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Living Dead Girl Elizabeth Scott Books

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Living Dead Girl Elizabeth Scott Books

I read this novel when it had just been released. As a teen, I found it compelling, disturbing, and exactly what I had been craving.
Years later, I can safely say that I was neither traumatized nor shattered by this book. It has stuck with me in a way that few books have, and for a different reason than most- some of my favourite books are comedies a la Douglas Adams. This book is clearly not a comedy- and the vivid realness of it combined with the dreamlike tone are intense and beautiful, and that's what has followed me through the years.
When I first picked up "Living Dead Girl", I was surprised to find it in the young adult section of the store. In reading it, I realized that that was the section in which it belonged, and the drivel on the shelves next to it (that I had always found slightly insulting) was pandering to over-protective parents and teens with no real passion for reading. This book is frank, honest, and aimed at exactly the right audience.

Many parents have a problem with this book. They feel that people under the age of 18 (or any age, according to some) should not read nor have access to this book. I completely understand the sentiment of wanting to protect your children from the evils of this world, but I have no respect for someone who stops a child from reading a book they feel drawn to. Not everyone can be satisfied with the light and fluffy nonsense that has the emotional maturity of a toddler. Teenage years are difficult, and not just because of the social situations and growing pains. For many teens the mind takes a darker turn, and there's nothing wrong with that- as a parent you have no power over that. If you don't allow your children to flourish in their own way, they will never become confident and healthy adults.

I would recommend this book for anyone who has voluntarily come across it, picked it up and found in themselves a desire for more. If we still had bookstores, this would be easier. Anyone who stumbles across this book should at least give it a chance, and if it's not in your taste PLEASE don't recycle it, as one reviewer did. Donate it or sell it or give it away, so that someone who DOES appreciate this writing, this beautiful story with its disturbing implications, can have access to it.


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Living Dead Girl Elizabeth Scott Books Reviews

This book put me in the perspective of a girl who was supressed by her kidnapler growing up. This gave me insight on what it feels like to be trapped, to be manipulated...as sad as the story is, I recommend for everyone to think twice about “the weird quiet girl next door”.
People write horror stories. People write about monsters, ghosts, zombies, demons - but when someone writes a story about true evil, people who are hurt so much as a child that they hurt others because it's all they know, people who are soulless, haunted by their past, something that is believable, that is what is truly terrifying.

This book was so raw, and real, it made me hurt and feel things I didn't want to feel - as a person, as a woman, as a mother. It scared me beyond words because it was so incredibly realistic. It was a terrible story, very well written, very thought through. I only gave it 4 stars because the ending made me so sad, even though I constantly questioned throughout the book what a shell of a person she still would have been had she escaped, all the pain she would have felt remembering those 5 years. I'm not sure how to feel.

I am speechless. Bravo, Elizabeth Scott.
Read more [...]

the basics
Chilling. Devastating. Living Dead Girl is a story of every parent's, and every child's, worst nightmare. We enter the world of Alice, five years after she has been kidnapped by the abusive Ray. The story winds between her memories of that fateful day and her struggle to escape his new plan for her find a new Alice. This isn't for the weak stomached. Alice goes through some of the worst torture, physical and sexual, a person can experience. In books like this, it's easy for the the violence to become maudlin or offensively exploitative. Instead of a meaningful book, it becomes little better than a shower scene in a slasher film. Scott avoids that pitfall. By focusing on Alice's mental and emotional reactions rather than the details of the tortures, she shows a faithful picture of the horror without making it tacky. Alice is instantly lovable and her story is a mix of thriller and memoir that picks up and doesn't let go.

plot . 5/5
There's no slow buildup. You're thrown right into Alice's hell. It's an interesting choice. We see the kidnapping and glimpses of the past several years in flashback chapters, but not directly. We see her memories. It allows the story to pick up right away and to avoid getting down in a lot of exposition. It also allows us to come in at Alice's worst moment the moment Ray says he has a new plan for her. This plan, to steal another child, is horrifying in itself, and a clever literary choice. It shows us just how broken Alice is mentally--so desperate for freedom from her abuse that she'll do anything to remove Ray's attention from her. The ending is abrupt, but I don't think it would have been good for it to drag either.

concept . 5/5
You see it a lot on crime shows, but this is the first book I've read about it. It's a rare and horrific thing, kidnapping and sexual slavery. It make for a book that could be sensationalized. Used as "torture porn." It's not. Scott does a great job of portraying Alice's life faithfully. The story focuses mostly on her inner thoughts and reactions, so we see the true damage caused by this situation, beyond just the physical. It's an important point to make, and it underscores the message of the title--Living Dead Girl--perfectly.

characters . 5/5
There aren't many characters. Alice lives a secluded life with her abuser, who doesn't even appear in the text as often as you'd expect. However, we still know him intimately. We know him through Alice's descriptions of his abuse. Her fear of him. The details she slips about his life and his threats. We even pity him, briefly, while still hating him. In the same way, Jake is both lovable and loathable. He's no prince charming, but he's as deeply broken as Alice and looking for any way to escape. He's that dark part of all of us.

style . 5/5
The style is beautiful, lyrical, poetic at times. But not in a flowery way. It shows how deeply Alice lives in her inner world. Dead, but still moving through the world. Still forming impressions. Her voice has a dreamlike, trancelike quality to it--perfect for a zombie, a Living Dead Girl. It's gorgeous writing that you don't get to see much in the young adult genre.

mechanics . 5/5
Part flashback, part thriller, part philosophy. We get impressions, memories, thoughts, dreams--it's like being inside of Alice's head. And of course the formatting is polished and pretty.

take home message
A chilling slice of a tortured life that shows just how deeply abuse can leave scars, in and out.
I read this novel when it had just been released. As a teen, I found it compelling, disturbing, and exactly what I had been craving.
Years later, I can safely say that I was neither traumatized nor shattered by this book. It has stuck with me in a way that few books have, and for a different reason than most- some of my favourite books are comedies a la Douglas Adams. This book is clearly not a comedy- and the vivid realness of it combined with the dreamlike tone are intense and beautiful, and that's what has followed me through the years.
When I first picked up "Living Dead Girl", I was surprised to find it in the young adult section of the store. In reading it, I realized that that was the section in which it belonged, and the drivel on the shelves next to it (that I had always found slightly insulting) was pandering to over-protective parents and teens with no real passion for reading. This book is frank, honest, and aimed at exactly the right audience.

Many parents have a problem with this book. They feel that people under the age of 18 (or any age, according to some) should not read nor have access to this book. I completely understand the sentiment of wanting to protect your children from the evils of this world, but I have no respect for someone who stops a child from reading a book they feel drawn to. Not everyone can be satisfied with the light and fluffy nonsense that has the emotional maturity of a toddler. Teenage years are difficult, and not just because of the social situations and growing pains. For many teens the mind takes a darker turn, and there's nothing wrong with that- as a parent you have no power over that. If you don't allow your children to flourish in their own way, they will never become confident and healthy adults.

I would recommend this book for anyone who has voluntarily come across it, picked it up and found in themselves a desire for more. If we still had bookstores, this would be easier. Anyone who stumbles across this book should at least give it a chance, and if it's not in your taste PLEASE don't recycle it, as one reviewer did. Donate it or sell it or give it away, so that someone who DOES appreciate this writing, this beautiful story with its disturbing implications, can have access to it.