STRANGE SALLY DIAMOND is author Liz Nugent's latest thriller. The story is set in Ireland and partly in New Zealand for one of the characters. The themes are -

Kidnapping

Child abuse

Torture

Adoption

Rehabilitation 

Sally Diamond is in her early 40s when we meet her in the present,  at a time when she is dealing with her adoptive father's dead body - leaving it to burn in the house garbage incinerator. You will get a hint of the strangeness to come right from this opening incident. This incineration comes to light when Sally mentions it casually at the local shop and so ends Sally's decades-long isolation from society. This incident sets in motion a number of events where Sally's life and the story of her childhood, parents and upbringing unravel. 

Next, we learn about her birth parents, her sibling and how their birth happened. When we meet Sally in the present she is alone, orphaned with only her adoptive mother's sister as family. With the help of her late mother's business partner, who is also a general physician Sally learns to be amongst company. 

What I felt knowing why Sally Diamond was strange -

• There's a chapter in the story where we meet Peter, Sally's brother when he is 7 and their mother is pregnant with Sally. This meeting of mother and son is, for him, life-defining, harrowing and cruel; it was cruel and abusive in a way that is possibly due to the innocent belief and loyalty one has due to brainwashing. 
• Most people will find Sally weird and the layman might call her a freak or worse. As the story unravels and we learn about her we see how her emotional detachment and lack of social behavioural cues can be attributed to her upbringing. 
• Once we know and understand that some of us will see how it is only given and not that strange or freakish. It is corrective and can be given the benefit of the doubt. I frankly like Sally and understand her quirks, and her strength as she goes about dealing with her past and preparing for her present and future. 
• There's kidnapping, abuse, rape and childbirth, and misogyny so keep that in mind as the triggers. 
• To put it simply,  if you've heard of young girls being kidnapped, held captive, forced to give birth, and maybe years later are either found alive or dead...this is that kind of a story. The difference is that we also get to know the children born in such a scenario, from two other POV's. 
• The heartbreaking and truly frustrating part of the story is about Peter, who falls through the cracks of society. He is never acknowledged as the child or sibling of Sally who was rescued, well into his adulthood. He was someone whose life was destroyed irreversibly by their father to the extent he refuses any help when he finally meets Sally. He realises what his father was and what he did and ends up almost like him, which is truly sad and tragic. 
• So while Sally Diamond gets to be strange her sibling is the one who ends up heartbroken and lonely in every way. 
• The support system that the author creates for Sally is fantastic, they don't give up on her till the end. They are wonderful in helping, giving her space and letting her find her place in her own time and way. 
• The hopeful and somewhat happy part of this story is seeing Sally Diamond being her own person, working on her emotions and making sense of her past. 

I'd definitely recommend this book if you want to experience one too many emotions all in the same story. Also, it's a read which we can get cosy with on a chilly, rainy day or a long night.