Thanks. Glad I'm able to inspire rage. :)

I think what it comes down to is that I believe more people than you'd like to think are capable of acts of dominance, cruelty, and sadism, if given the opportunity to easily get away with it... and especially if given the go-ahead by a higher authority.  Not everyone, of course... but more than you'd think. You can look at the the real-life scenarios such as the Stanford Prison Experiement and the Milgram Obediance Experiment for evidence of that.  As for why Alisa's mom thinks/acts the way she does... well, I'll just say that I believe there are various factors at play with her, including but not limited to her having a sadistic and possibly borderline personality. Also, while the world in which these people live is similar to our own, they have different geography.  So no, they don't live in the "south," as you might think of it in our world, but yes, I have drawn parallels to it.  And no, Alisa doesn't really have any legal rights as an individual.  She's basically her mother's property.

I'm sorry if me being vague with background details bugs you, but part of me feels it would be a mistake to try to over-explain some things.  Any fictional story, especially ones about size-changing is going to have plotholes, and sometimes its best not to draw attention to them. Also, I feel we should have an equivalent level of information as our protagonist.  In my mind, even Alisa herself doesn't know *for sure* why her mother would do this to her... or the true history of how/when all of this "shrinker" stuff started. She just knows that she is one, and that she's caught up in the midst of it.

Was it really your birthday today? Cool, happy birthday!