Living Dead Girl

I write this post still feeling emotionally devastated by the experience of reading Elizabeth Scott's Living Dead Girl. This terrifying novel is the account of 15-year old "Alice," a young woman who has been in the clutches of a sexual predator since he kidnapped her at age 10. Ray has named her Alice...the same name he gave his last victim. Now Alice is nearing the age when Ray tired of the previous girl, and despite the fact that he starves her to keep her looking like a child, Ray grows angrier with her every day. She longs for the release of death, but Ray has something much more sinister, much more sadistic in mind.

The prose in this novel is so sparse and lyrical it feels like poetry. The author convincingly portrays not only the physical but the psychological damage Ray inflicts on Alice; Alice seems barely human at times, incapable of any but the basest instincts.

I usually avoid this type of book, put off by the "movie of the week" feel of the plot description, but this one just drew me in despite (or maybe because of) my intense feeling of horror on reading the inside cover. I feel wrung out having finished this novel, and still slightly nauseated...but I can't deny it was a powerful reading experience. Certainly a must read for those who liked The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold.