Thursday, October 30, 2008

Living Dead Girl by: Elizabeth Scott

Total: ???

I'm sure the above line confused the heck out of all of you, so I'll try and explain myself - and this book - as best as I can.

I read Living Dead Girl so quickly the pages blurred into one. Last night I watched Bones and Criminal Minds (apt shows for the dark subject matter of the book) and read the new book I received in the mail *thanks, Vanessa & Elizabeth!* during commercial breaks. So, all in all, it probably took me a little over half an hour.

Despite the faults (and this book, like any, has its faults), I was immediately overwhelmed by the story of a fifteen-year-old girl named Alice, who lives with her kidnapper-turned-abuser and has pushed her once-normal life into the furthest crevices of her mind. She survives by eating little yogurt cups and watching other people sort out their problems on talk shows and on soap operas.

I started sniffling and whimpering before I'd even reached page twenty. This is a bone-chilling account of sexual - and emotional - abuse and definitely not for the faint of heart. It's depressing, but rewarding. I have a feeling I'll be thinking about Elizabeth Scott's latest venture long after today.

The one major 'fault' as I mentioned earlier, is the ending, plain and simple. Although hope is omnipresent, hovering in the background, for most of the story, the ending was too darn happy for me. I mean, no, I'm no cruel sadist who wanted Alice to die on her hands and knees.

The ending was just...like it had been ripped out of some happy-go-lucky children's story - well, a children's story with guns and special pills and pedophiles. Maybe this is all the nonsensical ramblings of a crime-show-addicted teenager, but,

DOES ANYONE ELSE AGREE AND/OR SEE WHAT I'M SAYING?

2 comments:

Kelsey said...

Hmm...well, on the ending Elizabeth said there are different ways people believed it had went. And as you can tell, it was not specifically said that she died, so there are other ways the story could've ended. Maybe she went into a coma, maybe she lived happily ever after with her parents, or maybe she did die. There are different ways and I thought the ending was perfect ending to this story. I was happy the way it ended, even if she did die. She was away from Ray, so I was happy.

Anonymous said...

I personally really liked the ending. I didn't find anything wrong with it. It seemed to fit the book, I thought.