Strange Sally Diamond — Ending Explained… Maybe?!

Spoilers, spoilers.

Let’s be honest, you’re only reading this because you want someone to nut out the ending of Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent, yeah? Well, here we go.

Just a quick recap: Sally has led a traumatic past and it is all catching up with her after her adopted father’s death. We also hear from Sally’s brother (Peter) with his chapters dispersed throughout the novel. This book really did keep me up until the wee hours so it is only right that I share my feelings.

The tagline to the novel is ‘she was only doing what her father told her to do, to put him out with the rubbish when he died’. To break this down a little, not only is it gruesome, it actually does fit with Sally’s father —the characters within the novel say this was just one of his jokes, but I can’t help but wonder if perhaps this was what he wanted — to see Sally imprisoned long-term under the guide of keeping her safe and monitored in his absence. Because this was a oft-repeated joke of Tom’s I think there is weight to this theory. Fortunately the world, and people like Angela, have other plans and Sally remains strange, but in a world of her own choosing.

Back to the ending though:

Sally has built her own house in a place of her choosing. But again, Sally has had most of the decisions made on her behalf — although Sally does outsource the house decisions to Angela’s wife — almost everyone thinks that they know better than her. Unfortunately her…