51 of 53 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Terrifying account that every parent should read., October 7, 2008
This review is from: Living Dead Girl (Hardcover)
Terrifying. Devastating. Tragic.
Those are the three words that come to mind when I think of Elizabeth Scott's Living Dead Girl. After finishing it in one sitting late last night, I'm still trying to catch my breath and desperately trying to get rid of the weight that seems to have settled on my chest. But I think it will be a long time before this happens because what has happened to "Alice" in the book can happen to a child in real life...probably has happened.
The book is told from the point of view of "Alice" a fifteen-year old girl who was kidnapped on an elementary school field trip when she was 10. Her captor, Ray, has sexually and physically abused her every day since he kidnapped her. He starves her because he doesn't want her to physically mature, he terrorizes her and tells her that he'll kill her parents and burn their house down if she tries to escape. I'm putting "Alice" in parentheses because that is not her real name. It's the name Ray gave her, the same name he gave the girl he kidnapped and killed before he kidnapped the second Alice.
Alice calls herself a "living dead girl." She's numb inside, she's hungry, she's been tortured so much that she wishes for death. She's waiting for it, hoping for it, expecting it any day; but Ray has something different in mind that is even more terrifying to the reader, and he needs Alice's help.
I've always heard stories about people getting kidnapped and having many opportunities to escape, but they don't. This is Alice's case. There are multiple opportunities for her to tell someone, to run away, to ask for help, but Ray has instilled so much fear in her that she doesn't even think about it anymore.
She truly believes that he will kill her parents, and at one point she says, "I could run, but he would find me. He would take me back to 623 Daisy Lane and make everyone who lives there pay. He would make everyone there pay even if he didn't find me. I belong to him. I'm his little girl. All I have to do is be good" (p. 34).
What is most profound is that Ray has brainwashed her to the point of her believing that she's bad, she's selfish, and that it's all her fault. On the day of the kidnapping, she wouldn't share her lip gloss with her friends. They walked away from her, leaving her alone and exposed to a monster, but she blames herself, thinks if she wouldn't have been so selfish, her life would be different. It's truly heartbreaking.
But the worst part is that people look the other way. They know something's not right, but don't step in.
Scott's writing is gripping, captivating, and horrifying. She draws you in from the very beginning, and Alice immediately becomes real, someone you ache for, someone who you want to make it, someone you want to pluck out of this nightmare of a life. If you're wondering about the language and descriptions in the book, it is evident that Ray is sexually abusing Alice. It's evident that sexual acts are being performed, but the language itself is not graphic.
When discussing why she wrote Living Dead Girl, Elizabeth Scott says, " I wrote Living Dead Girl because it demanded to be told, and I hope it speaks to you as strongly as it did to me." (read more at Simon & Schuster's website).
Did I like the story? Honestly, no. I don't like stories about children being sexually abused. Was it well-written? Absolutely. Should every parent read it? Absolutely. Should teens read it? I want to say yes. I want to say that it could potentially save lives, but it's scary. All I want to do is scoop my daughter up and never let her go.
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52 of 57 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Gripping, compelling, but downright disturbing, June 23, 2009
This review is from: Living Dead Girl (Hardcover)
Living Dead Girl is beautifully written. The main character is complex and her voice shines originally throughout the novel. Scott's style fits the novel perfectly. I read it through in one sitting. I couldn't put it down.
So what was my problem with this novel? I can see I'm in the minority, but I feel I have to put my opinion out there. I wish I had never read this story. Obviously it has been a positive experience for some, based on other reviews, but I found it too disturbing, too haunting, too compelling. While I do not advocate everyone sticking their heads in the sand and ignoring the very real and very terrible issues addressed in Living Dead Girl (kidnapping; sexual, physical, and verbal abuse), I could have done without the in-your-face, real-time portrayal of such a tragedy, fictional or not.
That said, I did finish the book; I couldn't put it down. I just wish someone had written a review like this so I would have known what I was getting into, and I could have made a more informed choice about what I read. Kyla's story and the abuse-laden images from the book will probably haunt me forever--and I don't think this is a good thing.
This book raises issues which should not be ignored. Scott was brave in publishing such a story. Perhaps I am not brave enough to appreciate it.
ETA: This book is not smut. And it's the responsibility of parents to be aware of what their children are reading.
I'm an adult, and the content was horrifying to me. That doesn't mean it was a bad book; it just means it was a bad book for ME. I've read plenty of Scott's other books since this one, and she's an excellent storyteller. If anyone's worried about content, I'd recommend other books of hers--Stealing Heaven, for example, or The Unwritten Rule.
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19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Bare Bones But Very Gripping, July 28, 2008
This review is from: Living Dead Girl (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
This book kept me engaged right from the beginning. I sat down and read it in one sitting. This is always a sign of a good book.
This story, told through the eyes of Alice (self proclaimed Living Dead Girl), is of a girl who was abducted five years ago on a school field trip just before her tenth birthday. It tells of what life is like with Ray the man who abducted her, the man who controls every aspect of her life including how much and what she can eat. Like her, the book is very bare bones- yet chocked full of raw emotion of being stuck living a life with no emotion. A life of being a girl that no one sees...no one will save. A girl who wants out of the misery she feels, yet sees no way out.
When I got it I was surprised that the book was seemingly so short- however I was unable to put this book down. I was equally horrified and yet left wanting to know what was going to happen next. I can only give this book four stars however, because I was disappointed in the way it ended. It was far too abrupt and left this reader wanting to know more about what happened after the end of the book. I don't want to go too much into detail and ruin the story- but it was far too abrupt.
A fair warning: This book does deal with strong subject matter and violence. Young or sensitive readers might want to select an alternate book or parents of such readers may want to read this book with their young adults.
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