When she is kidnapped from a school field trip at age ten and renamed “Alice,” she starts her transformation into a living dead girl, instead of the real, alive girl she used to be, living at 623 Daisy Lane with her family. Now fifteen, Alice has been abused by Ray for five years and it has understandably taken its toll. It has been drummed into her head that escape is impossible; if she runs away, Ray, her kidnapper, will kill her and her family. All Alice can hope for is death.

And then comes a different kind of request. Alice is getting too old for Ray, and he wants a new girl to be what she is. He wants Alice to find her for him. And then, she hopes, she’ll be free. But can she do it? And what will this new exposure to the world outside of Ray do to what is left of her humanity?

Living Dead Girl is very different from Elizabeth Scott‘s previous books, but she has done a wonderful job with this disturbing story. It’s dark and intense, chilling to think that while Alice’s story is fiction, terrible things like this do happen in the real world. It’s a short book, but one that strongly affects the reader. It’s not something that’s a joy to read. It’s not supposed to be, though. It’s thought provoking, and, well, as I said before, disturbing. Elizabeth Scott is an amazing writer, and she makes this story into exactly what it is supposed to be.