A review by maketeaa
The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel That Scandalized the World by Sarah Weinman

dark informative sad slow-paced

5.0

i went into this a little cynically. i thought it would be a textual version of those tiktoks that use sally horner's story and its connection with lolita as sensationalised clickbait that appeals to those that salivate over painful details. but what i left with was awe for the incredibly well-researched and critical examination of a case with such little information available for report, and gives sally horner's short life a narrative that has been overshadowed time and time again, first by frank la salle, then by news outlets, then by the booming spread of lolita. weinman displays an expert level of knowledge of nabokov, his works, and what seems like an encyclopedia of lolita, and uses it all like aluminium foil to bounce the sparse facts of sally horner we have to bring her to life. a true justice done to what has been done to her story.