Read Elizabeth Scott's Living Dead Girl over the weekend. If you've watched the news accounts of young women who had been kidnapped as children and lived, seemingly out in the open, with their kidnappers for years and wondered why they didn't seem to run or try to get help, this book might help you to appreciate the situations that they were probably in. It's a very disturbing and unsettling book, but a compelling read, that you can't put down once you start it. Scott does a remarkable job of conveying the horrific things that Alice, the narrator and main character, has experienced without being graphic. Nonetheless, this one is definitely not for middle schoolers, although if an parent were to read it, it might help them in talking to a younger child about abductors. The book puts you inside Alice's head as she realizes that her abductor is probably going to kill find a new younger girl to abduct and kill Alice. She sees how her abductor has manipulated her, but still doesn't see a way out that she believes won't endanger her family. Another book on a similar topic, that is just as compelling, but a good bit less horrific is Elaine Alphin's Counterfeit Son. For the right reader, I recommend both very highly.
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