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karen's Reviews > Living Dead Girl
Living Dead Girl
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I probably would have liked this book more if i were a teenager or a pedophile. I mostly just read this for science. it came up in my collection development class when we were talking about challenged books (that doesn't mean that they are handicapped, but that they have been rarrred at by angry parents and other scared concerned types), but when i heard what it was about - i pretty much had to read it to see how an author handled this situation, because it seemed rough stuff for teen fiction. the basic premise - although i hate doing plot summaries - is that "alice" (the first-person narrator)is kidnapped when she is ten and physically and sexually abused for 5 years, but when she starts to develop physically beyond her captor's personal preference, he enlists her help in selecting her own replacement. so -ew. and i don't know anything about psychology, child or otherwise, so i don't know the terminology, but she just completely shuts down, emotionally, into a not-quite-stockholm syndrome - she doesn't align herself with him for anything but self-preservation, but she has just given up fighting and does what he wants, because he has made threats about hurting her family etc. so - she has all this freedom to leave the house and go to the park to find this new-child for him, but she can't do anything to save herself, which is very frustrating for the reader.The author gets 5 stars for balls - for tackling the subject matter to begin with and for the ending which i'm sure had some people up in startled emotional flight mode.and as a cautionary tale, it should also get 5 stars, although a teen audience is a little old for the caution, and any younger readers would be traumatized beyond therapy. do not give this book to your 8-year-old. just tell them to stay away from unmarked vans. i just personally didn't connect to it. the subject matter is horrifying, but in the abstract, and this character's shutdown response didn't make me want to save her so much as walk in, splash some water on her and say "snap out of it". when i was little, these were my literary kidnapping equivalents:
and they were way more gentle in terms of what the girls went through, wayyyy fewer forced blowjobs, but it gave me a total sense of confidence - if i got my ass kidnapped, i could get out of it with my cleverness. i used to dream about being kidnapped, and the ways i would elude my tormentors. it's probably a really good thing i was never actually kidnapped, because this here book is probably closer to the reality - feisty kids don't always win, but this might have made me a little more of a shut-in, and may have ruined my devil-may-care years, so i would have lost some good adventure-stories. i didn't personally love this book, but there's no reason it shouldn't be in a library. libraries are full of books. you don't like this one, don't write an angry letter, just go read another one. hell, i'm about to.
and they were way more gentle in terms of what the girls went through, wayyyy fewer forced blowjobs, but it gave me a total sense of confidence - if i got my ass kidnapped, i could get out of it with my cleverness. i used to dream about being kidnapped, and the ways i would elude my tormentors. it's probably a really good thing i was never actually kidnapped, because this here book is probably closer to the reality - feisty kids don't always win, but this might have made me a little more of a shut-in, and may have ruined my devil-may-care years, so i would have lost some good adventure-stories. i didn't personally love this book, but there's no reason it shouldn't be in a library. libraries are full of books. you don't like this one, don't write an angry letter, just go read another one. hell, i'm about to.
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Finished Reading
February 22, 2010
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Comments Showing 1-50 of 94 (94 new)
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karen
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rated it 3 stars
Feb 22, 2010 01:07PM
ha! all that noise and i forgot to rate it. sheesh.
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I can't remember the details of End of Alice, but is it kind of similar to this book?
no, end of alice is way more complicated. that one is about a man imprisoned for meddling with a minor, and an of-age girl who tries to befriend him because she is about to embark on her own sexual conquest of a very young boy. so, she is looking for pointers and shared interest. only, the convict was really in love with his girl, and the female-predator lacks "scruples", as he sees it. but that's me remembering it from like 10 years ago. but it is by far my favorite a.m. homes book.
I remember liking the book and I remember the icky scab scene in it, but most of the other details are all gone.
Love the Sweet Valley High pic. When my mom moved last year, she found some of my old SVH books and gave them back to me. I nearly cried with happiness. Those old covers are the best.
it turns out that MUCH of life is different from how it is portrayed at sweet valley. i had no idea.
despite my twin-fear/aversion, i read a bunch of them, in these old hardcover bookclub editions from annie's book swap. aw - memories!when i was looking for the kidnapped cover, i found another title, kidnapped by the cult or something. tell me one of y'all read that one. tell me about it, please!
I never read that one, but looking at the cover for it, I wish I had. It looks hilarious. Ahh, good ol' Sweet Valley drama.
that cult doesn't look dangerous. i suppose that's their way in...
i have a hundred billion goodreads.com "friends", and only 3 of them have read this book, and they are not people with whom i have ever had any interaction except to say "sure, you can be my friend". what's the point of friends if they haven't read this book??? i am going to go start my own cult and you may not enter unless you can quote from svh #82. good day.
Is that the SVH book where Elizabeth is coerced in to performing fellatio? Or were you saying forced blow-jobs were the difference between Sweet Valley High and this book?
ha! no - living dead girl has forced blow jobs, among other things. i doubt elizabeth and jessica ever gave anyone a hummer. poor ned nickerson.
Ned was taken care of, thank you very much. It is fairly well known that Nancy Drew was quite skilled in the art of oral sex. FYI.
how embarrassing! i meant todd wilkins, of course!!the boyfriends were always interchangeable in these teeny series...
yes i imagine you must be quite embarrassed by that little mix up.
Elizabeth and Jessica should have spent some time around Nancy Drew and the kids from Flowers in the Attic.
