Title: Living Dead GirlAuthor: Elizabeth Scott
Series: None
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Release Date: September 2 2008
My Source: Library
My Rating: 5/5
Goodreads Summary:
Once upon a time I was a little girl who disappeared.
Once upon a time my name was not Alice.
Once upon a time I didn't know how lucky I was.
When Alice was ten, Ray took her away from her family, her friends -- her life. She learned to give up all power, to endure all pain. She waited for the nightmare to be over.
Now Alice is fifteen and Ray still has her, but he speaks more and more of her death. He does not know it is what she longs for. She does not know he has something more terrifying than death in mind for her.
This is Alice's story. It is one you have never heard, and one you will never, ever forget.
My Review: Living Dead Girl is the story of a girl who was kidnapped when she was ten and forced to live with her kidnapper- a man named Ray- for five years, during which she became a "living dead girl". He abuses her in every way possible, and controls everything she does. It's truly horrifying reading this from Alice's point of view. Alice isn't her real name- it's the name Ray gave her, and the one she keeps now.
Reading Living Dead Girl is a completely unique and strangely terrifying experience. The most powerful part of this book was Alice's voice. It feels so very real- her thoughts are broken up and poetic at times, how a real person in that situation might think. She's confused and detached from her situation in a way I can't even imagine. It truly gives a feeling of being dead/living at the same time. Ray has turned her into a person nobody would ever think they'd become, but with flashbacks we see Alice sink into the role as basically his slave. We see her extreme compliance with horror. As a reader, you just want to stop the awful situation happening with Alice, but you just can't. It's a very emotional read that had me on the edge the whole time, biting my fingernails.
This book is definitely not for someone just looking for a light read- Living Dead Girl isn't afraid to be blunt about scary topics. There's a lot of content that I would only recommend to mature readers- older teens and adults. The graphic details of what Alice goes through every day are just disturbing.
If you think you can handle this book, I'd recommend it. I give it a 5 out of 5 stars, but not in the same way I have given this rating to other books. I give it 5 stars because I put this book down and all I could say was "wow".
Buy From Amazon
Author Info: Website/Blog
Great review! I love how you said Alice's voice gives a feeling of being dead and living at the same time. It makes me want to read it more!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great review. Like you said, this book isn't for the faint hearted. I finished it in one night, sat up in bed for a whole minute in silence and opened it up to re-read it again. I guess I was hoping for a change... it didn't come.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great review. This was such a hard book to read, at times I wondered if it was too graphic, more than me we needed. Overall I really enjoyed it.
ReplyDelete