I remember reading this book on a whim when I was fifteen and have yet to forget the ending because it just disturbed me for some reason. The book covers a 10 year old girl's abduction and her life at fifteen under the watchful eye of her captor. It is a quick read, but still very unforgettable.
On her tenth birthday "Alice" was abducted by Ray and learned how to live like a doll and wait for her ordeal to be over. At fifteen, her captor begins to speak frequently of her impending death, though, what he does not know is that is what she wishes for most. Though, things take a turn for the worst when he orders her to find her replacement only to turn into what she fears the most, he plans to keep them both.
At the beginning, I was very sympathetic for the seemingly beaten down "Alice" because I could not imagine having to go through a situation like that and still do not fully understand it because it is a foreign concept to me. But, further into the book I begin to dislike her when she goes to a park and starts jotting down in a notebook which girls Ray would like only to chose one she particularly disliked, over something petty, as her replacement. I understand she just wanted to escape from him and that was the only way she thought she could, but seriously picking an, I think, eight year old that she had a minuscule argument with just seemed ridiculous in my mind. Though, she does begin to feel guilt over her decision and ends up saving the girl and in a way herself.
I actually really enjoyed the narrative at the beginning, how it seemed so
monotone and broken down. "Alice" explained her life, especially that of her ten year old self, as if she never lived it and just observed it from the outside, telling of it almost as if it was some story that she has recited over and over again until it lost all meaning. I liked how some of the chapters that told of her abduction began with the phrase "ONCE UPON A TIME, THERE WAS A," as if she was telling a child's fairytale. It just seemed to add an element of eeriness to the story, though, it does not seem to lack in that even without it.
monotone and broken down. "Alice" explained her life, especially that of her ten year old self, as if she never lived it and just observed it from the outside, telling of it almost as if it was some story that she has recited over and over again until it lost all meaning. I liked how some of the chapters that told of her abduction began with the phrase "ONCE UPON A TIME, THERE WAS A," as if she was telling a child's fairytale. It just seemed to add an element of eeriness to the story, though, it does not seem to lack in that even without it.
The ending shocked me since I really did not expect it to end with her death even though the story often spoke of the likeliness of it. But, really I should not have expected it to have a happy ending given the subject matter. In the end, we are given an ending that does not give into a starry eyed readers wants, but still satisfies.
Every one of the character, in my opinion, are twisted and broken in some way. It covers a real issue instead of some made up nearly insignificant teenage problem that the main character would not remember ten or fifteen years down the rode if that. This is actually a good book in the end, though, it can still be disconcerting to its readers, so, I really would not recommend it to the more softhearted.
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