Living Dead Girl

“ I can't dream of clouds, but I can see the knife on the kitchen counter. I can dream of it inside me, opening me up and closing me down. “

scott's prose reads like a shitty YA thriller with quippy one-liners, unrealistic dialogue, and cheesy, unnecessary formatting choices for no other reason than to be dramatic and quirky.

ultimately i see no reason this book should have been written. it was an easy and quick read because of the formatting and oversimplified plot, but to me it has little to no literary merit. it's a typical predictable kidnap story, but with some graphic sexual violence/pedophilia sprinkled in for shock value. newspapers publish much more vivid descriptions of the same horrible things happening to REAL people, so “showing the ugly reality of the world” does not strike me as a valid reason for this fictional book to be published.

TWs for those planning on reading:
- kidnapping
- semi-graphic CSA, pedophilia, physical abuse
- forced starvation/ED
- addiction
- mentions of suicide/ideation

While not as explicitly graphic as Exquisite Corpse in its prose (as well as far more accessible), the topic at hand is still arguably just as―if not more―disturbing. Though, for me, it was also very bearable to digest and enjoy: the prose wasn't purple, the plotline was easy to follow, and our two main characters were interesting and engaging enough in my experience. However, despite impressively done first-person perspective of a toddler-turned-adolescent girl, certain literary motifs and and mechanics were done a little too much for my tastes, leading to some rather uninteresting moments of deja vu. Nonetheless, these technical choices did benefit the narrative and still seemed necessary given the context.

I wouldn't call this work unforgettable by any stretch, but I commend the author's boldness to create a teen-aimed contemporary horror that walks a daring line (for better or worse) between a technially accessible presentation that is yet potentially both too disturbing for its targeted readers to confront and/or perhaps too perplexing thematically to meaningfully comprehend and thus appreciate.

the most disturbing book I've ever read and would not recommend to anyone who is easily affected by rape/murder/pedos described in detail.

oh and that ending...

Intense. Dark. Vivid.

This book is horrific, as described. Not for the faint at heart–this book will haunt you after you've finished.

Wow. I have no words.

Hollow desperation lain bare and bleeding. An understanding of pain and monstrosity that no one wishes to understand, a request to bear witness to the darkest depths of humanity and inhumanity.

I can't explain really well my feelings for this book..I guess it was well-written and all that professionaly mumbo-jumbo. And the plotline was vair-e interesting. I wanted to know how it would end. So that's graaayte. And I hated that Ray guy. Really Jerk. But, you know, it wasn't entirely his fault. His mother and what she did to him is partly to blame. But its a goodread (hahahah, get it goodread? and we're on GOODREADS..nvm you don't 4get it).
But it was probably too mature a book for me. With what it deals with. But whatever. I finished it in one sitting(That's a good thing, right?)