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A review by karlyo83
Rust & Stardust by T. Greenwood
4.0
My Rating: 4.5 rounded down to 4⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ depressy and heartbreaking - fictionalised true crime story that will crack your heart into pieces!!!
Camden, New Jersey 1948, 11 year old Sally Horner makes a childish mistake to fit in that she will end up paying for in the worst way possible.
Sally, trying to impress new “friends” embarks on an initiation into their secret club, Sally must steal something from the Woolworths. As she does the dreaded deed she gets “caught”. Sally has no way of knowing the man that has caught her act of thievery is Frank LaSalle who is fresh out of prison for unspeakable crimes against young girls.
Frank convinces Sally he is with the FBI who can arrest her with a moments notice unless she does as he says… you don’t want your life ruined do you??? The next two years of Sally’s life are spent with Frank while he mentally breaks her down and physically takes pieces of her that she will never get back.
TRIGGER WARNINGS!!! Child abuse, sexual assault and physical abuse… this is not kind to the heart so know your limits.
Also you should know that this is a fictionalised depiction of the real life Sally Horner story. So many of the facts are truth and the author has done a brilliant job researching the case, but as it is from so long ago the author has admitted to taking fictional liberties with parts of the story like Sally’s interactions along the way and her feelings about certain things etc. I did not know this was based on a true story going in and I was already crying… so if I knew that I would have been bawling.
What a devastating tale of being in the wrong place at the wrong time - not only time in terms of when Frank was sitting in that Woolworths, but time in terms of the year (1948) stranger danger certainly wasn’t at the forefront of children’s and parents minds… and the ability to find a kidnapped child was so infuriatingly slow and arduous that Frank and Sally slipped through the cracks so many many times that it continuously broke my heart.
I wanted to reach through the kindle and take Sally’s hand… bring her to me and hold her until all her wounds healed… she was a sweet kind girl - who’s true spirit was never truly broken but was definitely damaged. All she wanted in the world was some friends and even those horrible young girls let her down… throughout the story almost everyone let Sally down at one time or another and it continuously wrecked me!!!
Her sisters husband was a true champion for Sally throughout the whole book - he never stopped searching for her even when her own mother had all but given up. Al never did… he was one of my favourite characters he truly loved Sally and he wanted to bring her home so badly. Al was one of a kind… I don’t know if he exists in real life but… I hope he did.
The term - turn a blind eye - was never more apparent then it was in this novel. The things that people turned a blind eye to… was abominable. The author did a fantastic job of portraying Sally’s sadness and terror in such a way that I was feeling it alongside her and I wanted to reach into the pages and shake the people around her and say WTF is going on, why doesn’t someone do something!!!
Frank LaSalle was a giant Piece of Sh*t that guy should have been strung and quartered… no one should ever have let him out of jail in the first place but when they found him they should have immediately blasted his head off!!
Overall: I wouldn’t recommend this to everyone, it is heavy and it is sad and its hard to read. If you can handle the trigger warnings it is worth the read it nothing more than to hold your own babies closer, remind yourself there is evil in the world and be aware and beware of it… and read a little about a lovely little girl that was let down by everyone around her.
I’M NOT CRYING YOU’RE CRYING
Camden, New Jersey 1948, 11 year old Sally Horner makes a childish mistake to fit in that she will end up paying for in the worst way possible.
Sally, trying to impress new “friends” embarks on an initiation into their secret club, Sally must steal something from the Woolworths. As she does the dreaded deed she gets “caught”. Sally has no way of knowing the man that has caught her act of thievery is Frank LaSalle who is fresh out of prison for unspeakable crimes against young girls.
Frank convinces Sally he is with the FBI who can arrest her with a moments notice unless she does as he says… you don’t want your life ruined do you??? The next two years of Sally’s life are spent with Frank while he mentally breaks her down and physically takes pieces of her that she will never get back.
TRIGGER WARNINGS!!! Child abuse, sexual assault and physical abuse… this is not kind to the heart so know your limits.
Also you should know that this is a fictionalised depiction of the real life Sally Horner story. So many of the facts are truth and the author has done a brilliant job researching the case, but as it is from so long ago the author has admitted to taking fictional liberties with parts of the story like Sally’s interactions along the way and her feelings about certain things etc. I did not know this was based on a true story going in and I was already crying… so if I knew that I would have been bawling.
What a devastating tale of being in the wrong place at the wrong time - not only time in terms of when Frank was sitting in that Woolworths, but time in terms of the year (1948) stranger danger certainly wasn’t at the forefront of children’s and parents minds… and the ability to find a kidnapped child was so infuriatingly slow and arduous that Frank and Sally slipped through the cracks so many many times that it continuously broke my heart.
I wanted to reach through the kindle and take Sally’s hand… bring her to me and hold her until all her wounds healed… she was a sweet kind girl - who’s true spirit was never truly broken but was definitely damaged. All she wanted in the world was some friends and even those horrible young girls let her down… throughout the story almost everyone let Sally down at one time or another and it continuously wrecked me!!!
Her sisters husband was a true champion for Sally throughout the whole book - he never stopped searching for her even when her own mother had all but given up. Al never did… he was one of my favourite characters he truly loved Sally and he wanted to bring her home so badly. Al was one of a kind… I don’t know if he exists in real life but… I hope he did.
The term - turn a blind eye - was never more apparent then it was in this novel. The things that people turned a blind eye to… was abominable. The author did a fantastic job of portraying Sally’s sadness and terror in such a way that I was feeling it alongside her and I wanted to reach into the pages and shake the people around her and say WTF is going on, why doesn’t someone do something!!!
Frank LaSalle was a giant Piece of Sh*t that guy should have been strung and quartered… no one should ever have let him out of jail in the first place but when they found him they should have immediately blasted his head off!!
Overall: I wouldn’t recommend this to everyone, it is heavy and it is sad and its hard to read. If you can handle the trigger warnings it is worth the read it nothing more than to hold your own babies closer, remind yourself there is evil in the world and be aware and beware of it… and read a little about a lovely little girl that was let down by everyone around her.
I’M NOT CRYING YOU’RE CRYING