"A heart-wrenching novel that deals with a number of important social issues... [Campbell] transports the reader into the heart, soul and mind of Francine Byrne Tennyson to feel her pain, recall her vivid childhood memories and experience her crises of conscience."—Kirkus Monsters and Critics on Little Girl Gone www.curledup.com on Little Girl Gone A Stolen Life ) or popular fiction (think of Emma Donoghue's Alex Award-winning Room )."—Library Journal on Little Girl Gone "Little Girl Gone peers insightfully into the lives of people easily written off as monsters. With an economy of style, vivid details, and grace of expression, Drusilla Campbell has written a novel well worth staying up late to keep reading."—Laurel Corona, author of PENELOPE'S DAUGHTER and FINDING EMILIE on Little Girl Gone Little Girl Gone . The complex relationships between Campbell's richly drawn characters took me on a psychological roller coaster that tested my expectations, my values, and my heart. This story of tension and triumph is a perfect bookclub selection. Don't miss it!"—Diane Chamberlain, bestselling author of The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes on Little Girl Gone Judy Reeves, Author of A WRITER'S BOOK OF DAYS on Little Girl Gone San Diego Union Tribune on Little Girl Gone Little Girl Gone ."—ChaptersandChats.com on Little Girl Gone Newark Star Ledger on Little Girl Gone " Little Girl Gone is a fantastic exploration into domestic violence and the power of courage in the face of tragedy." —BookFinds on Little Girl Gone On WILDWOOD: "Resist the urge to turn the page to find out what happens next. Linger, instead, to savor the skillfully crafted writing." —Judy Reeves, author of Writing Alone, Writing Together Wildwood." —Susan Vreeland, author of Girl in Hyacinth Blue On THE GOOD SISTER: "The story will make you ache for these two women who are bound inextricably and irrevocably by their shared past." —bestselling author T. GreenwoodThe Book of Unholy Mischief Publisher's Weekly
" Little Girl Gone is a fantastic exploration into domestic violence and the power of courage in the face of tragedy."
BookFinds on Little Girl Gone
"Drusilla Campbell uses lyrical descriptions of the desert setting to make each character's loneliness more atmospheric."
Newark Star Ledger on Little Girl Gone
"Drusilla Campbell is a long time writer with several books in print. She is very talented in winding stories with strong women finding their voices. She proves that she knows what she is doing with Little Girl Gone ."
ChaptersandChats.com on Little Girl Gone
"An unflinching portrayal of life in emotional and physical captivity. Campbell has a powerfully understated voice and resists the easy path of sensationalizing the story. Instead she provides authentic drama rich with complex psychological composition. The result is a novel that is hard to read, but even harder to put down."
San Diego Union Tribune on Little Girl Gone
"Nobody gets to the marrow of human flaws and frailties better than Drusilla Campbell. In LITTLE GIRL GONE you are immersed in the lives of people you think you'll never meet and come to care deeply about what happens to each of them. This is a compelling story that won't leave you alone even after you've turned the last page."
"When is the last time you cheered out loud for a character in a novel? That's what I did as I read Drusilla Campbell's Little Girl Gone . The complex relationships between Campbell's richly drawn characters took me on a psychological roller coaster that tested my expectations, my values, and my heart. This story of tension and triumph is a perfect bookclub selection. Don't miss it!"
"Little Girl Gone peers insightfully into the lives of people easily written off as monsters. With an economy of style, vivid details, and grace of expression, Drusilla Campbell has written a novel well worth staying up late to keep reading."
"Campbell writes with deceptive simplicity all the more impressive for the psychological currents simmering below the surface of a barren terrain. Lives made vulnerable by accommodation to loneliness are caught in the web of one man's madness, the rugged landscape a bleak canvas for all manner of bad decisions. But fate intervenes on behalf of Brock's prisoners, a life-long lie is revealed, a boy's fantastical tale proved true, and the frayed connections between a mother and daughter mended in a novel that celebrates the power of friendship and the freedom to make one's own choices."
www.curledup.com on Little Girl Gone
"Campbell's powerful novel explores the depth of depravity cloaked as charity and the ability to take a leap of faith and change the direction of one's life. This compelling story will stay with you long after the book is finished."
Monsters and Critics on Little Girl Gone
"Drusilla Campbell uses lyrical descriptions of the desert setting to make each character's loneliness more atmospheric."
"Drusilla Campbell is a long time writer with several books in print. She is very talented in winding stories with strong women finding their voices. She proves that she knows what she is doing with Little Girl Gone ."
"An unflinching portrayal of life in emotional and physical captivity. Campbell has a powerfully understated voice and resists the easy path of sensationalizing the story. Instead she provides authentic drama rich with complex psychological composition. The result is a novel that is hard to read, but even harder to put down."
"Campbell writes with deceptive simplicity all the more impressive for the psychological currents simmering below the surface of a barren terrain. Lives made vulnerable by accommodation to loneliness are caught in the web of one man's madness, the rugged landscape a bleak canvas for all manner of bad decisions. But fate intervenes on behalf of Brock's prisoners, a life-long lie is revealed, a boy's fantastical tale proved true, and the frayed connections between a mother and daughter mended in a novel that celebrates the power of friendship and the freedom to make one's own choices."
"Campbell's powerful novel explores the depth of depravity cloaked as charity and the ability to take a leap of faith and change the direction of one's life. This compelling story will stay with you long after the book is finished."
A novel that deals with a number of important social issues, including the actions of private contractors in war, the treatment of women in the armed services, domestic violence and school bullying. The author transports the reader into the heart, soul and mind of Francine Byrne Tennyson to feel her pain, recall her vivid childhood memories and experience her crises of conscience. It is clear that Frankie's father, a highly decorated Marine general, expects his son to follow in his footsteps. But when her older brother loses his legs after an auto accident, Francine is determined that she will be the one to make her father proud. She excels in academics as well as athletics and after 9/11 decides to enlist in the Marines herself despite having a baby daughter. Both her husband and her father are unhappy about her decision. For years she performs office work near home but eventually is deployed to Iraq and returns with sufficient fear, anxiety and anger to warrant treatment for PTSD. She avoids treatment for a while as she struggles with the memory of witnessing a private contractor murder a child, a boy about the same age as her own daughter. She blames herself for not somehow preventing it and then struggles with the question of whether or not to testify at a Senate hearing regarding the conduct of the private contractors in Iraq. In the midst of all this, she watches her daughter act out her own anger and frustration at school, where other kids make fun of her, and she attempts to assist another female veteran with a daughter who is homeless and hiding from an abusive ex-husband. Ultimately, in this heart-wrenching tale, Frankie figures out what she must do to help herself and her family.
