Karen Dionne: The Marsh King's Daughter

Karen Dionne shows what a true Cat and Mouse game is when you never know who is the Cat and Who is the Mouse:

When Helan was a child, she did not know that she was the product on a man abducting her mother and forcing her to live in the Marsh. All Helena knew was the Marsh and her mother and father. Helena idolized her father and wanted to learn everything he had to teach her and sometimes those lessons were painful ones. Twenty years later after leaving the Marsh, Helena has a husband and two girls of her own. Her father is spending time in prison for kidnapping her mother and Helena spends her days trying to fit in. When her father manages to escape from prison, Helena knows that he is coming for her. But Helena has not forgotten what her father taught her, how to track, how to hunt. She knows that she is the only person who can catch him and with her family on the line, she will do everything she has to, to protect them.

This is the first book that I have read by Dionne and I really enjoyed it. This book was fast paced and you really get to know the FMC and how she became the woman she is. I would classify this book as a popcorn thriller as it very much is a Cat and Mouse story but also there is more substance there and I find I am still thinking of some aspects of the book. I can understand why it was made into a movie and I want to see if i can watch it to see how the adapted the story.

I loved the alternating timeline as we get to know Helena as a child growing up in the Marsh as well as the woman now and how she struggled at times in both situations. Dionne transfer between the two different timelines seamlessly and the flow of the story does not suffer from doing so. Even if you do not enjoy reading a book with two different timelines Dionne does it so well that this should not deter you from reading this book.

I appreciate that Dionee makes a point to show that Helena loves her father, questions if she should still love him even though what he did to both her and her mother. Growing up Helan did not know she was being raised differently and the fleeting moments where he showed her praise were what she lived for. You feel Helana's struggle in both the past and present. In the past is it is for her father's approval but also wanting more than the Marsh and in the present, it is about fitting in, not knowing the "proper" ways of doing anything and trying to keep her past hidden. Plus, she struggles with how she treated her mother in the Marsh and out of the Marsh even with insight that time brings. I think this insight shows in how much she her children and will protect them at all costs.

Dionne is fairly descriptive in the book from the hunting of animals to the hunt between Helan and her father, there will be blood, but I think that it is fitting that she did not shy away from this. It does make the book darker, but it also is what needs to occur to fully immerse oneself into the story.

This book is very much Hunter/Hunted and you never know who is who throughout the book. This was a great suspenseful read that was well laid out and written. I know I want to read more books by Dionne.

Enjoy!!!

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