‘I’m gonna need for you to come with me,’ he said, tugging at her arm to pull her along.’

Camden, NJ, 1948. Sally Horner is just 11 years old when wanting to be part of girls’ club changes her life forever. To join, Sally must steal something from the local Woolworth’s. Sally knows that stealing is wrong, but she longs to belong. Sally takes a notebook, but just as she gets to the front door she’s accosted by a man:
’I’m sorry, miss, but you’re going to need to come with me.’.

The man tells her that he is an FBI agent, and because he likes her, he’s not going to hand her to the police. The man is Frank LaSalle, a 52-year-old man, fresh from prison. He convinces Sally do as he says. This involves a complicated story, which has Sally’s mother initially believing that Frank LaSalle is the father of a friend of Sally’s and is taking her on a holiday.

So begins almost two years of physical and mental abuse as Frank LaSalle takes Sally westward from Camden. Sworn to secrecy, fearing for her mother and her sister, Sally suffers in silence. Some of those she meets along the way are concerned for her, but they (and the police) seem to always be one step behind.

‘Don’t worry about your mama, Sally. They’ll forget about you soon. It’ll be like you never was.’

The real-life kidnapping of Sally Horner is one of the inspirations behind Vladimir Nabokov’s novel ‘Lolita’. Near the end of ‘Lolita’, Nabokov writes: ‘Had I done to Dolly, perhaps, what Frank Lasalle, a fifty-year-old mechanic, had done to eleven-year-old Sally Horner in 1948?’ I’ve read ‘Lolita’ three times, but I never looked for any information behind this reference until after reading this novel. Both ‘Lolita’ and this novel are fiction, but Sally Horner’s abduction is fact. In this novel Ms Greenwood draws Sally from the shadows and gives her a voice. Imagine being an eleven (and then twelve) year old girl in her situation. Imagine feeling unable to tell anyone what was happening, for fear of what might happen to you or to those you love?

‘Please let them find me, she thought. Before it’s too late.’

Ms Greenwood explores this period in Sally’s life from several different angles. Her mother, her sister, her brother-in-law and a couple of the people she meets along the way are each part of the story. Perhaps her mother was naïve and trusting, perhaps Sally should have tried harder to escape. It’s always easy to wonder why other people act the way they do (or do not). By presenting this story in the way she does, Ms Greenwood invites the reader to imagine being Sally, or one of the other people worried for her. But for Sally there is little comfort, no escape.

‘Why didn’t anyone try to save her?’

Those who know the story of Sally Horner know how it will end. Those who do not will, like me, be turning the pages hoping that Sally will be rescued. Some, like me, finding the suspense unbearable will do some research before the end of the novel. Whichever way you choose to approach Sally’s story, it’s uncomfortable.
I did not enjoy this novel in any conventional sense of the word. I was profoundly moved by it, reduced to tears
at times, occasionally taking heart from the small pieces of humanity Sally benefitted from on her journey. How can it be that so many of us remember ‘Lolita’ but have never explored Sally Horner’s story? Ms Greenwood has written a powerful and moving novel, imagining aspects of Sally Horner’s journey. This is not an easy read, but I think it will prove unforgettable.

And the title ‘Rust and Stardust’?

‘My car is limping, Dolores Haze,
And the last long lap is the hardest,
And I shall be dumped where the weed decays,
And the rest is rust and stardust.’
― Vladimir Nabokov, ‘Lolita’

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

accomplished if not uninspiring. I had a difficult time staying focused reading this & found it too often felt like a teen drama tv show in novella form

Engaging and griping, Rust and Stardust is the fictionalized story of Sally Horner, an inspiration of the infamous Lolita.
Sally Horner is caught trying to steal a cheap composition notebook in New Jersey in 1948. The "FBI agent" tells her she must go with him to face trail over the event. So begins a years long capture of an eleven year old girl by a 50-sometyhing pervert. While the novel is the fictionalized version of these events, the majority of the story's components are factual.
I finished this book in two days because the book was engaging and the chapters short enough to spur the reader to want to know what happens next. The story fallows the point of view of a variety of characters including Sally h, her mother, and those she meets along the way.
As both a novel lover and a true crime buff, I loved Rust & Stardust; I was entrance at page 1.

This book broke my heart! What a beautiful story and amazing set of characters. I will be posting my review on June 7, 2018, in my blog, A Room With Review at this address: https://abookwithreview.blogspot.com/

*** Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review***
I was initially drawn to Rust and Stardust because I live in Camden County close to where Sally Horner grew up. I also am a huge Lolita fan, so I was shocked that I was not familiar with this story. The author does make sure to say that this is historical fiction, not a true crime or biography, but the story felt so real. Although I warn that this is not an easy read emotionally, I definitely recommend this novel. I was instantly drawn to the story and rooted for little Sally Horner from page one.

