Title: The Marsh King's Daughter
Expected publication: out now
My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
“Memories
aren't always about facts. Sometimes they're about feelings.”
Book Description:
Praised by Karin Slaughter and Megan Abbott, The Marsh
King’s Daughter is the mesmerizing tale of a woman who must risk everything to
hunt down the dangerous man who shaped her past and threatens to steal her
future: her father.
Helena Pelletier has a loving husband, two beautiful daughters, and a business that fills her days. But she also has a secret: she is the product of an abduction. Her mother was kidnapped as a teenager by her father and kept in a remote cabin in the marshlands of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Helena, born two years after the abduction, loved her home in nature, and despite her father’s sometimes brutal behavior, she loved him, too…until she learned precisely how savage he could be.
More than twenty years later, she has buried her past so soundly that even her husband doesn’t know the truth. But now her father has killed two guards, escaped from prison, and disappeared into the marsh. The police begin a manhunt, but Helena knows they don’t stand a chance. Knows that only one person has the skills to find the survivalist the world calls the Marsh King–because only one person was ever trained by him: his daughter.
Helena Pelletier has a loving husband, two beautiful daughters, and a business that fills her days. But she also has a secret: she is the product of an abduction. Her mother was kidnapped as a teenager by her father and kept in a remote cabin in the marshlands of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Helena, born two years after the abduction, loved her home in nature, and despite her father’s sometimes brutal behavior, she loved him, too…until she learned precisely how savage he could be.
More than twenty years later, she has buried her past so soundly that even her husband doesn’t know the truth. But now her father has killed two guards, escaped from prison, and disappeared into the marsh. The police begin a manhunt, but Helena knows they don’t stand a chance. Knows that only one person has the skills to find the survivalist the world calls the Marsh King–because only one person was ever trained by him: his daughter.
My musings:
This book had been sitting on my shelf for
a while since I foolishly allowed myself to be put off by a reviewer's opinion
that made me believe this book would not be right for me. Which was a huge
mistake, as this turned out to be a solid five star read for me!
I have waffled on before how much I love
remote atmospheric settings, which Karen Dionne fully delivered here. Her
knowledge of Michigan’s UP was instantly evident in her vivid descriptions of
both the beauty and the dangers of this unique environment and Helena's
childhood in the remote mountain cabin. Her love and respect for the place was
reflected in each and every picture she painted with her story, which made for
armchair travel of the best kind.
I also really appreciated the sensitive way
she describes Helena's childhood and a child’s unconditional love for her
father, unaware that he is considered a crazy psychopath who abducted her
mother when she was only fifteen years old and has since been holding her captive
in the marsh. For Helena, this is the only life she has ever known. At mercy
with the elements, without any of the modern conveniences we take for granted
(such as running water, electricity and shops), she grows up hunting for food
and playing with items found in her wild environment rather than toys (I loved
the segment where her mother makes her a doll out of rags and Helens is totally
puzzled as to what she is supposed to do with it). Adoring her father, who has
taught her to hunt and fish and blend into the wilderness, she is also not
aware that he has cleverly manipulated their relationship and created the
distance between the little girl and her mother, a rift that never totally
heals, even after their life in the marsh is over and Helena understands the
truth behind her parents’ lives. As Helena grows older and realises that her
father's way of showing affection and discipline may not be “normal", her
idyllic childhood in the marsh is already coming to an end. I was intrigued by
Helena's mother, held captive in the cabin for thirteen long years, though I
never fully understood what made her tick.
This was such a powerful coming of age
story, reminiscent of one of my other favourite books Our Endless Numbered Days
by Claire Fuller (which also features a young girl growing up in a secluded
mountain cabin with her mentally ill father). In this book, we have the privilege
to see Helena as a grown-up, now a mother herself, who must face the demons of
her old life when her father escapes from jail and comes for her family. The
ensuing drama added a bit of heart pounding tension to the story, which
switched from past to present as Helena shared memories from her unusual
childhood. I really loved the excerpts from Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy
tale with the same title, which introduce the chapters where Helena shares her
childhood memories.
Summary:
All in all, TMKD was a wonderful holiday
read – and if you're not lucky enough to read it on holidays, be assured it
makes for some great armchair travel into an atmospheric wilderness area setting.
Dionne does a wonderful job not only in creating vivid, flesh-and-blood
characters, but also in describing the complex dynamics of this very unusual
family. I thoroughly enjoyed it and can’t recommend it highly enough!
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