The Marsh King's Daughter
Karen Dionne, 2017
Penguin Publishing
320 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780735213005
Summary
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. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1953
• Where—Akron, Ohio, USA
• Raised—Grosse Pointe, Michigan
• Education—University of Michigan
• Currently—lives outside Detroit, Michigan
Karen Dionne was born in 1953 in Akron, Ohio, and moved to the Detroit area with her family at the age of eight. She graduated from Grosse Pointe North High School in 1971 and attended the University of Michigan.
Dionne is the cofounder of the online writers community Backspace, the organizer of the Salt Cay Writers Retreat, and a member of the International Thriller Writers, where she served on the board of directors. She has been named a Humanities Scholar by the Michigan Humanities Council.
Her works include the novels Freezing Point (2008), Boiling Point (2011), The Killing: Uncommon Denominator (2014), and The Marsh King's Daughter (2017). Her short story "Calling the Shots" was published in the anthology, First Thrills: High-Octane Stories from the Hottest Thriller Authors (2010). The Killing: Uncommon Denominator was based on the AMC series and nominated for the 2015 SCRIBE Award from the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers.
Dionne's articles and essays have appeared in Writer's Digest Magazine, RT Book Reviews, and Writer's Digest Books. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
[S]ubtle, brilliant and mature.… In its balance of emotional patience and chapter-by-chapter suspense, The Marsh King's Daughter is about as good as a thriller can be.
Charles Finch - New York Times Book Review
Dionne’s breathtaking psychological thriller is a fairy tale writ large.… [T]he suspense in the plotting and the cold distance Helena’s voice projects [hold readers] entranced until the stunning climax.
Minneapolis Star Tribune
(Starred review.) [An] exceptional … psychological thriller.… Helena’s conflicting emotions about her father and her own identity elevate this powerful story.
Publishers Weekly
Echoing Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale of the same title, Dionne's latest is a well-crafted, eerie, and unnerving psychological thriller.… [A] strong setting and swift pacing —Emily Hamstra, Seattle
Library Journal
[W]ill keep readers gripped until the end.… For fans of Emma Donoghue’s Room and of novels with strong female leads.
Booklist
Helena becomes a trusted narrator as readers follow her dawning realization that her father is a madman…and her inner struggles keep apprehension high.… [A] thriller with gripping suspense (Age 17-adult). —Judith A. Hayn.
VOYA
Helena's…conflicted feelings about Jacob ring true, but they also undercut tension, throttle pace, and de-fang the book's boogeyman.… Dionne tries to strike a balance between psychological thriller and coming-of-age tale.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Why hasn’t Helena told Stephen about her past? Is she wrong to have kept it from him? Has she endangered her family by keeping it a secret?
2. Is Helena a good wife?
3. Why do you think the author sets Helena’s story alongside the fable of The Marsh King’s Daughter? In what ways are these two stories similar? How does the fable shape your understanding of Helena’s character?
4. Does Jacob love Helena? Does he deserve her love? If The Hunter's appearance hadn't revealed Jacob's dark side, would Helena ever have broken with her father?
5. In the end, Helena thinks, "I am no longer my father’s shadow" (p. 302). What does she mean by this? How has her idea of her father changed?
6. Was Helena’s mother wrong for not saving her? Does Helena do enough to help her mother? How does Helena’s relationship with her mother change over time? Is Helena a good daughter?
7. While it’s clear Helena loves her two daughters, is she a good mother? In what ways does her own upbringing affect the way she raises Mari and Iris?
8. Is Helena better for being part of society? Is she truly healthier at the story’s end? Will she ever be okay?
9. Does Helena see her responsibilities within her own family differently at the end of the novel?
10. What does Helena mean at the end when she calls it "our story" (p. 291)? How has her life changed during the course of the novel?
11. How does Helena’s relationship with nature shape her view of the world, and does this relationship change once she leaves the cabin? How do the beliefs of the Ojibwa people shape Helena’s values? In what ways do these values suit Helena in the world she discovers outside of the marsh, and in what ways do they hinder her?
12. How does place inform this story? What would the story lose if the setting were changed? Might another setting suit the book, even if it were to change it?
13. Why are we fascinated by stories about survivors of abduction like Helena, whether in fiction or nonfiction?
(Questions issued by the publishers.)