Alice hates Ray. He scares her. He starves her. He hits her. He rapes her. But she never tries to get away from him, even when she has the chance.
Ray stole the almost 10-year-old girl from a school field trip. She’s 15 now, but doesn’t run from her abductor for fear that he will enact his threat to kill her parents.
But Alice is growing up too much for Ray. She doesn’t fit into her little girl clothing anymore or look like a child. That means Ray needs a new “Alice”—the third in his series. He wants the current Alice to help him identify and kidnap the new girl.
Alice tells this story in Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott. Alice calls herself a “living dead girl” because she feels dead inside and wants to physically die.
The portrayal of Alice’s life from her own perspective gives the reader a glimpse into what it might be like to be stolen and imprisoned without physical chains.
Although the story is fiction, Alice’s narrative fits with what we’ve learned happens to children who are kidnapped and abused by their abductors. Still, it’s a situation that’s difficult to understand or imagine.
I read this book in less than 24 hours. I had to know what happened to Alice. The ending, in which Alice meets a teenage boy and a police officer while trying to entice Ray’s next victim, is perhaps the most stunning part of the book. If you can handle this type of story, I strongly recommend it. However, I don’t think it’s appropriate for Scott’s typical young adult audience.
