The Marsh King’s Daughter is a novel I’m finding very hard to write a review about. On the one hand, it’s a well-written read which combines elements of thriller-style novels with more focus on character building. On the other, I felt it was a little slow at times and I lost interest a bit half way through.

I liked the storyline –both present day, which follows Helena as she discovers her father has escaped from prison and is seemingly trying to track her down, and the narrative set in the past, which I actually preferred. It’s interesting to reads about Helena and her mother’s life in captivity, and the way Helena herself never realised throughout her childhood that her mother and father are not the ‘normal’ parent set up – until one day when everything changes. I thought this was an interesting and unique sort of storyline.

I have to say, I found the present-day storyline a little dull. I know there’s a 'chase' at the centre of this narrative, so that should be exciting, but it felt quite slow. in both narratives there’s a lot of description about the land, the farm, the hunting that Helena and her father do, etc. I can see these are well-written but they just didn’t interest me, and I found myself getting impatient as I wanted to know more about how Helena and her mother finally escaped from her father’s captivity.

Perhaps I was expecting more of a thriller, but this definitely included more description and character development, which I usually enjoy but I felt it was a little drawn out. I am definitely in the minority with this opinion, so I’d say it’s definitely still worth giving a go, and regardless of anything else the writing itself is nicely done and the premise is very interesting.

2017 is an excellent year for thrillers by female authors. I've read a few over the last number of months but this one really stood out for me. It was incredibly interesting and enthralling. I don't know what kind of background Karen Dionne has or what she did to research this book, but she did a phenomenal job. This isn't just a standard story of a kidnapping/abduction; this takes the subject to a whole different level.

When the book opens, notorious kidnapper and murderer, "The Marsh King" has escaped a maximum security prison into the dense marshlands of upper Michigan, an area with which he is very familiar. A number of years before the story begins, Jacob Holbrook abducted a 14-year-old girl, luring her away with a lost dog routine. She then gave birth to a daughter in a remote cabin where he held her captive, who grew up unaware of her mother’s background. We learn all this through our narrator, Helena, that very daughter, who is now an adult with a family of her own. We know that Helena and her mother escaped the cabin, eventually, and it was her testimony that put her father away in prison.

Throughout the story, as Helena attempts to track down and capture her father in the marshland, she takes us on a journey into the past, unveiling the strange childhood she had living with her father. As a child, she learned to handle weapons, to hunt, to kill, to fish and to forage. Her father tattooed her skin, carved words on her body, trapped her down a well when she misbehaved, and beat her when he felt she needed it. Helena's mother received similar brutal treatment, always silenced by Holbrook and forced to remain in the cabin tending to his needs, both physical and sexual. But for Helena, this was all normal. Her normal.

I don't want to reveal too much about the story because it is riveting and I think any reader would be both fascinated and shocked by what happens. Outside of the plot, the information and detail included within these books pages is amazing. Discussions of nature, of wildlife, of Holbrook's ancestry and way of life are all so interesting, it was impossible for me not to be completely drawn in by this book. I found myself reading out passages to my husband!

Overall this is a brilliant read, so unique and captivating. I especially love how Helena's realisation of her family situation is revealed and highlighted through the narration of her as a child, and how Dionne manages to evoke such raw emotion through the pages of this thrilling page-turner. I would wholeheartedly recommend this.

Thanks you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read this gem.

The premise of this book was a good one, but for me it just didn't quite thrill me as much as I expected it to. I know that background information is important to a book, but I just found that there was far more of that rather than the hunt for The Marsh King to keep my attention.

The captivity theme is one which has been used a lot in recent years. I was concerned this would seem too like others of the genre, but thankfully I was proven wrong. The background stuff which I did enjoy was where Helena recalls her fathers temper and angry behaviour toward others. This sets the scene well and gives the reader a little bit of an insight into the type of person he is.

