Living Dead Girl
by Elizabeth Scott
**** 1/2 stars
I thought Living Dead Girl was absolutely amazing; it may be short but it’s excellent. It’s a very fast paced, quick read, not very many descriptions but with the setting being in a small town just off the highway you don’t need many.
A small apartment complex is where most of the book takes place, and a nearby park, with Alice, our leading lady who was forced to grow up too quickly. This book says it is for ages 16 and up but the age for reading should probably be high, it’s a very sexually mature book. A little girl that was ten years old was kidnapped and five years later she has become Alice, sex slave to Ray or as he likes to call her, “his little girl.” The problem is that she is getting old and starting to seem more womanly, and her only chance to ever be free of Ray is to find him a new little girl, a new Alice. I won’t reveal what happens because it is a shock, but it’s something you really don’t see coming. The book is written in completely present times and we only find out what’s going on in the past by Alice looking back at certain events. You’re so focused on what’s going on currently in the book that you can’t believe is has ended, it almost makes you sad that it’s over.
Elizabeth Scott is a great writer and if you like any of her other novels this is one you will love, but it should really only be read by more mature people.
(note: also wrote the book Bloom -- available in OHS library)
5 comments:
I agree with your comments about the book, Halea. It was an extremely short and very powerful book -- but perhaps more suited to a mature audience even though it is marketed as YA.
This book sounds really interesting. I think I've seen it in the library. I would like to read it next; I am interested in realistic books about a thrilling struggle.
I think that this book if read should be read by a mature audience like Mrs. Crawford said. There are parts that are to much, I think, for a young audience. This is a good review and I agree that it is powerful.
Meaghan
I loved this book! (I read it last week.) Really it isn't too detailed, but if you think about some of the things she goes through, its horrible. I think the 16+ age range is appropriate.
5.0 out of 5 stars Still holding my breath......, July 22, 2008
This book is small, short, sparse. Not a lot of pages or words but the imprint of what is written will linger long after you put the book down. I read a lot of thrillers and a lot of YA. I thought I'd probably have read this story before, wondered how this author would approach the topics of child abduction, molestation, rape, imprisonment. Suffice to say that Scott was master of the task. The life of Alice in Ray's prison was hell and terror, fright and pain. She was starved, abused, beaten and repeatedly forced to sexual surrender to a man who was himself abused by a sexual sadist (his mother). Alice no longer hopes for release or for any other life, that dream has been destroyed along with her girlhood. As she grows from a child of 10 to a teen of 15, Ray no longer is happy with her body or her attitude. He wants a new girl and has assigned Alice to help him acquire her. Alice is powerless to resist, beaten down by 5 years of submission and only longs for the substitute to release her from this bond. She can't say NO. The new girl has been chosen and then what will happen to Alice? The last Alice was killed, and yet, that is a release of sorts. No one sees, no one hears, no one there to help.
Highly recommended.
Ms C.
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