6
Sep

A REVIEW - LIVING DEAD GIRL, BY ELIZABETH SCOTT

by Norah Wilson
(the Wilson in Wilson Doherty)


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.


As you will deduce from this synopsis, LIVING DEAD GIRL is not an easy read. But dear God, it's a compelling one! I could not put it down.

Elizabeth Scott tells this tale of a kidnapped girl grown to adolescence in the clutches of a pedophile. One who has done his best to keep his prisoner prepubescent but ultimately fails, and is now, inevitably, scouting for his next victim. And he wants Alice to help him lure her replacement.

Grisly subject matter, to be sure, but it is sensitively handled. The author brilliantly gives the viewpoint character, Alice, a sort of detached voice. Her sentences are short and unadorned by sentimentality. The reader certainly fills in the horrible details between the lines, but this presentation somehow makes this tough read possible to endure. It's also a short read, another thing that makes it possible for the reader to survive this experience.

I read this book almost a year ago, and it is still with me. It will always be with me. And I don't for a moment regret that. This is the reality that more children endure than we want to know about. It feels like it was the least I could do, to absorb this story. I'm grateful to Elzabeth Scott for writing it so exquisitely.

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