The final chapters of the story literally grabbed me and held me until the end, it came across as fast paced and was really well done. This was a good story, but I just found I skimmed through a lot of the stuff detailing Helena's early life.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing a copy.

The Marsh kings daughter by karen dionne.
When notorious child abductor - known as the Marsh King - escapes from a maximum security prison, Helena immediately suspects that she and her two young daughters are in danger.

No one, not even her husband, knows the truth about Helena's past: they don't know that she was born into captivity, that she had no contact with the outside world before the age of twelve - or that her father raised her to be a killer.

And they don't know that the Marsh King can survive and hunt in the wilderness better than anyone... except, perhaps his own daughter.
Very good read with good characters. Moving and emotional. 4*. Netgalley and little brown book group UK.

This book started off really strong and I was hooked. As the book progressed the main character Helena really started to irratate me and I found myself losing any interest in what happened to her in the past and what would happen to her family. Jacob was an interesting character who I felt could have been made into a proper badie but something was missing. Overall I thought this was a good read but I had really high hopes at the beginning that the rest of the book didnt live up to.

Its always interesting to read a book tipped to be a stand out thriller of the year, with tons of hype. Will it live up to the glowing reviews and your own personal expectations?  was certainly hoping so when I received a proof copy of The Marsh King's Daughter.

Meet Helena, a busy mum to two daughters, Iris and Mari, and wife to supportive, loyal husband Stephen.

Helena makes her own jams and jellies, using ingredients from the woods and the marshlands around her, selling to local retail outlets.Helena can also hunt and survive in the environment around her, taught by her father as she was growing up. But her the father/daughter relationship is far from ordinary, in fact it is unique, her upbringing a closely guarded secret until a news article on the radio changes everything.

Helena's father has escaped from the local maximum security prison and her secret is well and truly in the open. Born to a mother who was kidnapped and held against her will for 15 years, Helena has tried to put the past behind her, but now the past is about to bite back.

Helena must find her father before he finds her family.

The ensuing story will draw you in to a cat and mouse chase as each hunt the other, testing their survival skills and wit against on another. There can only be one winner....who will it be?

The Marsh King's Daughter will hook and draw you in from the very first page. As Helena races  to deal with the present so she must come to terms with the past, giving us glimpses into her marsh land life. You will question why she loved and adored a father who could be so cruel and controlling, punishing both her and her mother if something didn't please him and why they stayed so long.

Dionne skillfully reveals the intense relationship between father and daughter, the close bond they form as he teaches her to hunt and the indifference through lack of knowledge and understanding she feels towards her mother.

I particularly liked the way the narrative portrayed the psychology of the captive, Helena's mother, and the demons that drove the Marsh King to do as he did, without overpowering the reader or distracting from the story.

The same can be said for the hunting and survival parts of the story that are well researched and very real.

As the story unfolded the tension and the drama slowly increased, in fact it is double the tension and drama! Not only do we have to read about Helena's  past captivity and slow awakening to the evil wrongdoings of her father but we also have to deal with the present day as their cat and mouse game deepens in intensity.

Its a hold onto your seats moment as you frantically turn the last few pages to discover the fate of the characters and I was not disappointed.

Dionne has written a truly wonderful psychological thriller with a difference, one that would make an excellent movie.

It is a novel that I would definitely be packing on my holidays this year.

Thank you to Little Brown for the proof copy to read and review.