Wow. What a story. Based on a true story, this is one unforgettable read. I cried and raged over Sally's words as we read about what happened to her. My heart ached and broke for her. This book devastates with its brutal honesty. A must-read story and a must-read author.

This was an incredibly touching, difficult story. When I read in the blurb that it was the inspiration (or one of them) for Lolita, I was intrigued. I didn't know exactly what to expect, but figured it would feature a rather wicked temptress-type young girl, manipulative and rather dislikable - as Lolita does. Instead I found myself heartbroken for the unbelievable string of horribles that fell upon a poor, innocent, sad, lonely little girl. A girl who, through one single action committed in the desperation for acceptance that only young girls can understand, made a critical and life-altering mistake that she literally spent the rest of her days paying for... It was a devastating read and I wanted to put it down just to stop feeling the walls closing in as Sally's days with Frank LaSalle just kept piling one on top of the other.

And yet despite the abuse, the fear and torment, and the darkness of her days, what I found most unbelievable in this tale was Sally's ability to find joy in small places hidden among the shadows of her off-the-grid existence. Circus people. Diving horses. A puppy. A mother-figure desperate for someone to mother. Sally manages to eke out a childhood - not much of one, mind you, but one nevertheless - despite LaSalle's best efforts to break her of all childish experiences...

That's the miracle of the story. But it's mired in so much horror that it can be difficult to see it that way... Still, the writing is utterly compelling, as is Sally herself. And so are the thought-experiments, the what-ifs and how-could-theys that populate this story. Even though the world was a different place at the time, it's hard to imagine a mother sending her child off with the "father" of a school friend she's never met, for an indefinite and continually extended vacation, let alone receiving numerous post cards that only ever mention her young daughter doing things with said father and never thinking anything was awry...

That's only one example of the parade of oddities that comprised Sally's life with Frank, but it's a big one. And it leads to fascinating thoughts of blame and responsibility, what it means to be a parent, how much we are responsible for the things that our children do and think. Why was Sally so quick to believe that Frank could have her imprisoned - and so willing to believe it for so long? Why was her mother so quick to believe her daughter suddenly fell into such good luck as to find a great friend and be invited away for a great vacation? Why was Sally so willing to accept that her mother - let alone her sister - had given up on her? Why was her fear so great that she never took the chance to reach out to her family - or even another adult? One can get lost in the whys and what-fors and lose sight of the fact that none of that matters, in the end. What matters is that a man preyed on a child, and she paid the ultimate price for that predation. Whether anyone else - Sally included - could have mitigated the circumstances once the ball began rolling is almost beside the point. Evil exists, and it has throughout time. One can only hope that we remember stories like these, because the biggest tragedy would be if their victims (both the actual victims like Sally herself, and the victims friends/families who suffer right along with them) were not only mistreated but also forgotten...

Fantastic book. I wasn't familiar with the story this was based on so I was a complete newbie to this story as well as this writer. Both were great. I can't wait to read more from the author in the future and thought this was a solid five star read.

Inspired by a real life kidnapping case, this is a story of malevolence and true evil. In 1948, Sally is only 11 years old when she steals a notebook from the local dime store in Camden, New Jersey. On the street outside, she’s accosted by a man who claims to be an FBI agent and tells her she will go to jail if she doesn’t do everything he says. In reality, the man is Frank LaSalle, and he’s just been released from prison. Terrified, Sally goes with LaSalle, beginning an odyssey of pain and terror that will last two years as the two make their way cross-country to San Jose. I had never heard of this case, and the story just sent chills down my spine. This book is not an easy read because of its subject matter, but it’s incredibly well written and hard to put down

Sally Horner is a lonely 11 year girl, who would love to be part of a group of friends. One day she sees a group of girls cutting their thumbs and rubbing them together, as they become blood sisters. She walks up to them at lunch time to ask them about what she saw. They offer to make her part of their club, if she steals something from the Woolworth's that afternoon. So begins Sally's misfortune.... when she decided to steal and composition notebook and put it under her shirt, she is caught by an "FBI Man," who tells her that she is in big trouble. She did not know the half of it, as she is taken away by this FBI man, to go see the judge, and told not to worry her Mama, by telling her the truth. Instead, she is off on a lovely vacation with Vivi Peterson, one of the girls from the club (the only kind and decent young lady among them.) Mr. Peterson, is going down after his family left and is taking Sally with him. So, Sally's mom, wanting her to have something she would not otherwise have, puts her on the bus with a stranger, and it is a long time before she sees her baby girl again. This tale is based on a true story, and while fictionalized by the author, reads as if it is a biography of two + years in this young girls life. Your heart will break right along with Sally and her family as they travel on the roller coaster that starts on the day of the stolen notebook, and brings them all to another place entirely by the end of the story. While this is not a feel good book, it is a book that is hard to put down, due to the incredible writing of T. Greenwood.

