Book Review: Living Dead Girl: a novel by Elizabeth Scott
Living Dead Girl
by Elizabeth Scott
Young Adult; I'd say horror and psychological too
2008
Hardcover
170 pages
Rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book is amazing. I picked it up on a whim, one of the few YA books we had enough copies of at work for me to borrow. Living Dead Girl tells a powerful story from the perspective of "Alice," a 15-year-old who was abducted at age 10 by a man named Ray, who proceeds to spend 5 years molding her into the perfect object of his desire, both physically and mentally.
The book is incredibly disturbing - as it should be. I wanted the entire time to just run to where she was, break the door down and get her out of there. I think what makes it so intense is watching "Alice" go from complete despair to find a thin, tiny thread of hope... and what results.
It is chilling to watch her helping to plot the abduction of another girl - even younger this time - she is SO willing to help commit another terrible act just to get her abductor's attention away from her.
The end is scary, dramatic, disturbing, triumphant - all rightfully so, and brought a jarring close to the story of "Alice." And yet, I'm happy for her...
It's hard to say who I'd recommend this book to, exactly. It's definitely very difficult, disturbing subject matter. I would mostly say adults should read it rather than teenagers. I think it is a cry for help for ALL children trapped in this kind of situation. It's a cry for everyone to pay attention to what is going on around them, ask questions, don't just shrug off your suspicions. People in these situations often cannot fend for themselves, or make the move to free themselves, so others need to be more proactive in watching for the signs.
All in all, this book greatly affected me, and I'd definitely recommend it.
My review at GoodReads