Being afforded an early first chapter draft I always wanted to read this book.
Can I say from the outset I do not use this technique to chose what books to read. However, tasked with this opportunity I was hooked from the very beginning.
Now this is a poor indication of a book's merit in my mind, hence my usual method. "I have started so I'll finish."
What if it runs out of steam? What if it never reaches those dizzy heights again?
Perhaps the key and why it works here so well is the main thrust of the novel is set out from the beginning and as a reader you pose all the questions and raise ideas where the story will go.
Imagine my joy when I say it is better than I could picture it to be. It is darker and more disturbing than one could believe and it has a full set of twists and turns that propel the reader through a story about horrible events.
There have been a few stories, fact not fiction where kidnapped kids are found years later. This novel takes that concept a whole lot further and explores growing up in captivity and overcoming the damage isolation brings after release and further down the path to recovery.
Interwoven with a fairy tale, the author shows great skill to take the daughter's reality now as a wife and mother with the events of her own upbringing. A fascinating story is told against the background of the biggest manhunt ever. No-one can find her escaped father but the woman that as a child her trained to hunt.
A stunning novel that brings forward all the emotions this subject throws up but is written in such a way that you as the reader fails to fully comprehend until the last written word is read.

I requested this book because it sounded like an interesting read. A woman who was raised in the marshes? An escaped criminal? I'm in. I quite liked this book, but there were also some things I didn't love about it. 

This book is about Helena. One part of the book follows Helena as an adult, after her father escapes prison. The other part of the book follows Helena when she was a child, growing up in the marsh. This gives you both the thrilling aspect of an escaped convict she has to chase, and the emotional connection she has with him. 

I liked reading about Helena's life in the marsh. Growing up without any contact with the outside world seems nearly impossible to me. She only had her mom and dad, and that's all she knew. So her dad taught her how to survive in the marsh. How to hunt, how to disappear without being seen, how to track game, etc. As a child, she loved those "adventures". And she idolized her dad. 

I liked reading about her relationship with her father. Obviously, it's going to be a complex one. As a child, she adored him. She never knew he kidnapped her mom or that he was a bad man. He was just her dad, and he taught her everything she knows. As an adult, she knows what he did and how wrong it is. She knows that her dad is a terrible man. Yet he is still her dad. I found it intriguing to look at a guy I know is terrible through the eyes of an innocent child. 

I liked reading about her growth as a person. Especially in regards to her mom. While I was reading, I thought she was terrible to her mom as a child. And we can read how much adult-Helena regrets that. How she just didn't understand as a child, and now wishes she had been more compassionate.

I liked reading about her life as an adult too. How she used the skills she learned as a child to make money. For example, she goes bear hunting and her jam-making business is her main source of income. How she still has trouble understanding the rest of us at times, and the way we live our lives now. 

I didn't like the excessive descriptions of hunting. I can deal with some animal deaths, but there were so many in this book. I don't need to know how you hunt for bears, how you shoot a deer or trap a rabbit. I honestly don't need to read about you killing animals 1000000 times. I know that was a big part of her life as a child, because that's how they got their food. But I just couldn't read any more of it.

I didn't like the fact that Helena felt she alone could find her dad. In a way, I do understand. If he has made it to the marsh, there is no way the police will find him by themselves. He knows the marshes like the back of his hand, and has no trouble disappearing in them. Helena has a much bigger chance of finding him, because he trained her himself. But why couldn't she just go to the police, tell them she was their best shot at finding him and guide them through the marsh? Why did she have to go alone?

I was also a tad disappointed with the big reveal on how she and her mom got out of the marsh, and how her dad was caught. It wasn't the epic showdown I was expecting.

I quite enjoyed reading about Helena's life, both as an adult and a child. What I loved most was seeing Helena's dad through her eyes. As a reader, you know he's a terrible person and a criminal. But she only sees her dad, and doesn't know any different. That's such an interesting perspective. I did enjoy this book, but there were some parts I had an issue with.

Original and well written story which is somewhere between a psychological thriller and a chase story. The details of the story concern Jacob Holbrook , The Marsh King, who abducts a young girl and retreats to his Marsh kingdom where he keeps her, and the daughter she bears him, in complete isolation from the outside world.. Their escape more than a decade later, his incarceration for murder and escape years later set the template for the crux of the story.The daughter's pursuit of the father through the marsh where he raised her and taught her his techniques for survival in the wilderness.
The love/hate relationship between father and daughter is the fulcrum of the plot and will she be able to overcome the emotional barriers that the Stockholm Syndrome situation in her early years has imprinted on her psyche. The conclusion is simple enough to guess but how it is reached is anything but.
The characters are well drawn and the description of life in the wild are extremely realistic and there are some exciting scenes in the "chase" phases of the plot. Overall a very good read that can be recommended with just a few caveats. The current, seemingly universal imperative, of telling any story in alternate timelines will not be to everyone's taste and the mystical elements of Jacob's character do nothing to disguise his psychopathy. Whilst the ending is inevitable the journey to get there is well worth taking.

