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.
Details: Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott, 170 pages, 3.85 stars on Goodreads
My Thoughts: If you're a relatively old follower, you may remember my review of The Unwritten Rule, also by Elizabeth Scott. In a nutshell, I said that while I didn't enjoy that book too much, I got the sense that the author is a very good writer and that she writes dark very well. So, when I was browsing the library shelves and saw Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott, I decided to read it. I mean, you don't get much darker than the title "Living Dead Girl".
This was a short book, but I completely devoured it in about forty minutes. I was ripping through the pages (actually, I slipped on one of the pages and made a tiny tear - sorry, library!) to find out what happens next, what happens next, and since I had to leave in about an hour, I was desperate to finish the book. (Checking it out with my library card did not occur to me.)
Living Dead Girl is probably the darkest book I've read in a long time, but that's good because I love dark books, I love edgy books, and I especially love dark, edgy books. If I was reading this at home, the waterworks would be exploding out of my eyes, but at the library, while I was too embarrassed to cry in public lest people think I'm a freak, I did have tears pricking the corners of my eyes. Every word is perfect and screams out emotion - I wasn't reading about "Alice"'s hopelessness, I was hopeless; I wasn't reading about "Alice"'s abuse, I was abused. Elizabeth Scott is a master at making you the character.
One thing I have to say is this book isn't for the faint of heart. It's disturbing, intense, and heartbreaking all at once. If you don't think you can handle it, you probably shouldn't read it. But if you can, I highly, highly recommend it. And on a final note - some people hated the ending, but I absolutely loved it. It was so perfect, almost like The Giver, in its ambiguity and awesomeness.
This book doesn't open your eyes - it tears them open. Read it, if you can.
Plot - 5/5
Characters - 5/5
Writing - 5/5
Impact - 4/5
Inability to put it down - 4/5
Overall - 92% = A
2 comments:
Wow. That does sound amazing. Dark is not usually my thing, but I'm still intrigued. Great review!
I LOVE this book. I read it like 2 years ago and it's STILL in my brain sometimes. There's another version with a better title I thought, but who cares? This book is GOOD.
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