Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott

Once upon a time, there lived a girl. She had a mother and a father and three best friends. A life.
It all ended on one class trip to the aquarium. It was there that she followed the man to the parking lot. Just ten years old, she disappeared.

For five years now the girl--Alice--has been brutalized by the man--Ray. His acts of unspeakable cruelty have left her body and her mind bloody and broken. Alice dares not escape, dares not try, not even through death. So she remains. Just a shell. A living dead girl. With one breath Ray will tell her that he loves her, that she's his little girl. With the next, his hands will twist and bruise her. He will keep her forever. Or so she thinks. But now, as she grows taller and more womanly, Ray wants Alice to find him a new little girl. A girl younger and smoother than she.

And Alice tries. Because this might just be her salvation. She, at least, sees it that way. If Ray has another girl to love and hurt, he might leave her alone. Might let her go free. Or at least let her die.

Living Dead Girl is short, just 170 pages. But its lightness stops with its physical weight. Everything else about it is heavy. The premise, the events that transpire, the emotion; all of it heavy. While I was reading it, I could not even comprehend the sheer magnitude of the horror that Alice was facing. Yet I did not for a one single moment contemplate putting the book down. It gripped me from beginning to end.

One thing I really appreciated about this book was its psychological and emotional complexity. There are so many layers to the ideas of humanity and good and evil. Ray is lord and monster to Alice, but he is what he is for a reason. Things happened to him just like he does to Alice. Wrong? Indescribably so. Reprehensible? Undeniably. But still. There are layers. Always layers. Which Scott gets at perfectly without playing devil's advocate.

This book is enormously well-written. Told simply and achingly, it has an intensity and a realism that few could match. To be quite honest, the entire thing made my insides twist and squirm. It left me gasping for air and holding back tears in the middle of my second period class (because paying attention is for losers). There is no happy ending. At best, one could call it bittersweet. And that's being generously optimistic. But the ending is fitting. Perfect. Heartbreaking (I use that word quite a bit, don't I?).

In short, Living Dead Girl is horrible. And brilliant.
I'm not sure that I feel comfortable rating it.
But I will.
Top of the pile.


Fully alive and yours,