When I first came across this book, I had no idea who Sally Horner was. Although I am an avid fan of true crime story, I had not heard nor read about her case. The first thing I did was to google her and that was my first mistake.
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.There are a few facts that stays in the book:
- Sally's mother practically handed her over to the the kidnapper
- Sally truly believed that he worked for the FBI and she was being arrested for stealing a 5 cents notebook
- Sally had many chances during the 21 months to escape and reached out for help as she did went to school and also had communication with others
- Sally died two years after she was rescued
The book is a fictitious telling from the author's collection of thoughts and imagination on what happened during Sally's captive period. There are certain point in the book where I felt that the author had portrayed Frank (the kidnapper) in a much more positive way than who he really was. I had to remind myself on several occasion that this book is a work of fiction. As much as I want to know what really happened to Sally during the 21 months, this is something that nobody had lived to tell the story now.
What I did not like about the book is that there are too many narrators in the book. While I definitely enjoyed reading from Sally, Ruth, Susan and Al's point of view, I did not like how the author came up with fictitious characters like Vivi and Margaret. If there was really a Vivi in reality, how can the author made a girl who drove Sally to commit a crime sounds like an angel throughout the book? And the two short chapters about Margaret did not even made sense at all. There was no link to Sally and it just appear so abruptly and out of the blue without really meaning anything.
Ella's chapters were really a pain to read. The way she was portrayed, she actually mourned for her dead husband more than her missing daughter. I was reminded constantly throughout the book of how Russell died and how much Ella missed those days when he was still around. It felt like a completely different story slipping in between this book. That certainly seems like the author was trying to meet some word count expectation on this book.
The book started out really great but it started going downhill halfway through the book. While I have to admit that this book is a page turner, towards the end, I find myself continuing to read the book because I just want to finish it.
I will recommend this book as a fiction read to anyone who are not interested in true crime story but if you are hoping to learn more about the Sally Horner case, there isn't anything extra that you can learn from this book that isn't all over the internet.
What I did not like about the book is that there are too many narrators in the book. While I definitely enjoyed reading from Sally, Ruth, Susan and Al's point of view, I did not like how the author came up with fictitious characters like Vivi and Margaret. If there was really a Vivi in reality, how can the author made a girl who drove Sally to commit a crime sounds like an angel throughout the book? And the two short chapters about Margaret did not even made sense at all. There was no link to Sally and it just appear so abruptly and out of the blue without really meaning anything.
Ella's chapters were really a pain to read. The way she was portrayed, she actually mourned for her dead husband more than her missing daughter. I was reminded constantly throughout the book of how Russell died and how much Ella missed those days when he was still around. It felt like a completely different story slipping in between this book. That certainly seems like the author was trying to meet some word count expectation on this book.
The book started out really great but it started going downhill halfway through the book. While I have to admit that this book is a page turner, towards the end, I find myself continuing to read the book because I just want to finish it.
I will recommend this book as a fiction read to anyone who are not interested in true crime story but if you are hoping to learn more about the Sally Horner case, there isn't anything extra that you can learn from this book that isn't all over the internet.