Did Todd Wilkins date both Elizabeth and Jessica?
ask ariel ,i'm clearly no authority.
ack, i'm sitting here saying, should i pretend i don't know? i feel like maybe yes, i should.
She does seem to be more attuned to the seedier side of the teen series stars.
all i know is that jessica and elizabeth drove a fiat, and nancy drew drove a mustang.
...and that elizabeth was a prude, jessica was a tease, and nancy drew was easy.
Out of, um literary curiosity, is there one particular Nancy Drew book that highlights her easy going character?
i remember things getting hot and heavy between her and frank hardy in some super editions.
I never read any of the super editions, but I can't imagine Joe Hardy was too happy about being left out.
i only actually read about 5 svh's, but i read a lot of nancy drew. i guess i never read any of the super editions. one more missed opportunity...
Karen, when you wrote "not quite Stockholm syndrome" I think what you're looking for is the term "learned helplessness". It's found in victims of long term abuse and it's what makes outsiders so frustrated, because the victim can't seem to do anything to escape her abuse. I really don't think the author was trying to write a caution, I think she's trying to show how badly that kind of abuse damages the psyche.
!!! that's the expression!! hurrah!see, i think if it were written for an adult audience, i would agree with the emphasis on the psychological, but - and it's not that teen readers wouldn't understand the psychology, but i think it would interest them less than just the actual plot: nouns/verbs. i don't think that the teen reader processes the extra-textual in the same way as an adult reader - and it's not their fault, it's a matter of experience and exposure. not that i've read it, but twilight seems to lack depth, and that seems to be the norm for a lot of teen fiction. it has definitely gotten more sophisticated since i was a teen ages and ages ago, but there is still a lack of emphasis on the take-away psychology. am i making sense? i am at work and my attentions are divided.
There is a lot of YA that lacks depth (I have read Twilight, ugh) although it's hardly a requirement to be shallow. Many teen readers (either because of what they've been through themselves [and teen girls are the group most likely to be sexually assaulted:] or because of news stories) have extremely morbid interests. So often the first human rection to a news story is "what was she thinking?!" Even if most readers don't process it, I commend Scott for trying to show what a hypothetical she might be thinking.But yeah, it's hard to feel for someone who seems to have stopped feeling anything herself.
there is still a lack of emphasis on the take-away psychology.
this may be true but i would argue that you just happen to be reading YA that is more commercial than literary.
this may be true but i would argue that you just happen to be reading YA that is more commercial than literary.
ooh! what teen fiction should i be reading?? i love the hunger games series, which strikes me as being more literary than average...gimmie names.
Well, there was that one when Nancy and Ned broke up and she tried dating someone else...and her cousins Bess and George. George was more..sporty? is that the word I'm looking for? and Bess was a chubby, sweet bimbo who I'm pretty sure gave away more than Nancy.
North of Beautiful by Justina Headley
Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan
Lips Touch by Laini Taylor
and, Karen, I know you hate the idea of reading kiddie books. but The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt is middle grade, and totally out-of-this-world incredible.
Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan
Lips Touch by Laini Taylor
and, Karen, I know you hate the idea of reading kiddie books. but The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt is middle grade, and totally out-of-this-world incredible.
no, i hate(d) the idea, but now i'm a huge baby - i will read anything - there are times when i am too sleepy to read anything complicated, but i still want to perform the action of reading, so i have a whole stockpile of younger-reader books here for those times. and i own tender morsels already - excellent! i will check out the others (and those 2 from before!!)you are a gift from the angels.
i know exactly what you mean. and reading great middle grade can be surprisingly satisfying. put the wednesday wars right at the top of that list.
tender morsels gets mixed reviews. it's a hugely ambitious book and i'm not sure it entirely succeeds but i admire the author endlessly for what she did do. it's also really disturbing. i loved it. go at it!
tender morsels gets mixed reviews. it's a hugely ambitious book and i'm not sure it entirely succeeds but i admire the author endlessly for what she did do. it's also really disturbing. i loved it. go at it!
haha i used to read the sweet valley books.
karen wrote: "ooh! what teen fiction should i be reading?? i love the hunger games series, which strikes me as being more literary than average...gimmie names."
I like caroline cooney, I think face on the milk carton was about kidnapping.
and I liked Tangerine by Edward Bloor although I think I am getting it slightly confused with another book that takes place in california in which it rains everyday and there is a ground fire they see smoke from. If anyone knows what book that was it is also good. In my head the two have become one book, I hate when that happens.
Courtney wrote: "haha i used to read the sweet valley books."I missed this trend, perhaps I should go find one.
I did write a trite comment before I finished reading the review. It didn't seem quite so funny afterwards though.. so I deleted it and wrote this explanation instead.
i don't know. people have found it useful, as a way to talk about the subject with teens. you know, for warnings. it happens all the time, and some more sheltered youth might benefit... but it's still pretty rough, content-wise.
My sister read this book and loved it. She was just 20 at the time though. I think books like this are more to make us think than they are anything else really. Kinda like Stolen by Lucy Christopher,not a good or bad story just a story to make you think.
YEAH, AND WHEN YOU FINISH IT, YOU ARE ALL SOUR-FEELING AND CONFLICTED ABOUT WHAT YOU HAVE READ.
Have you ever read Stolen? I didnt know how to feel for anyone. I understood everyone's point of view of the kidnapper and yet I still felt bad for him in a way. Messed w my head for days!
no, not yet... but it is on my radar...
This book sounds like a plot from a Criminal Minds episode.
