Will I love The Marsh King's Daughter?

This novel is the most captivating I have read in a long while. I stumbled upon the film adaptation last summer and liked it enough to give the book a chance. I was not disappointed. The Marsh King’s Daughter, a clever modern-day adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's eponymous fairy tale, is set in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and tells the story of a plucky young girl raised in an isolated cabin by her mother's kidnapper. She does not know anything about the crime and looks up to her father who teaches her to trap, track and hunt. When the truth comes… show more.

This book appealed to me because of its strong central character, Helena, who’s carrying around a big secret. Let’s face it—we all have secrets. But most of our secrets are comparatively minor. Helena’s is anything but. Helena’s past is complicated, which makes the plot complicated, just the way I like plots, but the book is still easy enough to follow.

I was interested to see how Helena appreciated some aspects of her past life, even if most people would consider her present life much better. I kept wanting to know more about this imagined place in the U.P., which seemed… show more.

Dionne’s book drew me in immediately with its provocative opening lines: “If I told you my mother’s name, you’d recognize it right away. My mother was famous, though she never wanted to be. Hers wasn’t the kind of fame anyone would wish for.”

Dionne divides the subsequent story between past and present, beginning with protagonist Helena’s hunt for her father after he escapes from prison, knowing he'll come for her. To track him, Helena uses the backwoods skills her father taught her as she grew up in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula wilderness.

Through flashbacks, we learn the bizarre details of Helena’s… show more.

This book was riveting. Helena grew up in the marshlands of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, the daughter of a brutal man whom she loved and a mousey mother for whom she had little respect. Until she learned the truth. Two years before Helena’s birth, her father had kidnapped her mother, then he’d held her prisoner for years. Now, he is in prison and Helena is married with children. A family from whom she’s kept her past secret. All that changes when her father kills two guards and escapes into the wilderness. Helena knows her family is in danger, that the police… show more.

Soon to be a major motion picture, this novel was an instant bestseller and for good cause. First, it takes us away to another place – the marshlands of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Dionne weaves atmosphere into every scene. Second – the set-up is emotionally compelling and fraught with personal and moral dilemmas. A woman who is the product of abduction and rape. A father who escapes from prison twenty years later. And now he’s fled back to the one place he knows how to evade capture - unless his estranged daughter can track him down in the remote wilderness where… show more.