Little Girl Gone by Drusilla Campbell

Little Girl Gone by Drusilla Campbell

My rating: 4.25 of 5 stars

Goodreads: Madora was seventeen, headed for trouble with drugs and men, when Willis rescued her. Fearful of the world and alienated from family and friends, she ran away with him and for five years they have lived alone, in near isolation. But after Willis kidnaps a pregnant teenager and imprisons her in a trailer behind the house, Madora is torn between her love for him and her sense of right and wrong. When a pit bull puppy named Foo brings into Madora's world another unexpected person--Django Jones, a brilliant but troubled twelve-year-old boy--she's forced to face the truth of what her life has become. 

An intensely emotional and provocative story, Little Girl Gone explores the secret hopes and fears that drive good people to do dangerous things . . . and the courage it takes to make things right. 

My take: Drusilla Campbell's best asset in writing books is the way she tells the story then wrapping loosely related story lines to one another. All of the characters intertwine and each is unique with different thoughts, pasts, and experiences. What ties all of the characters together, however, is their prisons, both physical and metaphorical. Also, each character believes a story told to them by one parent or another. Some of those stories empower the characters. Others sink into their cracks and weaken them.

Very well written, giving a voice to all characters, including those who might be considered perpetrators (btw, sexual abuse is NOT a story line, which I found interesting and appealing).