Thank you to netgalley for my preview copy of this book.

An entertaining read, kept me interested from the beginning when we are hooked in by learning someone is famous for reasons she wouldn't want to be - we quickly learn about the capturing of Helenas mother and the deep, psychological repercussions of her upbringing in the marsh. What I particularly liked about the book was that it didnt read like every other psych. thriller, in fact I learned a lot about the american outback and the way of life in the marsh. Insights into her narcissistic fathers mind was particularly interesting.

I enjoyed the book, and it was interesting enough for me to blitz through in a few reading sessions but I've only given 4 stars as the ending left me feeling a little deflated - I wanted a little more, maybe more on a psychological level, or maybe I was expecting a twist.

All in all a great book though, and will be recommending to others.

Ready for THE thriller of 2017? The Marsh King's Daughter came in and knocked the socks off everyone's feet, knocked everyone out of their chairs, and truly rocked everyone's world. Read this if you've been waiting for THAT thriller that you cannot put down no matter how much the real world is begging you to. You will read this in one sitting. The mystery is outstanding and there is a dark fairytale interspersed throughout chapters. This is a book that captivates. The characters are so well-developed. I truly could not get enough. Karen Dionne has made my list of must-read authors. If you are ready for your next favorite book, check out The Marsh King's Daughter today.

So Where to start with this review, The Marsh Kings Daughter by Karen Dionne is one of those books where not a lot happens in terms of plotline, this actually doesn't seem to matter as we spend most of the book looking backwards as this is where the main action lies. This story Immerses you in a past that though horrific, is so deeply ingrained in tradition and culture that it sucks you into the pages fully as we experience through a child's eyes life on the marsh.
So Basically, Helena is the daughter of the Marsh King Jacob and his abducted bride, who is hardly more than her child herself.
Unaware of her mother's captivity she is raised on the marsh as her father's shadow.
eagerly Learning all that he knows.
Despite her father's sometimes cruel ways Helena adores him.
At the age of twelve upon realising the secret of her birth and her mother's imprisonment at the hands of her sadistic father and yearning for change Helena manages to escape to civilisation.
But The outside world is a lot different to what she imagined and her grandparents can barely tolerate her presence.
So when she turns eighteen she sets off into the world to forge her own path, cutting herself off from her family and changing her name to escape the notoriety of being the marsh king's daughter.
This is really where we come in Helena is married with two little girls. The secret of her birth is still hidden, that is until her father escapes from Prison engaging Helena in a deadly game of cat and mouse with her family the prize at stake.
This was such an easy and interesting read, I loved the vivid descriptions and also the ongoing Fairytale of the stories namesake.
The Marsh Kings daughter kept my attention till the end.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a free advanced readers copy this is my own personal opinion of the marsh king's daughter by Karen Dionne.

