A parent's worst nightmare

Today, I review two books with similar content.

The Missing Girl Norma Fox Mazer

There are five Herbert sisters and their family is having definite economic problems. There is also a man who watches them. He starts off creepy and gets creepier. You know right away that he will kidnap one and it will be bad.

The chapters are short and the characters well-drawn--chapters tend to focus on just one character and then switch for the next chapter, but this one just didn't grab me. I think because it was pretty obvious from chapter 1 what was going to happen. (A guy on a corner obsessively watching young girls? What do you think is going to happen? The big mystery is which sister will he eventually take.) but all this other stuff happens in between. There are almost three different books happening at once and it gets jumbled. By the time one sister goes missing, I was wrapped up in this other plot (one sister getting "loaned out" to save costs) and it just got dropped.

Yes, life is what happens when other things were going on but... there were so many "main" characters and so much going on, that I never really connected to any of the characters or the "main" story.

Living Dead Girl Elizabeth Scott

Alice wasn't always her name. When she was ten, she wandered off from a school field trip and Ray took her. She is now sixteen and too old, too tall, and no longer a small child. Ray wants her to find her replacement before he kills her.

Scott's take on the same subject is drastically more chilling, told in Alice's voice, focusing solely on her story. In addition to the horrific sexual abuse it's the psychological abuse that leaves the reader the most shaken. I picked this up and just started reading, really just planning on glancing through it, and didn't put it down until I was done.

When this first came out and was getting more coverage, many people were hesitant about giving it to readers, due to the horror and "graphicness" of it. I have to say I disagree. Yes, there are parts of this book that disgusted me. But the language isn't graphic. You need a certain worldly knowledge in order to know what, exactly, Scott is talking about. It's also the type of thing that horrifies adults, parents especially, much more than it will horrify teen readers. I'd say that this book is for high school readers, but I would have loved this when I was in junior high. There is a part of me that wants to give it to people who are probably not ready for it and scream "See! This is what happens when you wander off! This is what happens when you talk to strangers! Be safe!!!!" But, don't worry, I won't.

Elizabeth Scott

I feel like I've made a new friend. I read two Elizabeth Scott books in a row last weekend and just wanted to keep reading more. She has a brand new one out,Stealing Heaven that I'm hoping to get my hands on soon. It's too new for me to ILL it, but maybe one of the libraries I'll frequent will get it soon, or I'll wait about another month and should be able to get it...

But, here's what I did read:

Bloom Elizabeth Scott

Lauren's everything you're supposed to want to be. She has the perfect boyfriend--cute, popular, and super sweet. She has a great best friend, and she's almost one of the popular crowd...

But... (and there's always a but). There's nothing for her at home but an empty house. She doesn't really have anything in common with her best friend and while her boyfriend is generally seen as perfect, he's kinda boring and not really the guy for her. The only thing she's really excited about is jazz band, but that's dorky so she hides it. She doesn't tell her boyfriend, best friend, or father when she's given a major solo in the concert. She doesn't even tell them she has a concert.

But how can she break out of what everyone expects she is in order to be who she actually is? It might take Evan, the son of her father's ex-girlfriend moving back to town to show her what she has inside her.

I love how there is no perfect characters in this book. Everyone has their issues of varying levels and all are believable. There's a fair amount of teen angst, but it was like listening to my own inner monologue during my high school years. It's not over the top, but rather perfectly bitter sweet. I was back in high school all over again, standing at my locker, looking at people who could easily have been Scott's characters.

The next book I read was:

Perfect You Elizabeth Scott

Kate's life is pretty much over. Her best friend lost a ton of weight over the summer and is now super popular and is completely ignoring her. Kate's dad quit a good job to sell infomercial vitamins at the mall, forcing Kate to work with her. Finances are so bad, her grandmother (whom nobody likes) moves in to help out. And then, to top it all off, Will, hook-up king and all around jerk won't leave her alone.

But Anna wants to be Kate's friend in private. Will might be a jerk but why is he such a good kisser? It just throws Kate for a further loop. Kate's life is not-so-slowing spiraling into severe crapitude, and there's not one thing she can do about it.

I loved Kate's voice, especially in talking back to Will. I love how she always just dished it out. At times she seemed unsympathetic to her parents and completely bratty about her family's situation but... she's 16. It was a completely believable action. She wasn't always likable, but she was always real.

Lucky for us, Scott has another book coming out this fall, and then another one next spring. I can't wait.

Full disclosure: Perfect You was provided by the author.