This a sad story and it can break your heaet as it is based upon a true event.
The author did a great job making me feel for the characters, my emotions ran from anger to sadness to hope and everything in between.

Heartbreaking. While this is historical fiction, it reads very much like real life. It will make you ache and weepy and you will have no choice but to keep on reading because Greenwood's writing is lyrical and gripping.

"Rust and Stardust" is a novel that retells the story of Sally Horner, the real-life girl whose abduction and subsequent abuse at the hands of a disgusting excuse for oxygen named Frank LaSalle was probably the germ from which Nabokov got the idea for "Lolita."

The essential plot (it's not a spoiler) is this: Little Sally Horner is caught by a conman when she's getting in trouble. The poor child is convinced he's somehow the legal authority and that she must obey him. This sets up her abduction and the story of the book, which is told mostly through Sally's point of view, but with other players as well.

I'm trying to take apart this book as I sit here and stew on it. It's fast-moving--I read it in a night, unable to put it down. It's vivid; I left the book with the same tears-and-existential crisis that I had after reading "The Fault in Our Stars." And thankfully it is quite sensitive--the sexual abuse is handled with no detail, as Sally disassociates in a way that feels very real. (For this choice, the author really does deserve a lot of credit.)

Overall, the book seems to speak to the beauty of our flawed realities, the nature of grief, the power of memory, and the human capacity to love, to treat others with kindness and compassion. (Love is shown in this book in ordinary gestures, far from talk of romance or the horror of LaSalle.) And it is a final tribute to a poor child whose tragic story has been erased in popular memory in favor of twisted readings of the book that was born of her story, "Lolita."

This book was reviewed as an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

This book was really well written. It was very sad though and a very frustrating read. The author did his job well. During the read you just want to rush ahead to the conclusion, you want something to happen to save her, you want to shake her and scream at her to do ‘this’ or ‘that’. So all in all it was a difficult book to read, and the author did a good job of propelling you through a series of emotions. I’m just left feeling sad and unfulfilled though. I do like how you see how the life of Sally then changed the lives of the others in the book. A difficult but good read.

This was a twisted story, and I knew it before going into it. Twisted as it was, I really enjoyed the book and most of the characters. As good as it was, i did skip through mom obsessing over her dead husband. That was made a point early on. Still great read!

Until reading this I had never heard of Sally Horner. What an incredibly sad life this little girl had. There were so many opportunities for rescue that were missed. I throughly enjoyed reading this.

This book was outstanding. Heartbreaking to say the least. I had zero knowledge of who Frank La Salle or Sally Horner were when I began reading. I was so incredibly intrigued, I had to stop and do some googling.

Although this book is a work of fiction based around a true crime, I must say the Author did an amazing job creating a story that immerses you.

The Authors note at the end of the novel was powerful and informative. Highly recommend.

4 girls on a playground - One is desperately wanting to join the group and be a part of the sisterhood!!
She is aching to be on the sun and not on her small, lonely planet.
She is asked to perform a dare to prove herself and pass initiation.

This dare sends her life into a whole new direction!

I was horrified to see so many missed opportunities- so many missed chances for a rescue.
I liked the multiple viewpoints of the family and friends back home
to the people who came in contact with her through the moves.

Hang your red ribbon out
Start reading this and be prepared to be carried away with this story.

"Rust & Stardust" is a fictionalized accounting of the real kidnapping of 11yr old Sally Horner in the 50's by a pedophile. This case is also believed to be the inspiration for "Lolita". The story was an intriguing read, without getting graphic about the abuse, helping the reader understand how a victim stays without barrier with their kidnapper.

Young Sally Horner, kidnapped by repeat sex-offender Frank Lasalle in 1948.....a true story, sadly. And that is where this novel leaves you after carrying you through what might have happened to poor Sally and the family still searching for her on her abusive and bewildering trek from Atlantic City to California. Shock at how easily Sally was convinced that she risked going to jail for trying to steal a notebook, dismay and incredulity at how little Ella, her mother, knows about her daughter's life and how naively she trusts Lasalle's story of taking Sally to Atlantic City to visit with one of her friends, dismay at her inevitable rape throughout her trip, desperate longing for her to share her story with one of those people she gets to know along the way........and finally deep sadness when, shortly after her return, she tragically dies in a car accident. While the story is speculative, it's highly believable and draws you into Sally as well as her families minds and hearts as they all try to cope with her absence. Her story has been 'told' before, in Vladimir Nabokov's 'Lolita'.......but this one is for Sally.