– I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review. –
To be published by St. Martin’s Press on 07 Aug 2018
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Camden, NJ, 1948. When 11 year-old Sally Horner steals a notebook from the local Woolworth’s, she has no way of knowing that 52 year-old Frank LaSalle, fresh out of prison, is watching her, preparing to make his move. Accosting her outside the store, Frank convinces Sally that he’s an FBI agent who can have her arrested in a minute―unless she does as he says.
This chilling novel traces the next two harrowing years as Frank mentally and physically assaults Sally while the two of them travel westward from Camden to San Jose, forever altering not only her life, but the lives of her family, friends, and those she meets along the way.
Based on the experiences of real-life kidnapping victim Sally Horner and her captor, whose story shocked the nation and inspired Vladimir Nabokov to write his controversial and iconic Lolita, this heart-pounding story by award-winning author T. Greenwood at last gives a voice to Sally herself.
I chose this book because…
I’ve never read Lolita, and I never knew that it was inspired by the case of Sally Horner. Crime stories have always captured my interest (I binged all of Criminal Minds on Netflix), so I’m intrigued by this book and it’s definitely up my alley. The fact that this book is based on true events perhaps makes it all the more captivating, but also makes me feel more cautious about how the events will be handled by the author.
Upon reading it…
I started this book in the late evening and didn’t put it down until I finished it in the early morning because I couldn’t bear to stop in the middle of the story and be stuck in that world. It’s terrible to know that this was the reality for Sally Horner.
In the Author’s Note, Greenwood gives the disclaimer that though the case of Sally Horner is true, this book is not a true crime book; she also briefly goes over which characters and events were real and which ones were made up. She did a lot of research, but of course, nobody will know exactly what happened during those two years that Sally Horner was captured. Greenwood does a good job filling in the blanks and telling the story though. It took me there and made me feel some type of way (anxious!), which for me is an indicator of a good story, whatever that feeling is, whether it’s positive or negative.
I was relieved with the way Greenwood handled the fictionalised events and that this horrible event wasn’t romanticised. It was heartbreaking to see how innocent and trusting Sally Horner was, and to see how she was taken advantage of, to put it lightly. It’s a heavy story and my heart was racing, wondering if and how she was going to survive or escape.
And trying my best not to spoil anything: The end tho…
★★★★☆
She thought them the sun, and herself simply a small and quiet planet in orbit around them. And she forgave them their meanness. It was no different than forgiving the sun its heat, the moon its tidal pull. This was simply the nature of girls. She knew they couldn’t help themselves, and oddly, it made her love them all the more.
Thieves prey on those who trust.
How sad is it that grief has a shelf life? It’s only fresh and raw for so long before it begins to spoil. And soon enough, it will be replaced by a newer, brighter heartache — the old one discarded and eventually forgotten.
This is how she’d woken every morning for over a year now. Not with the soft ascent from the depths of a dream but with the sharp bite, that cold blade of the truth. This is the cruelty of grief. The way it gathers strength in the night, blooming again and again and again.
It didn’t matter where they went, the stars followed. A map of the universe spread out before her.
(highlight to reveal potential spoiler)
Tonight, as she studied the constellations, she thought of Sally, and wondered what happens after a star dies. Does the light just fade away? She hoped not. What she wished for, under that reliable sky, was that it was a brilliant explosion. / A detonation first, and then all that beautiful brightness would shatter and scatter across the heavens into so much luminous stardust.