Hmm…Ray being sympathetic and evil. Good point. I never noticed because I was to busy hating him, but I can definitely see it.

The ways Scott showed us, through Alice’s eyes and stories, how Ray himself was broken in the same ways that he breaks young girls, is one of the strong points of the novel. It’s hard to create a villain in these types of stories well-rounded, because it’s so easy to fall into the trap of “bad bad bad!”

I’m still breaking down all the things about Ray we can infer from the texts. I’m totally wowed by his character, honestly, even now.

I’m so glad you objected to the “Why didn’t you run away?” reviews. I think it’s really important to keep reminding the world in general that these situations are not thirty minute sitcoms where everything is resolved quickly with simplistic answers.

I need to get a copy of this!

I did a review of this in June 2008 (Lisa McMann let me have her copy to giveaway on my site and obviously I read and reviewed it before putting it up for giveaway), and I mentioned the whole “why didn’t you…” thing because to be honest, I was saying that as I read the book. But it always happened like right before Alice said something like “I bet you’re wondering why I don’t tell anyone” and then would go on to explain it. It was so eerie how that happened because I would put the book down for a minute and just sort of talk it out, come up with escape plans she could’ve done, and then I’d go back to reading and Alice would have her counter-argument.

Anyway, fantastic review. Hope you do more of those on here! Very well-written and detailed.

Great review. I liked that this book touched on the issue of victim becoming perpetrator. Both with Ray being abused as a child, and how Alice considered giving Ray another victim in order to keep the heat off herself. I’ve added a link to your review here: http://www.thebookzombie.com/2009/01/review-living-dead-girl-by-elizabeth.html