Karen Dionne | THE MARSH KING'S DAUGHTER

Plot (via Goodreads):

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.

Review:

Last summer, everyone on Bookstagram was just buzzing about The Marsh King's Daughter by Karen Dionne. Unfortunately for me, I just didn't have enough time to fit it in my pretty hectic reading TBR that consumed me last year. However, this one is now out in paperback and I thought it was the perfect time to reach out for a copy...and I am so glad I did. 

The Marsh King's Daughter is an exceptionally beautifully written story that features an unexpected take on something that we've all seen in the headlines; kidnapping. And let me tell you something, Karen Dionne knows exactly what she is doing when it comes to bringing her readers on a beautiful and harrowing journey that is just brimming with suspense. I loved this story...well, both of them actually. I loved the way that Dionne seamlessly weaved between the past and the present giving the reader two very different but riveting stories that were connected. 

I'm going to have to eat my words when I say this but Karen Dionne really changed my way of thinking when it comes to the alternate storylines. Usually, I am more immersed in the present time story and the past storylines don't really resonate with me as much. With this one, I was hooked on both, but I actually really enjoyed learning about Helena's past with her mother and father and just how everything came to be. I thought the way that Dionne wrote the novel was brilliantly effective and how she provided me with little breadcrumbs here and there as we took a break from the chilling and anxiety building present time to learn more and more about what happened between when Helena's mother was abducted to their ultimate escape. I was not let down.

With one storyline more chilling and suspenseful and another harrowing and almost a coming of age tale, this novel is the perfect blend of all things that make a great read. I was hooked from the first page and I was not disappointed once in the remaining 300+ pages until the finale that rocked me as a reader and left me yearning for the next Karen Dionne novel that I could get my hands on. So, I'll leave you with this - don't be like me. Don't wait a year to read this one. Go out and grab a copy now and let yourself enjoy one of the most beautifully written suspense novels that is unique and stunning in its prose. 

Special thanks to G.P. Putnam's Sons for this copy in exchange for my honest review.

Rating: 4.5/5