Rust & Stardust by T. Greenwood

T. Greenwood captures the story of real life Sally Horner and pulls us into her tortured world after she is kidnapped and abused by Frank LaSalle. Greenwood highlights so much here with such great insight into Sally’s story and her family in telling this story but leaves out descriptive details for us to figure out on our own. If you are like me, you just don’t want your mind to go there. We felt so many emotions while reading this one and were so grateful to have our friends to be able to talk over our feelings with. We could feel Sally’s vulnerability and she crawled into our hearts and she consumed us. Greenwood gives some hope here that she has some happiness through the eccentric characters that care about Sally.

Greenwood not only shows us Sally’s story we come to see how this tragedy affected other people in Sally’s life. We all loved Al’s perseverance to bring Sally home and her sisters hope that she would. Both never giving up on Sally.

Some of us googled Sally and did a little research and knew how the story ended and some of us went into the story blind not knowing anything about her. It was interesting to see who preferred to know and who didn’t and to see everyone’s reaction to the ending. I would suggest if you like a little heads up maybe do some searching as a few sisters would have preferred that while a few others didn’t want any and were glad they didn’t till the end.

Even though we thought the horror of what Sally endured was handled well and a lot was left for us to figure out on our own we still want to mention that there could be some triggers here for some people so we recommend with caution.

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Norma’s Review

How do you even write a review for a book that was so harrowing to read but yet so beautiful at the same time?

This book literally shattered me and had me feeling so distressed and left me feeling completely numb in the end. Sally Horner will be forever in my heart and never forgotten!

I am so glad though that I had the pleasure of reading Sally Horner’s horrific story even though it was absolutely heartbreaking, T. Greenwood handles the tough subject matter with such grace and care. She is an absolutely brilliant and phenomenal writer!

RUST & STARDUST by T. GREENWOOD is an extremely emotional, chilling, and heart-wrenching story that is fictional based on the real-life kidnapping of 11-year-old Sally Horner.

GREENWOOD delivers an engaging, suspenseful, and extremely well-written read here that was definitely difficult to read but I was totally invested in Sally and her family and couldn’t put it down. I did have to distance myself a few times though because I knew this story was going to be gut-wrenching and get under my skin.

The story is told in multiple perspectives between Sally and her family as well as people that Sally came into contact with in those two horrific years of captivity. With so much despair there was still a really nice balance of love and hope that was given to us to hold close to our hearts hoping for a positive outcome for Sally.

I really love T. Greenwood’s writing style and can so relate to the way she writes and I think that makes for a very special and extremely talented author. Would highly recommend!

I absolutely fell in love with T. Greenwood’s novels after reading Where I Lost Her which is one of my all-time favourite books!

Norma’s Stats:

• Cover: Eye-catching, extremely fitting and an obscure representation to storyline.
• Title: Drew me in instantly & subtly ties into plot.
• Writing/Prose: Beautiful, meaningful, gentle
• Ending: Bittersweet, emotional
• Overall: An outstanding read! Would highly recommend to anyone but be prepared for an intense emotional journey.

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Lindsay’s Review

Heart-wrenching and unforgettable.   

This novel is based on the real-life story of eleven-year-old Sally Horner who, in 1948, was kidnapped and held captive for two years, physically and mentally assaulted by known convict Frank LaSalle.  

This is not an easy story to read.   I found myself holding my breathe several times as I read through the harrowing and traumatic situations young Sally endured.   She was a bright and vibrant child who fell into the hands of a predator who stripped her of her innocence. While many scenes were extremely difficult to accept, they were presented with sensitivity and care in a sincerely respectful manner, leaving out unnecessary detail that would have made this unbearable for me to read.  

Sally’s character was innocent, naïve and loveable.   I felt for her from the very first sentence. Her sister (Susan), brother-in-law (Al), Ruth and Sister Mary Katherine were stand out characters.   The author, T. Greenwood, brilliantly captured their emotions, their struggles, their longing for answers, their hope. I was rooting for a reunion for this family.    The writing was excellent. The story flowed effortlessly through multiple characters perspectives, each adding a new layer of emotion and intensity to the novel.

This was a Traveling Friends read.   Due to the seriousness and heart-wrenching topic, it was wonderful to be able to experience this novel along with the Traveling Friends who held excellent discussion and provided support along the way.

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