I always liked fairy tales when I was a child but I don’t remember reading The Marsh King’s Daughter by Hans Christian Andersen. The fairy tale appears at times at the start of some chapters in the novel. I thought this book was amazing. It was one that I had been intrigued by after seeing a lot of posts about on social media but I hadn’t felt the urge to pick it up immediately. How I wish I had read it sooner!
Helena had a different childhood to most. The daughter of a Native American tracker who had abducted her mother when she was a teenager and the three of them had lived together since her birth. There was no contact with anybody else, no phones, TV, magazines or anything that a normal family takes for granted. The events from her childhood and how she escaped from her father’s grasp is revealed throughout the novel. The way her childhood was spent explains the way she is in her adult life and how she views some of everyday life differently.
I struggled to understand how devoted she was to a father who was a cruel man. One who would often punish both mother and child physically and mentally if they disappointed him. Even though I think he loved his daughter it was hard to see anything in him that was likeable.
But despite her childhood I admired the way she moved on to have a family of her own and a successful business that she used the knowledge she gained as a child to create. The fear that she felt when she learned that her father had escaped from prison became a determination to capture him when she had ensured her own family’s safety.
I had been a little dubious reading the hunting scenes but apart from a small section there wasn’t too much graphic detail. Also, the hunting was done for survival not for the thrill of killing an animal. I thought the parts of the novel that described living in and understanding the wilderness was fascinating and if I was brave enough I would love to try it.
With thanks to the publisher for the copy received

3.5 stars. An original story about a young woman who was born and raised in captivity. The narrative alternates between present day (as she is trying to find her father who escaped from prison where he was serving life sentence for kidnapping, holding in captivity,raping and abusing her mother) and her childhood memories. The story is well-written and descriptive, although I expected more of a thriller. There's a lot of description of nature, hunting scenes and life in the wilderness. For me there wasn't enough action and suspense, so I didn't find the plot very gripping.
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the advance copy.

The Marsh King's Daughter was an excellent psychological thriller that was full of suspense. I liked the way the current story was mixed with Helena's childhood story. The details of Helena's traunmatic childhood were unveiled slowly and added to the tension of the current story.

What a year 2017 is turning out to be there have been some truly outstanding thrillers published this year and I was convinced I had read the best in this genre and then along came The Marsh King’s Daughter by Karen Dionne. Oh my oh my what a book, this one is definitely going to be one of the top books of summer 2017 and it's one that's immediately gone on my top reads of 2017.

Helena had the best time and the most horrifying time growing up, daughter of a child abductor she spent the first twelve years of her life in captivity, raised to be a hunter everything her father teaches her has a disturbing purpose. Fast forward a few years and Helena is married with children living a fairly normal life, that is until her father the aptly named Marsh King escapes from prison and what follows is a heart pounding and throughly compelling read.


From the opening chapter the author grabbed my attention, this novel is beautifully written with breath taking descriptions of the marsh lands, a place that despite the wilderness felt claustrophobic. Poor Helena what a wonderful and complex character she is, The Marsh King is not purely a figure of evil, to Helene he's a father, the man who taught her to fish and to hunt, but there is always an undertone of darkness and something very sinister about The Marsh King’s parental skills. The story alternates between the present as Helena hunts for her escaped father, and the past when they lived alone in the marshlands. The author moves deftly between the two time lines and I found myself equally fascinated by both.

Each chapter starts with a part of the The Marsh King's Daughter fairytale by Hans Christian Anderson, as we all know some of the best fairy tales are also the scariest and as the story relates to Helena’s own life it adds to the overwhelming sense of foreboding that radiates from the pages of this novel.
Expertly plotted and wonderfully written this novel made for haunting and compelling read, it’s one of those books that just begs to be read in one satisfying sitting. This is one book I will be recommending to anyone and everybody.

This review maybe altered slightly and edited prior to publication on my blog

Compulsive reading, I really enjoyed the writer's style and got completely caught up in the story. A really great concept that has been told extremely well. The characters were really well defined and the descriptions of the conditions in which they lived were detailed and horrifying.

The central character, Helena is carefully crafted. It is through her that much of the story is told. Much of this is done through flash-backs.

This is a clever use of the idea of a dual timeframe. It is interwoven with the recent story, following the escape of 'The Marsh King' from prison.

I really liked the setting in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

The subject matter of childhood kidnap and the birth of a child in captivity is not a pleasant one. The book contains many disturbing references to abuse. However the novel slowly uncovers the layers within a complex situation.

The story has pace, especially towards the end.

