Living Dead Girl

Scott, Elizabeth. 2008. Living Dead Girl.

Just when you thought Elizabeth Scott was getting to be predictable...along comes LIVING DEAD GIRL. To clarify, I love, love, love Elizabeth Scott. I have happily read and gushed about her first three books: Bloom, Perfect You, and Stealing Heaven.

If I had just a handful of words to describe Living Dead Girl, they'd be: powerful, haunting, and unputdownable.

It is the story of a girl caught in a nightmare. "Alice." A girl who at the age of ten was reborn.

Get up.
Those were the first words I ever heard.
Open my eyes, see a girl, black and blue all over, dried blood along her thighs. Red brown stains smeared across the hairless juncture between.
"Get up and take a bath, Alice," the man in the blue shirt said, and Alice did.
I did.
That's how I was born. Naked, hairless, covered in blood like all babies.
Named, bathed, and then taken out into the world. (20)

Kidnapped by a pedophile during a class field trip, Alice has endured the unthinkable for five years. Now she's fifteen, five foot seven, and a hundred pounds. Her time is running out, she knows this, she wasn't the first Alice. But it is in how she lives--her world, her thoughts, her decisions--that will haunt you most of all. Suspenseful, dark, and very chilling. Definitely not for everyone. But if you can go to the dark side, if you can walk in her shoes for a bit, it is really something.

Scott's writing is incredible. If I were in charge of handing out awards, one would be heading her way. Her book is amazingly haunting. It just resonates with feeling, emotion. The mood might be dark. The ending bittersweet, but oh-what-a-book.

In previous posts, I've compared Elizabeth Scott to Sarah Dessen. She may not realize it, but that is high praise, very high praise coming from me. Some people may think that Stephenie Meyer is the "perfect" writer. But for me, Sarah Dessen, has always provided the most satisfying of reads. But with her fourth novel, Living Dead Girl, new comparisons must be made. Alice Sebold. Nancy Werlin. Gail Giles. Laura Wiess.

I read an ARC of this. It isn't due to be published until September, I believe. As I'm quoting from this ARC, be aware that there could be changes between this and the final published version.

http://www.elizabethwrites.com/
Another review: Reader Rabbit,

If you've read this one, please let me know and I'll add your link to the list.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews