Rust & Stardust is the story of the real abduction of Sally Horner, the case which became the inspiration for Nabokov's Lolita. I confess I didn't realize there was such a case or such an inspiration, so that was interesting to me.

Overall, the story is told from multiple viewpoints--although Sally's abductor's voice is absent (which was fine, since I still have Humbert Humber's voice ringing in my ears), and takes some surprising twists and turns.

Very fast paced and very intriguing. I enjoyed how it kept me hooked and it was an original story. Nowadays so many books read the same. Highly recommend

As the description says, this is probably one of the most gripping and heart-wrenching novels I've read this year. It's hard to imagine this happening to an 11-year-old girl. Truly an unbelievable and tragic story. The author blends historical detail and fiction to create the perfect balance. The tension builds as the plot develops. to a point where the reader feels as helpless as the characters. I will admit there were a few instances in which I wanted to shake the police into action as I was so incredibly frustrated by their incompetence! The subject matter is not an emotionally easy one as it focuses on the kidnapping and sexual abuse of a child but the book itself is incredibly well written and extremely hard to put down. Yes!! Read this book if the plot is of interest to you.

This book was so heart wrenching. To know that its based off true events makes it all the more tragic.



Sally only wants to have friends. She doesn't understand why nobody likes her and when the chance appears to become friends with the popular girls, she jumps at it. Never could she have imagined what she would have to endure for years to come.



I think what really got to me was how Sally's story ended. I won't give anything away, but it made my heart ache for her even more.



A heart wrenching story that will leave you hugging your kids tight.

T. Greenwood is a virtuoso of a writer at this point in her career. In Rust & Stardust, she pulls off the feat of bringing to life a sordid but important tale. It’s never been more timely and she presents the victim’s POV from the real-life story of Lolita so deeply that it’s impossible not to be affected. It’s a page-turner, too. Go back and read her other books if you like this one, she’s truly a great writer.

Great read!! I couldn't believe how easily this girl's life completely changed, just like that. You find yourself saying run!! get out of there while you can!! kick him..call someone. It is HARD to not get emotionally involved in this book. All the people she meets along the way, I just can't believe it took so long for her to speak up. I liked that this book was not super detailed about the rape scenarios. I did think there were a few parts that really were too much detail. Too much on and on about stuff you have already figured out earlier in the book. I really enjoyed the book, it was a page turner for sure! And that ending...jeez. Never saw that coming..

I received a copy of this book thanks to the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for the opportunity!

Sally Horner is under peer pressure because she wants to join her friends club and they want her to steal something from the local Woolworths store in Camden, New Jersey. This happened in the 1940's. She decides to steal a composition notebook and doesn't realize that Frank LaSalle is watching her. He was released from prison. Sally is only eleven years old and he abducts Sally, convincing her that he is a F.B.I agent, and can have her arrested in a minute, unless she does what he says.

This is based on the real life story that inspired Vladimir Nabokov to finish Lolita.
This is every parents nightmare and it is a heartbreaking novel. Frank LaSalle is a monster. Sally doesn't want anyone to know that she is kidnapped, and keeps secrets, because she is in fear that something worst could happen to her, and her family.

This is such a heartbreaking novel based on a true story that is every parents nightmare. Some true stories don't have a happily after. Even though this wasn't a happy story, I loved it. This is a historical novel and I am loving them more and more. It was a very suspenseful book.

I thought the author did a really excellent job on her characters. Sally was very naive but she also was a smart girl for her age. The author did a great job on Sally's emotions and actions. Sally led a tragic life. My heart went out to Sally and her family.

It was very difficult to read at times and I don't think this story will leave me anytime soon after reading it. It was a little dark and disturbing.

I thought it was very well written and it flowed so well. I read Where I Lost Her and thought that book was outstanding and I thought this one was done, just as good as that book. This one is a must read. I want to read all of her books. If you haven't read any of this authors books, go ahead and read one. It will give you an awesome reading experience.


I want to thank NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and T. Greenwood for the copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Not sure I'll ever get back to this book. Very dark subject matter and I'm definitely not in the right frame of mind to read this right now. Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC.

There should be a warning on this book--"Read at your own risk" or "Do not read this book unless you want your emotions to be shaken, stirred, chewed up and spit out". The fact that this book is based on a true story makes it even more heart wrenching. The writing was superb--did I "enjoy" what I was reading-heck, no. But, the author's way of relating a story will stay with me for a long time. I don't like to summarize a books plot usually in my reviews because you can just read the book blurb for that --T. Greenwood you really wrecked me with this book.

Thank you go NetGalley and the publisher for a chance to read and review this book.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martins Press #partner For the free ARC in exchange of an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I rate this book a 4 out of 5 stars.

First and foremost, this book is INTENSE! I almost had to DNF it, because I was starting to get a bit  stressed out reading it. If anyone know's the true story, than you will know why it was such a hard read. The way Frank assaults Sally, and how frequently it occurs made me sick to my stomach. So if you have any trigger warnings to sexual assault/rape please proceed with caution.

With all that aside, the writing in this book is so good. Kind of masterful. The way T. Greenwood pulls such strong emotions from the reader is wonderful. I cried, I cheered, I was angry, I was sad. All of these emotions were pulled from me, while reading this book. And just when I thought I had myself pulled together, that ending happened. UGH!

I feel like my heart was racing this entire book, I just kept thinking she would be saved, each place she stopped I wanted to scream for someone to help Sally, and not giving up.

This is a very dark, twisty, intense read. Not at all light and fluffy. The Horner family suffered a great deal, absolutely more than one family should. When  you finish this book, please read the Authors note, it will give you a bit more insight to the true story.

I do also want to add, that while this is a fictionalized story, of a true event, Greenwood stays pretty accurate. In the authors note its detailed of what was embellished, and what was not. What makes this book even more scary, is that it's true. Frank LaSalle is a real person, and a disgusting monster. This is the kind of thing that occurs everywhere. It's something you could see on your nightly news, except your reading the details that the news cannot show you.

This was my first T. Greenwood read, and I would really love to read more. #RustandStardust

This book was based off of a true crime that also inspired Nabokov's Lolita. It was hard to read this book because of the subject. It was tragic. However, it was well written and makes you want to see if the young girl gets to return to her family.

T. Greenwood's Rust and Stardust broke my heart. I read it anyway. She tore at my soul. I read it anyway. She dangled threads of redemption that were swatted away before I could even catch my breath. I read it anyway. My heart broke, mended, broke again, and still, I kept turning pages. Unlike other stories I've read that lay unfinished, flung against the wall or otherwise ignored, T. Greenwood's version of this true crime story would not let me go. It is deftly told through the lens of Sally Horner, a young girl stolen from her mother, abused and tortured, both the girl and her family's lives changed forever. Greenwood continues to tread in those waters where other authors dare not go, her compassionate and gentle hand pulls back the curtain and yet shields us from the total torment of Horner with her prose. For this reader, it is a cautionary tale and a reason for speaking out and speaking up. Do not bury your head in the sand if you notice something amiss, as so many did with Sally. There are few books that transform you during the read. Rust and Stardust is multi-layered and beautifully written, and not for the faint-hearted.

This book was haunting and uncomfortable but so well done. Rust & Stardust depicts the "real-life Lolita" scenario where a man lures a young girl away from her mother to travel across the country. I can see why this book may not be for everyone, but this book gets 5 huge stars from me.

The news story that inspired the book Lolita....Sally Horner was a sweet young girl, just trying to fit in. When peer pressure ensues, Sally is abducted by a man claiming he is from the FBI. The year is 1948 and this is the story of what happened to Sally. The author points out at the end that she was capitivated by this story and did a lot of research, however this story is fiction, based on real events. Extremely well written and had great character development with the people Sally encountered throughout the country and her family back home awaiting her return. The overall story of Sally Horner is tragic and sad, and this book pulled me in from the beginning. Highly recommend!

Beautifully written and heart-wrenching. Un-put-down-able! This book is based on the real life kidnapping of Sally Horner. This really happened. It's not another made up story to grab the readers attention with horrible things. It is real life. Sally really existed, she was really kidnapped. Simply astounding. 5/5

I thought this was an engrossing and superbly written read. I appreciate that it was about a horrible crime that was otherwise unknown to me, so that the details felt fresh. I think it’s perfrct for any true crime readers who enjoy such books to have good characterization and a steady pace.

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.

In Rust & Stardust, T. Greenwood writes a fictionalized account of the true crime story that inspired Nabokav’s Lolita. It’s 1949 in New Jersey and eleven-year-old Sally Horner steals a notebook, her mind willing to commit her own ‘terrible’ crime for the sake of fitting in with girls who never take notice of her. This could be her ‘in’ with them! She nearly makes it out of the store without being busted, when one Frank LaSalle grabs her. He is, he tells her, an F.B.I agent and then manipulates young Sally, using her naivete against her. A freshly released ex-convict he devises a plan that has Sally taking part, unbeknownst to her, in her own, easy kidnapping; like taking candy from a baby. The chosen excerpt above… how it grabbed my heart by relaying just how forgiving and sweetnatured our Sally is, all the more awful what befalls her.

Desperate not to go to prison, she does everything she can to hide her crime from her mother, convincing her she has been invited on a vacation to the shore with her friend. Hardworking Ella, widowed by her second husbad and suffering from a debiltating condition gives her permission despite any misgivings. LaSalle is practiced in the art of deception, he has his own ‘cast’ performing their part, assuring his sort of abduction is quiet, no scenes of kicking and screaming to alert anyone, convincing Sally’s mother everything is on the up and up.

The story isn’t so much the part of being taken, it’s everything that follows. It’s witnessing a little girl who is full of shame, clinging to her mother in the before, a mother who is too tired to know something is off, reading along already knowing it’s going to happen and just like Sally and her poor mother Ella not being able to do a damn thing to stop it. It’s being in Sally’s mind as she starts to understand she’s been had. It’s the crushing fact some of us can be consumned by evil in the world, while others go on in their safe bubble. Ella figures out soon enough, despite sunny postcards from Sally, that she has been the worst sort of mother when her oldest daughter Susan and her husband Al begin to question her about the mysterious Mr. Burke.

Sally is Frank’s prisoner, and she is forced to change her name, to follow his rules, brainwashed into good behavior. She is assaulted again and again, swallowed whole, until she accepts this as her ‘new life’. She is no longer the sweet, illuminated little Sally Horner- she is forever Florence Fogg, or something in-between. Frank creates an entire new identity for her, complete with school. He is her ‘daddy’ now, and why doesn’t anyone notice the wrongness of it all, she wonders, where is her rescue, her salvation?

In her new role, the reader keeps waiting for her to tell. But being a good girl is costly, Sally/Florence has always obeyed, as good girls are taught. The adults around her complicit, because they too have their own dirt to keep hidden. Back home, her one almost friend Vivi feels Sally’s absence ‘like a missing tooth‘. Learning too soon what all children should never know, that ‘terrible things happen’, that the world can be ugly. The adults don’t have all the answers, they are just as helpless as Sally on the day she was taken. There aren’t any real ‘safe’ places. If the worst happens, mommy and daddy may not be able to save you.

Florence goes to school, then she makes an adult friend, and we beg please… please someone, anyone save her. Everyone they encounter and befriend knows something isn’t right but don’t do enough. It was a safer world then but these ‘sort of things’ just didn’t happen much. There weren’t milk cartons, kids weren’t afraid of playing outside or aware not to trust other adults, as has been ingrained in all the children of my generation and every one that followed. In fact, good boys and girls always obeyed the adults and did what they said or else you’d ‘get it’ from your parents when you got home. Frank doesn’t just violate Sally’s body, he is like a worm in her brain. Greenwood did an excellent job writing about Sally’s sweet innocence, so sure she would be sent before a judge, tried and possibly sent to prison for life (which would shame her family) for stealing a notebook, and back in the 40’s you can be sure stealing something as insignificant as a notebook felt like a grievous sin to a child. It’s the horror of her gullibility that sank my heart, before the violations she later suffers obliterated any hopes I had left. What a novel! Just a quick nod to the gorgeous cover too. I sat on this novel for months, having read it in the moutains of North Carolina over Christmas. I hated holding off on my review but didn’t want to write one too early. This is definitely a novel to add to your TBR list!

The ending is just as gut wrenching as the rest of the novel. One day Sally was taken, and she never really came back.

Publication Date: August 7, 2018

St. Martin’s Press

How does one give 5 stars to such a heart-wrenching story. When it is so beautifully written with the both the horror of the story and the beauty of the women we encounter throughout the story. The balance in which the author writes of the trauma inflicted on this 11 year old child, her family left behind, the people she encounters, and the sickness of her abductor was masterful. While there is no misgiving as to what is happening to Sally, the authors writes with a beacon of hope. The kindness of strangers and the fragility of innocence shine brightly in this tale. The faith that Al has in Sally's eventual return and his unwavering loyalty to her memory was a moving part of the story for me. How he was able to see the fragility in his mother in law and wife and helped them cope was redemptive next to the wretchedness of her abductor. . Add to this all is that it is based on truth and the true story what helped inspire Lolita to be written and hence from where the title of the book comes from. Thank you Net Galley for this early look at Rust & Stardust. Once I picked it up it was hard to put down and I highly recommend it as a great read.

This book is based on the true story that inspired the novel, Lolita, about a young girl named Sally Horner who was tricked, kidnapped, and held captive by a serial pedophile for roughly two years. The author tells Sally's story with grace and tenderness, drawing the reader into her innocent world infiltrated, yet never quite shattered, by the harrowing experiences she endured. I highly recommend this book.

Copy furnished by Net Galley for the price of a review.

A monster masquerading as a man (an FBI agent, a Daddy, whatever he needs to be) has a predilection for little girls.  Young girls who are gullible and naive, and who have been taught that adults are always right.  Easy prey for this vile man.

This is historical fiction, based on a case that was all too real.  The year is 1948.  Excellent characterizations.  Loved the analogy of the carnival sideshow folk and the fiendish freak who showed no outward signs of it.