I heard about this book on LT, when it was still in Hardcover. It seems so many books I read now are LT inspired ! I waited for this book to come out in paperback. When it did I was shocked to learn that it was a YA book. Not that the writing was difficult, but the subject matter just didn't seem to be YA material. Don't we already frighten children enough ?

The book is about a young girl who has been kidnapped by a pedophile, and has spent years with him. Needless to say he abuses her and terrorizes her, so that she goes along with his wishes. He even leaves her alone and she doesn't run. He tells her that he will kill her parents and the new baby they have, which she has never met.

The book opens with "Alice" (the name her abductor gave her) getting too old and too big for him. He starves her to keep her child-like, but she is now a young teen. She is afraid of displeasing him, but also acts behind his back in a furtive manner when she can do so safely.

He decides that Alice will help him find a new little girl for him. Alice knows that when she is replaced she will not be released, but killed. It is what happened to the girl Alice replaced. Alice is not only fine with that idea, but can't wait for it to be over.

The story is told very simply and without a lot of gory detail, but it is still harrowing. I suspect the author is trying to emulate what she thinks a child would talk and think like. Unfortunately, I find Alice to be a very dumb child. I think adults have difficulty seeing young children as real thinking individuals. Or perhaps Alice simply has no backbone. Who knows, but the book left me feeling underwhelmed about Alice, despite her plight.

There are two other troubling issues touched on in the book, besides Alice's treatment.

One is that when she was younger she ran to an adult and tried to escape, but was not believed and was returned to her captor. Still invisible as a teen, she goes to have a bikini wax that removes all her hair, even though she is too young to need such a thing. Not the woman waxing her, or the older women in the waiting room, ever ask any questions.

Alice finds that for all the child-centric talk and rules, no one really wants to get involved, or disrupt their lives and schedules. Her captor says she is being home schooled to explain why she never goes to school. He is always with her, and she is so well behaved that many in their apartment complex think of him as an ideal parent. Adults see what they want to, and what they wish most for their own children.

The other issue is that Alice has no qualms at all about finding, luring and helping him to catch another girl to take her place. Even though Alice knows what a frightening, physically damaging and ultimately fatal relationship it will be. She only wants her own suffering to end, even though it means death.

Of course Alice is only OK with the idea of death, not the reality of it. That revelation may come too late for Alice, as there in not a happy, but an ambiguous ending.

It makes you think of the circle of hate and violence. That often those who are sucked into it young, grow up to do the same to others. There seems to be no way out.

The book was well written, if in a very simple style. It was a quick, riveting read (hard to say enjoyable because of the subject matter). Spending time with Alice many times seemed realistic, for how a teen would think and act, but at others seemed too idealistic (as though it were Pollyanna who had been kidnapped, not a modern child). I can't say I think it would be good for kids to read, but there are points that parents should talk to their kids about. ( )

At fifteen, Alice knows her abductor/abuser is growing tired of her and will soon kill her, just as he killed her predecessor. Her only hope of escape is to help him abduct a new little girl for him to abuse. For anyone who has ever wondered how the Elizabeth Smarts and Jaycee Lee Dugards of the world were cowed into submission, this book will make you feel their pain and see into the twisted minds of the psychopathic child abuser. This book is well-written, difficult to put down, and deeply disturbing - not recommended for those under sixteen.

Sometimes novels can be a window into a dark truth, a truth no one wants to acknowledge, but also one cannot ignore. In a prose style more closely aligned with poetic verse, Elizabeth Scott paints a dark truth in her novel Living Dead Girl. The story is told through the eyes of an abducted ten year old, Alice, who has been held captive for the past five years. A stark, bleak, tormenting account of the daily excursions she is forced to live to make her captor happy in his delusional life provide the framing for the story. Alice is different from the pervious girl, if she can replace herself with another, then he will let her escape to her freedom. A novel written for young adults, I hesitate to agree with this marketing. This story is for the mature reader, one who will be able to understand the dimensions of power, and not feel desensitized at the dark imagery provided by Alice. This title is currently available in our library. Happy Reading! ( )

Incredibly disturbing. I don't think I can say much more than that. It really pushed me to be in "Alice's" situation and it wasn't hard to imagine--the writing was wonderful in that it put you right there in the present with her. This isn't a book I'd read more than once (once was enough) but it is a book that I would recommend people read (if you don't have a weak stomach) once.
Comment ( )

High School and Up - The narrator of Living Dead Girl is the second "Alice" to be abducted and abused by Ray. Taken from a school field trip when she was ten, Alice has survived five years with Ray, but the older she gets, the closer she is to meeting the same end as the first Alice.
In simple, stark prose, we are given the first-hand account of the title character's life with her abuser, made more chilling by the absence of words like "kidnapping" or "rape," and by the girl's own fear-fueled cruelty.
"Living Dead Girl" made the Teen Top 25 list from YALSA this year. Recommended for all teen collections. ( )