By: Karen Dionne
Genre: Fiction,
Thriller, Suspense, Mystery
Content Warning: Animal Abuse / Death, Child Abuse, Domestic
Violence and mentions of Sexual Assault / Rape.
Helena Pelletier finally has the normal life she’s always wanted – a loving husband, two healthy daughters, and her own successful business. However, what her family doesn’t know is that Helena harbors a secret about her past – a secret that she never believed would come to light and endanger her newfound peace. Helena thought she could keep her identity as the daughter of the convicted rapist and murderer, “The Marsh King,” from her family, but once her father escapes from prison, she knows she must track him down in order to protect herself and her loved ones.
I really wanted to like this book but I am very torn. I thought the premise of this novel was exciting. Helena’s character is a product of the abduction and rape of her mother – a case similar to that of Jaycee Dugard. Helena’s mother was abducted at age fourteen by a man of Native American heritage known to her only as Jacob. He held her captive for fourteen years, keeping her as a “wife” and forcing her to bare his child. I found this idea fascinating – a story told from the point of view of a child coming from such a situation.
The story itself was interesting. It alternates from present day Helena’s perspective to flashbacks of her life growing up in the cabin with her parents. It detailed her survivalist training and their “living off the land” lifestyle. Interwoven between these two time periods are excerpts from Hans Christian Andersen’s tale, “The Marsh King’s Daughter,” which provides a parallel to the story unfolding – especially between the daughter in the folk tale and Helena herself.
Ms. Dionne does know how to write a suspenseful thriller. The tale was a gripping read that slowly delved into darker depths the further we went into Helena’s back-story. This is a child who was raised in the wilderness and knew nothing of the outside world except for what she read in outdated National Geographic magazines. Helena was raised in an abusive home. She watched her father verbally abuse, beat and torture her mother while being taught to hate her mother as well. Helena adored her father, despite his sadistic cruelty to herself and her mother, and it wasn't until he took one “punishment” too far that she began to detach from him and eventually escaped with her mother.
The thing that really drags this book down for me is not the plot or the story itself – that was gripping and I couldn’t wait to find out what would happen during the final showdown between Helena and her father. What keeps me from giving this story a higher rating is the characters – most of the people in this book are scum.
Obviously Jacob is absolute garbage – there are no redeeming qualities for him. He gets off on killing animals and people alike, and wants to destroy Helena’s carefully crafted new life. However, Helena is an incredibly irritating protagonist and some of the things she says and does are so anger-inducing!
I really wanted to like Helena. As aforementioned, she had a unique, but horrific upbringing, and I was hoping she’d grown from that to be able to utilize her past skills to protect her family. While she does do the latter, she has hardly grown from the wild child who escaped the swamp. She was raised to hate her mother and she still does throughout the majority of the book, constantly taking jabs at the poor woman. Helena mentions that she never really bonded with her mother (though it appears her mother made several attempts to do so that Jacob thwarted). Helena criticizes nearly everything her mother ever did, to the point of being hypocritical – for example she drags her mother for never returning to school and improving her life after they escaped from Jacob, but Helena herself never finishes high school. Helena is a rape apologist making constant excuses for the horrible things her father did to her mother (including blaming his Native American heritage!) and stating her mother wouldn’t have been any better off if she hadn’t been abducted. Never mind the fact that her mother was in extensive therapy following her escape due to all the trauma she experienced. Helena states she had therapy too, and it taught her that her father was a narcissist who had slowly turned her against her mother, but she doesn’t manage to stop criticizing her mother until the last few pages of the novel when she seems to have a dramatic change of heart. Helena desperately needs to return to therapy – her healing is far from complete. She also needs to check the internalized misogyny that floods through her veins and makes her judge her daughters harshly (ex: criticizing her oldest for being “soft” and “afraid of bugs.”).
I do understand that Helena was limited from the start due to her first twelve years being shaped by an abusive, sadistic narcissist and not having any positive role models following her escape. With her mother too traumatized to assist in raising Helena, she really needed someone to step in and fill that void, but no one did. Helena and her mother moved in with her mother’s parents after their escape, only to be treated as cash cows rather than provided with love and assistance. Helena had little chance of developing normally, which is sad, but, unfortunately, I still have very little empathy for her character.
I also understand that the child in the fairy tale of the same name is there as a parallel to Helena. Helga, the girl in the tale, is beautiful yet evil by day and ugly yet good by night. I felt that we were supposed to wonder if Helena’s dark nature – her upbringing, her mixed emotions toward her father, and her anger towards her mother - would cause her to turn evil and side with him or if her less-often seen good side would prevail. The plot is fairly predictable in answering that question, but the resolution is satisfying all the same.
Overall, this was an interesting read. Although many have enjoyed this book immensely, I found the protagonist ruined it for me and the suspenseful plot was not enough to distract from her annoying narration. If you are not into internally misogynistic female protagonists, graphic depictions of child abuse, domestic violence and animal deaths, you should probably skip this one.