I give thanks to Netgalley and Sphere for a copy in exchange for this review.

Sometimes a book comes along with such an emotive synopsis that it just grabs my interest. Child abduction whilst hopefully not that common does happen and yes young women have been taken, raised and abused . This book takes that awful thought, embraces it and perhaps sheds a little light onto what could happen.
We are drawn into Helena's life from the first page and she feels so real. Not perfect, perhaps a little flawed but essentially I found myself so profoundly engaged in her narrative that I didn't want to put this book down. We know she has escaped the life she shared with her mother, we also quickly realise that to Helena the so called Marsh King was the father she loved but was she blinded by childish adoration and just how did Helena and her mother return to the outside world?
This is a chilling tale that definitely has a dark side. Helena's father is a hard man, domineering, narcissistic and cruel. Yet to the young Helena he was almost Godlike, capable of turning his hand to anything and the parent she so wanted to emulate. As a reader we see what lies beneath the surface but the innocent child that is Helena was so malleable and yes there's a sense of not cruelty exactly but perhaps a lack of empathy within her that her father fosters . Now grown up with her own family she finds herself hunting down the very man that moulded her and as she does the author fills in the blanks showing us just how her psychopath father managed so easily to endear himself to her and control her . The isolation of Helena's youth is explored, her apparent lack of feelings towards her mother and ultimately just how and why Helena left it all behind.
Wow such a powerful book. Helena is without a doubt a creature created in her fathers image and at times her actions are shocking. It made me question the nature versus nurture debate and then I had to wonder just who Helena would be if things were different. Clearly the remote setting added to this story but this can happen, we do see in the news women who manage to escape captivity and yes there are even those who give birth whilst imprisoned . This is fantasy, designed to entertain but it evoked so many feelings in me . As much as it's a tale of a child growing up it's ultimately about how children eventually realise that parents are not perfect and for Helena it's a story of survival.
This voluntary opinion is of a copy I requested from Netgalley and my thoughts and feelings are honest and I believe fair

“The Marsh King's Daughter is a one-more-page, read-in-one-sitting thriller that you'll remember for ever.” - that’s a bold statement, “you’ll remember for ever” – that’s setting the bar mighty high! But, wow, did this book exceed the bar, this book was so far above the bar, the bar is just a tiny speck to this book. This book is amazing!

Helena’s father escaped from prison at the beginning of the book, and I did wonder how Dionne was going to make Helena tracking her father last an entire novel. By incorporating Helena’s upbringing in the marshes, that’s how. Together, these past and present accounts are what made this one of the best suspense thrillers I’ve read!

I loved how strongly the emotion came through, Helena as a young girl adored her father and you could feel how happy she was at certain times growing up in the marshes; this really got to me because it just shows the innocence of a child, she had no idea what her father had done and for the first twelve years of her life, just how much he was keeping her from. I loved the parts of this book when Helena spoke about entering society – having no idea about social etiquette. And the descriptive detail of how to survive in the marshes – hunting, tracking – I loved it!

Helena as adult was still fighting an inner battle, while she knew her father was evil, she couldn’t deny that she had loved him as a child and watching Helena battle this notion with herself throughout the read really pulled me in to the novel. Equally, I loved how Helena was raised in isolation and when she set out to track her father, she knew isolation was what she needed again, just her and her father – one final time.

Basically, I loved this book from cover to cover – it was beautifully rich it detail, atmospheric and had a wonderfully dark psychological kick to it.

This is a crime fiction read that centres on kidnapping but it's also so much more than that, it is so well written, certain parts, especially when Helena was describing her time in the marshes, reminded me of The Wolf Road by Beth Lewis – a literary thriller I also loved. So, if you liked that one, be sure to check this one out. As a matter of fact, regardless of reading preferences, The Marsh King’s Daughter needs to be on your reading list. It is, without a doubt, one of my favourite books of the year so far and I can’t recommend it enough.