The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel That Scandalized the World by Sarah Weinman

3.44 AVERAGE

ldawson's profile picture

ldawson's review

4.0
dark emotional sad fast-paced
mcornell's profile picture

mcornell's review

2.0
dark slow-paced
writing_inthemountains's profile picture

writing_inthemountains's review against another edition

Just so goddamn sad.
ellosippo's profile picture

ellosippo's review against another edition

2.0
I thought it would be interesting to someone who hadn't read Lolita. I was wrong.
bookdinosaur20's profile picture

bookdinosaur20's review against another edition

3.0
2.5⭐️ — 3⭐️

I’ve read Lolita before and I didn’t know it was based on a true story. It was an interesting read

emilymanzur's review against another edition

3.0
slow-paced

jessicafee86's review against another edition

2.0
Way longer than it needed to be, but interesting. I'd read Lolita but I'd never heard of Sally Horner, and while I don't regret reading this, I feel like I learned to same things from reading about her on wiki. Btw the wiki is about 5 paragraphs long, this book is over 300 pages, so there was a ton of unnecessary writing. Felt more like I was reading a college essay that needed to be a certain word length, well written and entertaining in parts, but so so much fluff to just keep it going.

catladyreba's review

4.0
This is a tough book to read. Not tough, as in level of writing, but in content. There are certain chapters that when I finish, I feel like I need to take a shower. The attempt by various men to normalize the predation and sexualization of young girls is repulsive and stomach turning. I will continue to read this, it is fascinating and well-written, and Sally Horner's story is one I have never heard.

wagstaff's review against another edition

2.0
Early in The Real Lolita, author Sarah Weinman talks about writers of nonfiction needing to decide if their stories are best suited for long or short form. How The Real Lolita was found to be worthwhile for the former is unclear. Much of the book is padded with digressions and speculation as Weinman pinballs between a case with little knowable details and a literary analysis heavy on plot summary with aggravating historicism bent to support a thesis about Vladimir Nabakov that will make readers understand why the man rejected that sort of criticism.
isela_b's profile picture

isela_b's review

4.0
dark emotional informative sad medium-paced