Review: Living Dead Girl

Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott

(Amazon / Goodreads)

Goodreads description:

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 rating: 5 out of 5 stars

I honestly don't know how to describe this book - it was dark, emotional, disturbing, heartbreaking, unforgettable, powerful, intense, horrifying, haunting, devastating, scary...I could go on, but I don't think any of these adjectives really describe what Elizabeth Scott makes the reader feel with this book - it's...just wow. I wouldn't say I enjoyed this book, but you're not supposed to - it's about abduction and abuse, and I don't think anyone would say they enjoy reading about that kind of suffering.

The writing in this book surprised me - the only other book I've read by Elizabeth Scott is Love You Hate You Miss You (review), and while the writing in both of these was good, it's completely different. The writing in this novel is poetic, simplistic and beautiful, and that's not at all what I would have expected after Love You Hate You Miss You, in which the writing was much more descriptive. Maybe this story needed such a simple style, though - none of the really disturbing parts are described, and the reader has to imagine all the terrible details, which I think makes this book even more powerful.

While there were only two real characters in this book, they were both really well-developed. Alice was a great, relatable character, and I felt all of her pain and despair. Her voice was great and it was interesting to read about the things she notices about normal people, things all of us take for granted but she can't have anymore. That made me thankful for the life I have.

I also enjoyed how she sometimes used the first-person-narrative, sometimes talked about herself in the third person (as in, "Once upon a time, there was a girl who...") and sometimes addressed the reader with "you". This made the story feel even closer to me and all the more devastating.

In the beginning, I kept hoping she would escape, but, much like Alice herself, I later saw the hopelessness of the situation, and (even though I hate myself for it) I hoped her pain would end one way or another. While wishing she would die is terrible, it really shows how horrifying her situation is.

Ray was a great character as well, in a very disturbing way. I appreciated hearing about his backstory and how he was sexually abused by his mother, and while of course that doesn't justify what he does to Alice, it at least offered a type of explanation.

While this book is hard to talk about and just as hard to read, I definitely recommend it. It's brutally honest, disturbing and heartbreaking, and it will definitely stay with you.