Helena Pelletier finally has the normal life she’s always wanted – a loving husband, two healthy daughters, and her own successful business. However, what her family doesn’t know is that Helena harbors a secret about her past – a secret that she never believed would come to light and endanger her newfound peace. Helena thought she could keep her identity as the daughter of the convicted rapist and murderer, “The Marsh King,” from her family, but once her father escapes from prison, she knows she must track him down in order to protect herself and her loved ones.
I really wanted to like this book but I am very torn. I thought the premise of this novel was exciting. Helena’s character is a product of the abduction and rape of her mother – a case similar to that of Jaycee Dugard. Helena’s mother was abducted at age fourteen by a man of Native American heritage known to her only as Jacob. He held her captive for fourteen years, keeping her as a “wife” and forcing her to bare his child. I found this idea fascinating – a story told from the point of view of a child coming from such a situation.
The story itself was interesting. It alternates from present day Helena’s perspective to flashbacks of her life growing up in the cabin with her parents. It detailed her survivalist training and their “living off the land” lifestyle. Interwoven between these two time periods are excerpts from Hans Christian Andersen’s tale, “The Marsh King’s Daughter,” which provides a parallel to the story unfolding – especially between the daughter in the folk tale and Helena herself.
Ms. Dionne does know how to write a suspenseful thriller. The tale was a gripping read that slowly delved into darker depths the further we went into Helena’s back-story. This is a child who was raised in the wilderness and knew nothing of the outside world except for what she read in outdated National Geographic magazines. Helena was raised in an abusive home. She watched her father verbally abuse, beat and torture her mother while being taught to hate her mother as well. Helena adored her father, despite his sadistic cruelty to herself and her mother, and it wasn't until he took one “punishment” too far that she began to detach from him and eventually escaped with her mother.
The thing that really drags this book down for me is not the plot or the story itself – that was gripping and I couldn’t wait to find out what would happen during the final showdown between Helena and her father. What keeps me from giving this story a higher rating is the characters – most of the people in this book are scum.
Obviously Jacob is absolute garbage – there are no redeeming qualities for him. He gets off on killing animals and people alike, and wants to destroy Helena’s carefully crafted new life. However, Helena is an incredibly irritating protagonist and some of the things she says and does are so anger-inducing!
I really wanted to like Helena. As aforementioned, she had a unique, but horrific upbringing, and I was hoping she’d grown from that to be able to utilize her past skills to protect her family. While she does do the latter, she has hardly grown from the wild child who escaped the swamp. She was raised to hate her mother and she still does throughout the majority of the book, constantly taking jabs at the poor woman. Helena mentions that she never really bonded with her mother (though it appears her mother made several attempts to do so that Jacob thwarted). Helena criticizes nearly everything her mother ever did, to the point of being hypocritical – for example she drags her mother for never returning to school and improving her life after they escaped from Jacob, but Helena herself never finishes high school. Helena is a rape apologist making constant excuses for the horrible things her father did to her mother (including blaming his Native American heritage!) and stating her mother wouldn’t have been any better off if she hadn’t been abducted. Never mind the fact that her mother was in extensive therapy following her escape due to all the trauma she experienced. Helena states she had therapy too, and it taught her that her father was a narcissist who had slowly turned her against her mother, but she doesn’t manage to stop criticizing her mother until the last few pages of the novel when she seems to have a dramatic change of heart. Helena desperately needs to return to therapy – her healing is far from complete. She also needs to check the internalized misogyny that floods through her veins and makes her judge her daughters harshly (ex: criticizing her oldest for being “soft” and “afraid of bugs.”).
I do understand that Helena was limited from the start due to her first twelve years being shaped by an abusive, sadistic narcissist and not having any positive role models following her escape. With her mother too traumatized to assist in raising Helena, she really needed someone to step in and fill that void, but no one did. Helena and her mother moved in with her mother’s parents after their escape, only to be treated as cash cows rather than provided with love and assistance. Helena had little chance of developing normally, which is sad, but, unfortunately, I still have very little empathy for her character.
I also understand that the child in the fairy tale of the same name is there as a parallel to Helena. Helga, the girl in the tale, is beautiful yet evil by day and ugly yet good by night. I felt that we were supposed to wonder if Helena’s dark nature – her upbringing, her mixed emotions toward her father, and her anger towards her mother - would cause her to turn evil and side with him or if her less-often seen good side would prevail. The plot is fairly predictable in answering that question, but the resolution is satisfying all the same.
Overall, this was an interesting read. Although many have enjoyed this book immensely, I found the protagonist ruined it for me and the suspenseful plot was not enough to distract from her annoying narration. If you are not into internally misogynistic female protagonists, graphic depictions of child abuse, domestic violence and animal deaths, you should probably skip this one.
4.5/10
