It's always hard for me to decide how I feel about audiobooks, because the narrator can be as much of a factor as the actual writing. They also tend to be difficult to review since I listen to audiobooks when it would be inconvenient to jot down notes, so I forget what I was going to say — but I'll take a stab at it anyway.

Between this book and Keeping Lucy, I think it's clear that Greenwood weaves compelling stories with vivid characters. But I'm not entirely comfortable with a lot of the underlying traditional/conservative attitudes, even in a historical-ish setting; it often prevents me from really connecting with the characters.

And there were so many characters in this particular book. Plummer (the audiobook narrator) does a pretty good job differentiating them, but I don't know that they're all necessary. While I agree with the author's note that it's interesting to think about all the different people who would've known Sally — whether at home or while she was with LaSalle — and wanted/tried/failed to help her, the narrative was pulled in so many directions and I thought it felt scattered. Which can of course work if that's the story you intend to tell; I just didn't enjoy it as much as I would've enjoyed a more focused, streamlined plotline.

The synopsis describes this as being "based on" Sally's story, but from the author's note it seems more "inspired by" it: I'm not familiar with the case, so beyond what's mentioned in the author's note I don't know exactly how much creative license was taken. That's not necessarily a bad thing, and of course there are some things we'll never know (like exactly what the real-life Sally felt and thought during this time). However, some developments which were probably meant to create tension and frustration instead left me exasperated and not altogether willing to continue suspending my disbelief; I kept checking how much time was left in the audiobook, though for what it's worth I wasn't so annoyed that I wanted to just give up.

tl;dr I liked this a lot more than [b:Lolita|7604|Lolita|Vladimir Nabokov|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1377756377l/7604._SY75_.jpg|1268631] but it wasn't quite what I was looking for.

content warnings: pedophilia, on-page but non-explicit rape, abuse (threatened + actual violence, gaslighting, and more), abduction (being tied up + locked in a room alone), gun violence, mentions of suicide, alcoholism, animal abuse (turtle, mentioned; dog, on-page)