Luckiest Girl Alive: A Novel

Luckiest Girl Alive is a tantalizing first novel with a bold, brash irreverent heroine who skids off the margins in juicy technicolor and settles into your sofa like a Persian cat with slitted eyes, long, long claws and a penchant for dragging those claws across expensive upholstery. This book is NOT for fans of E.L. James, Stephanie Meyer or Nicolas Sparks. Stand back, because Knoll ricochets words like Nadal slams tennis balls. She writes mountainous sundaes of metaphors -- so bloated and oozing, so drenched in bloodied cherries and gluey caramel it seems like your ingesting calories just by reading them. Ani FaNelli, the fiery heroine is a spectacular stew of diabolical dysfunction. Her complexities and quirks so lavish and distinctive they almost drool down her back like a cape. Her rage is so dense and calcified you could crack it in half like a porcelain saucer. Told in the first person, Ani's voice tethers you immediately as she reveals dark horrors from her past chiseled out of a culture besieged with narcissism and barbarity. NOW: Is this Gone Girl? No. It's not. However comparisons are not inaccurate. Knoll and Flynn are shockingly good writers who both possess the remarkable ability to warp reality until it resembles a Salvidor Dali. Until it's melted and marvelous and your wading through a solid wooden table and groping for a murder weapon in a capsized ear the size of a Toyota. Knoll and Flynn excel at obliterating the ordinary. They're aggressive writers who have no time for your appointments or whining children or dinner reservations. By page 5 they will have bashed in your door like Federal marshals. They'll drag you out and shove you in the back of their van and you won't even care. You'll just sit there. spellbound and stupefied, abandoning your dinner and your phone and that good night's sleep you so desperately need. These writers will make mincemeat of your circadian rhythms. They'll keep you up until 5:00 AM and then they'll have the audacity to invade your dreams -- their crazed characters kicking yours out of the way like soda cans on the side of the road. Yes, it's that easy. Your subconscious will not stand a chance against the Tsunami of dysfunctional wackos that Flynn and Knoll churn out like Apple churns out i-pads. So Gone Girl or Luckiest Girl Alive? Gone Girl wins and the main reason is plot. Gone Girl's superb structure and wickedly clever treasure hunts and jaw dropping convulsions give it the edge. That book's plot is as impenetrable as the pentagon and moves with the speed and stealth of a comic book icon. HOWEVER, that is not to say Luckiest Girl Alive isn't well plotted or lacking suspense. It just isn't the caliber of Flynn's. Yet...... This is Knoll's first novel and I am without a doubt she is capable of matching Flynn given some time. She is the dark horse, and the dirt and smoke being kicked up on the track around these two is something usually generated by Daniel Craig's careening Astin martin. I gave Luckiest Girl Alive 5 stars because in the end, I didn't read this book to simply compare it to Gone Girl. Everyone told me to. And of course, everyone is waiting for the next Gone Girl and that would be wonderful, but not realistic. Knoll's characters are unique. They throb on the page and Ani FaNelli may not be Amy Dunne but I guarantee you'll like her.....even if she claws your sofa and eats your goldfish......you'll kind of love her.

📚BOOK REVIEW📚 Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5 Genre: Mystery Thriller Tropes: dual timeline, secret past, fake life, childhood trauma Ani has a glamorous job at a magazine, a conventionally beautiful body, and a good looking fiancé from a wealthy family. On the surface, she looks completely put together. But it’s a lie. After a traumatic incident that occurred when she was a teenager at a prestigious prep school, she completely reinvented herself. She meticulously chose new features of her personality based on what would get her ahead in life. As her wedding draws near, she is invited by a documentary producer to speak about the incident that occurred at the prep school. She struggles with figuring out what to tell them, because telling the whole truth would destroy the “picture-perfect” life she has worked so hard to create. Throughout the story, we get to learn about what exactly happened to her as a teenager and how much of it she has lied about to everyone (including her family and the police). ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This one was a very solid read. I think it definitely could be relatable for a lot of people, but also possibly a bit triggering. It definitely touches a lot on the bullying dynamic that can occur in schools. I really like the author’s writing style; it’s very entertaining. The way she weaves analogies into everything really adds to the story. Ani, the main character, is very interesting. She is definitely very multi-dimensional. This is one of those books where you end up not really liking any of the characters because everyone is kind of problematic. Overall, very solid read. If you like thrillers with an academy setting and where the details are slowly unveiled throughout the book, you’ll probably like this one.

I have to admit, I was initially drawn to this book because of the cover art. The second thing that grabbed my attention was the bold comparison to Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl. For the record, TifAni FaNelli has nothing on Amy Dunne. They aren't even in the same league. I will say that I enjoyed reading Luckiest Girl Alive. It wasn't terrible. I didn't feel like this book was a giant waste of time. The overall idea is that the protagonist, TifAni FaNelli aka Ani (Ahh-neee), so desperately wanted to be liked that she would sacrifice herself in order to gain some sort of status. It seems like such a common and relatable theme. Luckiest Girl Alive had the potential to be a really great book, but it fell flat for me. The story itself wasn't bad and the writing was great. The chapters were a bit too long for my taste. I found Ani to be pretty obnoxious. I felt like she was trying too hard to be a cold-hearted bitch. She was so detached that I couldn't relate or empathize with her. I can't decide if it was poor character development or if it was intentional. She's one-dimensional, extremely judgmental, materialistic and lacking genuine human emotion. Granted, she is a product of her environment. The timeline shifts from present day to teenage Ani with each chapter. Teenage Ani is a tiny bit more likable than present day Ani. But, she made some really foolish decisions and there were times I wished I could reach through the book and shake teenage Ani. Now that I really think about it, none of the characters really grabbed me. Unlikable characters aside, my main issue is that some pretty serious life issues were glossed over and dealt with in a somewhat dismissive manner. For anyone who can't handle reading about rape, homophobia, bullying and violence should stay away from this one.

