Living Dead Girl - Elizabeth Scott

Sadistic sexual abuse story is NOT for teens.

(Flash is loading. If this text does not disappear you need to install the latest flash version)

About Our Ratings

Common Sense rates it

Read the book?

Book details

Author:Elizabeth Scott
# of pages: 170
Publisher:Simon Pulse
Original Publication Date: 09/02/2008
Genre: Fiction - Contemporary Fiction
Hardcover: $16.99
Publisher's Recommended Reading Level: 16

Parents need to know

Parents need to know that this extremely violent novel is a radical departure from Scott's previous books. It features sadistic sexual, physical, and emotional torture of a young child on nearly every page. This reviewer disagrees with other published reviews that claim the novel's abuse descriptions are not "graphic"; while Scott may not spell out every detail, it's very clear what's going on (over and over again). "Bitter taste in my mouth, like Ray's skin shoving into me -- take it, Alice, take it, open wide, that's my girl. . ." Or another passage: He "pressed my face down into his lap again, then changed his mind and moved me around, folding me into what he wanted, my head pushing into the door as he pushes into me, grunt (him) thunk (me)."

Families can talk about why a book like this was written and published. What do you think its message is? Who does it help? Have you heard about anything in the news that reminds you of this story? When is something literature or news, and when is it just voyeurism? Families can also talk about how rape is not a sexual act but one of violence.

Message
Violence
Sex
Language

Message

Social Behavior:

Constant psychological abuse by Ray. Alice watches talk shows and wonders why people blame victims rather the abusers. Alice goes to a park to scout out girls for Ray and steals a little girl's notebook. Alice pinches younger children in her building so they will bring her cookies. No one helps Alice, despite her captor's odd behavior. Alice is willing to trade another girl's freedom for her own.

Consumerism:

Drugs/Alcohol/Tobacco:

A teen boy takes pills and offers them to Alice.

Violence

Constant abuse of a girl, Alice, by her adult male captor, Ray. This includes: numerous descriptive scenes of rape with bruises, bleeding, and shoving; once Ray pushes his fingers into Alice's shoulder stab wound while raping her. On several occasions, Ray chokes Alice, beats her, holds a knife against her throat, and stabs her in the shoulder with a knife. Numerous threats, including death to her and her family. Mentions of murders of previous captor, captor's parents, and Ray's mother (who was an abuser). Alice wishes for death. Ray tries to keep Alice looking like a little girl through starvation, forced birth control pills to delay menstrual cycle, shaving of pubic hair, etc. A character shoots another with a gun.

Sex

Alice performs oral sex on two boys she just met, because they gave her the slightest amount of attention; she later has sex with one of the boys in his car.

Language

Plenty of bad language including "f--k," "bitch," and "s--t."

Common Sense says

What's the story?

Reviewed by Carrie Wheadon

Alice is kidnapped at age 10 by Ray, a violent sexual predator and murderer who keeps her as his captive for five years. Physically, sexually, and psychologically abused, she can't escape without risking the lives of her family, whom Ray has threatened to kill. Now that Alice is 15 -- the same age that Ray killed the previous "Alice" because she was too old for his sexual fantasies -- she hopes for death and agrees to help Ray capture a 6-year-old girl to take her place.

Is it any good?

Halfway through LIVING DEAD GIRL, this reader was overcome by the sickening realization that the only people who will truly enjoy this relentlessly violent novel are sexual predators who will get off on it as child torture porn. No doubt the book accurately captures the psychological hell a girl goes through when she is savagely abused day in and day out. But why would anyone want to read even 170 pages about it as entertainment?

Alice is a compelling, memorable character, but her story is voyeuristic: It's the literary equivalent of staring at a mangled car wreck. There's nothing educational, informative, or cathartic -- just the grim message that a person can endure nearly anything to survive. Reading this novel won't help girls or women who are victims of sexual violence; if you want that, volunteer or donate to a teen homeless shelter or a rape crisis line.