What a concept. Basing a suspenseful psychological thriller on a fairy tale by Hans Christian Anderson!
The cover is actually what drew my attention to this book sitting on the "new fiction" bookshelf at my town library. I had never heard of the author and I believe this is her first novel.
STORY SUMMARY
Helena finally has a normal life. A husband named Stephen and two little girls ages 3 and 5 (Marigold and Iris). She also has a good home-based business making and selling her own jams and jellies. Life is good.
But then her father escapes from the prison located nearby her home and she soon realizes that she really can't put the past behind her.
Helena has a secret from Stephen. She is the product of a teen abduction! Her mother was kidnapped at age 16 back in the 1980s and forced to live in the marshlands of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, far removed from civilization. Her mother was held captive in a tiny, remote wooden cabin surrounded by the swamps. Helena was born when her mother was just 18 years old. In fact, until Helena was about 11 years old, the only human contact she had was her father the kidnapper and her very young mother. She never knew anything was wrong, even though her father was an abusive man and very violent, until she was much older...almost 12.
She loved her rugged childhood even though her father often abused her and her mother and she did love her father. But only until she learned just how horribly monstrous he truly could be.
And then one day Helena and her mother manage to escape!! and her father is caught.
Now it is the 21st century and life is vastly different than when Helena was a little girl.......but she finally feels free and normal......
Upon his escape from prison, Jacob (her father) kills two security guards and is on the run. Helena knows the police don't have a clue about how to find him.
But she does. And she has the skills.....skills her father taught her as a young girl, to track him down. Her father is a murderer, kidnapper, and survivalist. The world calls him "the Marsh King" because only one person was ever trained by him: his daughter. She knows how to track him. She knows how to kill him.
Unless, he finds her first.
MY THOUGHTS
Well, the art work on the cover is what drew me to take this book out...that and the jacket description.
The premise behind the book is remarkable. A fairy tale in which the characters of that tale are similar to the characters in Helena's world.
I loved the "cat and mouse" chase and I enjoyed reading the different parts of The Marsh King's Daughter by Hans Christian Anderson which the author would put at the beginning of each chapter.
However, I often found it confusing that she jumped from the backstory of Helena and her mother into the present. I had to be very alert in the reading of this.
It is suspenseful which I like and fast paced. It's not a difficult read but some of the subject matter was difficult. I do understand why the author had to be graphic but it kind of turned me off several times.
The ending was pretty good but a bit unbelievable. Overall, it was a pretty good suspense story.
In my opinion, this book is appropriate for ages 17 and older (due to mature content).
On a scale of 1-10,with 10 being the highest, I rate this an 8.
Helena finally has a normal life. A husband named Stephen and two little girls ages 3 and 5 (Marigold and Iris). She also has a good home-based business making and selling her own jams and jellies. Life is good.
But then her father escapes from the prison located nearby her home and she soon realizes that she really can't put the past behind her.
Helena has a secret from Stephen. She is the product of a teen abduction! Her mother was kidnapped at age 16 back in the 1980s and forced to live in the marshlands of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, far removed from civilization. Her mother was held captive in a tiny, remote wooden cabin surrounded by the swamps. Helena was born when her mother was just 18 years old. In fact, until Helena was about 11 years old, the only human contact she had was her father the kidnapper and her very young mother. She never knew anything was wrong, even though her father was an abusive man and very violent, until she was much older...almost 12.
She loved her rugged childhood even though her father often abused her and her mother and she did love her father. But only until she learned just how horribly monstrous he truly could be.
And then one day Helena and her mother manage to escape!! and her father is caught.
Now it is the 21st century and life is vastly different than when Helena was a little girl.......but she finally feels free and normal......
Upon his escape from prison, Jacob (her father) kills two security guards and is on the run. Helena knows the police don't have a clue about how to find him.
But she does. And she has the skills.....skills her father taught her as a young girl, to track him down. Her father is a murderer, kidnapper, and survivalist. The world calls him "the Marsh King" because only one person was ever trained by him: his daughter. She knows how to track him. She knows how to kill him.
Unless, he finds her first.
MY THOUGHTS
Well, the art work on the cover is what drew me to take this book out...that and the jacket description.
The premise behind the book is remarkable. A fairy tale in which the characters of that tale are similar to the characters in Helena's world.
I loved the "cat and mouse" chase and I enjoyed reading the different parts of The Marsh King's Daughter by Hans Christian Anderson which the author would put at the beginning of each chapter.
However, I often found it confusing that she jumped from the backstory of Helena and her mother into the present. I had to be very alert in the reading of this.
It is suspenseful which I like and fast paced. It's not a difficult read but some of the subject matter was difficult. I do understand why the author had to be graphic but it kind of turned me off several times.
The ending was pretty good but a bit unbelievable. Overall, it was a pretty good suspense story.
In my opinion, this book is appropriate for ages 17 and older (due to mature content).
On a scale of 1-10,with 10 being the highest, I rate this an 8.
2 comments:
This sounds like it could be a true story!
I've seen this a few time and wondered about it. I didn't know about the fairy tale aspect of it. Never heard of that tale by Anderson.
Post a Comment