was good until the ending, when her imaginary friends showed up again and stayed. That was too much for me.
afterwhat's review
4.0
I guess this is psychological suspense? Is that the same as a thriller? I don't feel like I was on the edge of my seat the entire time I was reading this; the flashbacks to Helena's youth were often a respite, nestled cozily in her ignorance. I thought that was pretty great, actually, how the danger which was absolutely real even in her earliest memories was basically invisible, and then as she got older, the tension was much more present. Even in adulthood, though, I didn't feel like Helena herself was at risk until she actually realized that she was--the author didn't overdo it, didn't try too hard to make this a heart-pounder. She let us stay with Helena, who felt safe with her father until the second he shot her.
I liked basically everything about this. Nothing felt gratuitous, Helena felt like a whole person, a real person, not overly likable but extremely sympathetic. She was believable in a childhood that is unimaginable. I think the stash of National Geographics was a nice touch--it kept her apart but not alien. I would have liked to know more about her grandparents, all of them, and about her mother and how she lived out her life, but as Helena says, this isn't her mother's story.
I'm very satisfied. I wasn't bored for a second, but I also wasn't--you know what, there's no threat of sexual violence in this book. Sexual violence exists in this book, but this book is not about sexual violence, and that's something that is so often played up, used as a device to eke out horror in the reader...man, how nice that this book doesn't do that.
I liked basically everything about this. Nothing felt gratuitous, Helena felt like a whole person, a real person, not overly likable but extremely sympathetic. She was believable in a childhood that is unimaginable. I think the stash of National Geographics was a nice touch--it kept her apart but not alien. I would have liked to know more about her grandparents, all of them, and about her mother and how she lived out her life, but as Helena says, this isn't her mother's story.
I'm very satisfied. I wasn't bored for a second, but I also wasn't--you know what, there's no threat of sexual violence in this book. Sexual violence exists in this book, but this book is not about sexual violence, and that's something that is so often played up, used as a device to eke out horror in the reader...man, how nice that this book doesn't do that.
dlauron's review
4.0
I enjoyed this book. I am not sure if I liked it bouncing back and forth between different years and locations. I wonder if I would have liked it more if it was chronological.
About halfway through the book, I knew how it had to end, but all the way up to the end, I wasn't sure if the author had the same thought as I did.
Before I started reading the book I was a little worried that the suspense would be too much for me. It was fine except for just one part. I never felt like I needed to take a break from the book. It was definitely worth reading.
About halfway through the book, I knew how it had to end, but all the way up to the end, I wasn't sure if the author had the same thought as I did.
Before I started reading the book I was a little worried that the suspense would be too much for me. It was fine except for just one part. I never felt like I needed to take a break from the book. It was definitely worth reading.