Reviews

Home by Karen Dionne

frustratedlibrarian's review

adventurous informative sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

sopht87's review

4.0

What a fascinating read. 'The Marsh King' is a man who abducted a young teenage girl and kept her captive in the middle of nowhere for over a decade. As a result, their daughter, Helena, grows up having never met another person, living off the land in the wilderness and being taught to become a master hunter/gatherer/tracker. Now, years later, her father has escaped from prison, killing two guards and disappearing back into the same marshes that Helena grew up in. In order to keep her family safe, Helena realises she is the only person who has the skill to track him and capture him.


It was heart-wrenching to read of Helena's childhood and how she adored her father and then had to reconcile that with the understanding that he is a monster and then to further read of her struggle to understand her feelings towards him after his escape from prison and her conflicting feelings towards her mother.

Well-written and such a page turner. Absolutely worth reading.

sim_96's review

3.0

Helena knows many things, she has two daughter's she loves, a husband she loves, a dog and a happy life. She makes her living from making jams and other condiments, learned from a life long gone. But what she doesn't know is that her father is coming for her. The same father who kidnapped her mother when she was sixteen and held her captive for decades in a cabin in the wilderness where she gave birth to Helena.
This story is told in two ways, Helena growing up under the shadow of her father, adoring him and seeing nothing he does is wrong. We also have present Helena who now has to find her father and bring him back to prison or risk losing her family.
What I liked about this book was that the reader has the same experiences as Helena, we see the good of her father, glancing over the bad. We obviously start to get an inkling of what is going on and how bad the situation is but it's not until the pivotal scenes in the novel that Helena starts to realise that as well.
The story is different to any other I have read, using the author's own experiences in the wilderness to bring a real life dimension to the story, it makes you want to forget about all the drama and just learn about all the interesting things she knows.

All that being said, I didn't love this book. It dragged in places, it went too fast in others and sometimes you just got a little too frustrated to continue on. I was expecting more of a thriller but this story was kind of bland and glossed over the terrifying parts.

bethlittle_'s review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

ahinks's review

challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

0kokokay's review

3.0

I enjoyed this book. I read it in a day as I wanted to find out where it was going. However, I never felt like I felt a connection to any character in the story , Although, I doubt I was meant to since it's a story most people can't relate to.



Good story and premise and sometime hard-hitting. Especially, a young girl living with a narcissistic parent and how you adapt, in order to survive.

bookishgeeky's review

5.0

Tense, gripping and cleverly conceived. This book is deep and heartfelt and tells the story of the main characters so well that I felt I knew them. This was one of the best books I’ve read in ages. So I highly recommend reading this one.

nuifebrianti's review

4.0

Beberapa orang akan menganggap buku ini membosankan. Aku pun berpikir serupa dalam satu atau dua kesempatan, tapi herannya nggak bisa berhenti. Aku bahkan nggak tergoda baca buku lain. Unsur thriller-nya tipis, terus aku curiga Helena yang jadi narator nih stoic atau malah psychotic

qi_'s review

2.0

kinda repetitive however, admittedly i did avoid reading it at night because i was a little scared. so overall mixed feelings

golden_bishop's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5