The character page for Elizabeth Scott's 2009 YA novel, Living Dead Girl.
Alice / Kyla Davis
- Broken Bird: It's hard to describe just how broken she's become by what she's endured.
- Conditioned to Accept Horror: As she recognises, she would prefer Ray to kidnap another young girl than continue to torture her.
- Death Seeker: She knows full well that Ray will give her her freedom or keep her around once Lucy is kidnapped; he will in all likelihood kill her. But by this point, she's been so broken down and tortured that she views death as a welcome release note .
- First-Person Smartass: Has her moments.
- Heel–Face Turn: Having been a participant in Ray's scheme to kidnap Lucy, she abruptly changes her mind and shouts at her to "run" when it comes to going through with it.
- Honey Trap: A horrifying version. Ray sends her to seduce Jake so that he can kidnap Jake's sister Lucy.
- Intentional Weight Gain: Discussed; Alice says that her plan for when she gets away from Ray is to eat and eat until she gains weight, because he despises "overweight" women and has starved her for years.
- Not Allowed to Grow Up: In-universe. Ray starves her so she can stay "young" forever.
- Obsessed with Food: A very tragic and justified example. Because Ray starves her so her body will stay stunted and childlike, she's constantly hungry and obsesses over food. Large portions of her narration are dedicated to thinking about the food she wants to eat or savoring what she does get to eat.
- Promiscuity After Rape: Although Ray loses it if he sees her anywhere near anyone, Alice hooks up with a random guy at a supermarket, and then sleeps with Jake in order to get close to Lucy.
- Sex Slave: To Ray after her kidnapping.
- Stepford Snarker: Only in her own head, but still.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Which includes bullying other kids in the apartment block in the past, performing oral on a random stranger in a store, without even mentioning everything that she does in the present.
Ray
- Churchgoing Villain: Ray goes to church every Sunday.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: If Alice even so much as looks at another man, he'll viciously beat and rape her. Even Jake, who Ray has told Alice to seduce.
- Family Extermination: Did this to the first Alice's family and so this Alice fully suspects he'd do it again.
- Family-Values Villain: Horrifying deconstruction. Ray thinks he's this and often rants to Alice about the importance of families and church, but he's a child rapist and murderer.
- Freudian Excuse: His mother was extremely physically and sexually abusive.
- Has a Type: Dark-haired girls, like his mother.
- Self-Made Orphan: It's strongly implied that he killed his mother.
- Soft-Spoken Sadist: Ray hardly ever shouts so
Alice is more afraid of his whispering. - They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: Nobody, even the first Alice's parents, notice that there is anything off about him.
- Troubled Abuser: A serial rapist and murderer who was also raped and physically tortured by his mother.
Jake
- Big Brother Instinct: Played surprisingly straight. Jake appears not to really care about Lucy but he is prepared to threaten Ray with a gun when he believes him to be a threat to Lucy and Alice/Kyla. Alice has a less charitable interpretation of his behaviour but he appears to be totally sincere.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: A stoner who lives completely in a world of his own.
- Dumbass Teenage Son: Jake is a teenager and...not particularly bright, as he frequently complains to Alice.
- Dramatically Missing the Point: He thinks Ray is Alice's Meal Ticket, and probably would've had an entirely different reaction if he understood that he was her kidnapper.
- Hormone-Addled Teenager: Alice gives him so many clues that she is at least seriously troubled, but he's just distracted by his desire to get laid.
- Lonely Rich Kid: Has a nice car and nice clothes, and is constantly complaining about his parents and not having enough love or attention.
- Parental Neglect: He feels unloved by his parents, though it's unclear how much of this is him being an Unreliable Narrator.
- The Stoner: Jake doesn't seem to smoke weed (his pills are probably more like Xanax or similar) but he totally fits this, being spaced-out, largely benign, and barely able to string a sentence together.
- The Un-Favourite: Describes himself as this in comparison to his younger sister Lucy.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: From a certain point of view. Although he actually does save Lucy (and Alice, in a way) from Ray by shooting and killing him, it's heavily implied that he also shoots Alice accidentally in this effort, killing her, too.
Lucy
- Annoying Younger Sibling: To Jake, although this seems more a case of his resentment of babysitting her rather than anything , as she is pretty quiet and smart.
- Parental Favouritism: Plus she's the child of Jake's mom and stepdad.
- Plucky Girl: Especially shown when she fights back against Ray at the end.