This book had been flying under my radar until I received my June 19 copy of The Week magazine. This great weekly has 2 full pages of book reviews each issue. My go to pages as soon as it arrives. In this issue, I was thrilled to find 5 featured books for Summer fiction: Secrets, scandals, and other fine diversions. Jessica Knoll, the author, is a former Cosmopolitan staffer and this book is her debut novel. Quite a feat! "This is the book you are going to insist all your friends read this summer,"said Carol E Barrowman of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "The author tricks us into breathlessly turning pages while she is constructing a clever, cunning satire of 21st-century womanhood." But this is my review! TifAni (who then becomes Ani) enters our world as a 14 year old attending a new school and struggling for recognition from the "in crowd" which she never experienced in her old school. As Ani, she does not have that struggle as she has bagged a beautiful, wealthy man who has given her his mother's huge ring to symbolize their engagement. All she has to do in her grown up world is wave that ring around and even people who don't know him, know that she has arrived. Back to TifAni, and we find her actually getting her wish and attracting all the right classmates midst a few blunders and set backs. We move back and forth between the two throughout the book, and the writing is crisp, engaging and evocative of the settings portrayed. Because she is naive, and unable to recognize danger when it confronts her she makes a mistake that leads us into a harrowing situation involving alcohol and a pretty brutal date rape. I sympathized with her easily because the author is adept at character development and, although she hides things at times for the story she tells, the author is able to pull us along and find agreement with events as they occur. A teacher who befriends TifAni plays a large role in the novel and assists our protagonist to remain as centered and wise as she can be with the events she endures. When we understand that Ani has been included in the filming of a documentary about her school years, we receive much more information, almost too much to bear. I would encourage anyone to purchase and read this book, and if it sounds too much like " chic lit " it really isn't at all. This is a fast paced book that keeps you interested and guessing, and above all else, it is a book of our times!

Cute, nice reading. I was not so engaged in the beginning, it took time to become interesting. But I’m happy I gave it a chance

Right at the start this story had me hooked. Ani, a writer for a popular woman's magazine, is introduced and she is not quite right. She could be a psychopath, delusional, liar, manipulative or maybe just self absorbed but I couldn't wait to find out. A true page turner that had me thinking one thing and then the story went down a completely different path. That's a hard feat for an author when I have read so many in the genre because I am a big fan for romantic thrillers with a twist. Ani was formerly TifAni an Italian decent middle class girl who got into a prestigious private high school full of perfect WASP kids. She never quite fit in but made some friends along the way. Reading the inner dialog of a very self conscious 14 year old girl maybe isn't so different for her as it is for others. However, Knoll, was able to thread a dark side of TifAni that kept me on my toes wondering and even expecting there was more to her. When TifAni gets somewhat accepted by the popular kids, she doesn't trust it and that distrust of "perfect" people continues on later in life. Ani is engaged to a "perfect" guy named Luke with the wedding just around the corner. She has to stop herself constantly for not lashing out and saying what she really thinks. She even admires herself for letting Luke fall in love with someone who really isn't her. The future and past catch up to her when she is asked to be interviewed about a "big event" in her earlier life. I enjoyed reading about TifAni and later Ani and got a better understanding of her as an adult. Luckiest Girl Alive was a nonstop ride with many twists and turns that I couldn't wait to uncover. Can't wait for the next one from this author.

An ambitious mom wants her daughter to have the best of everything, not so much for the daughter, but for the opportunity to live in the peripheral glow that would be “mom-of-the-successful girl.” Mom wanted to say “I built that.” Main character TifAni gets in trouble at her junior high school; she got caught experimenting with marijuana. Mom takes advantage of a school expulsion to place Ani in a “hoity-toity” high class, main line school. Was Ani successful as a result of this high class education? The first three chapters seem positive. Her fiancé is wealthy with an ultra wealthy family as back up. There is no desire that cannot be fulfilled with money. But she is uneasy and insecure; her experiences at an exclusive high school have left scars that mar her present life. As a new student that did not quite fit in at her new school, she experienced snobbery and forms of verbal and physical abuse that might be called hazing. That occurred inside the school. As she tried to fit in during out of school parties, things went horribly wrong with life and death consequences. Ani tells her story in alternating chapters that relate her life in the present then in the following chapter reveal her reflections of the past. This would seem to be no problem; the past is dead, the present is great, and the future can only get better. But something happened at the school, an event so life changing for so many that there is a project in the works where students and teachers from the school will be interviewed about what happened then and where the participants from the past are now. There will be a documentary. Ani is willing… sort of. Mom is horrified and thinks the past should stay past. Ani's fiancé is not happy at all; there might be damage to the reputation of an old money family. The description of Ani’s present life, especially in the first three chapters was way beyond boring and dull for me. But if the reader is a clothing, jewelry, or fashion designer, these chapters might be great. The early chapters about her attempts to fit in at school should be very interesting to young adult readers who are still close to that experience. The horrific events described at the school are unfortunately a reflection of the past decade of violence. The last few chapters of the book tie together the two lives of Ani and try to settle her insecurities to the extent she can go further. There is an interesting guide at the end for readers who wish to select the book for a reading group. I will recommend this book as one title in a list I have made for my classes in which students study English as a second language.

I guess many of those who read Gone Girl will like this book, but it's really not that similar. To me, this book was more like a dark chick lit novel. Just like so many of those I've read, she's pretty, very fashionable, and is engaged to a dreamy, charming and rich Mr. Perfect. Oh, and she also writes for a big name women's magazine. (Why is it that the protagonist in chick lit novels is almost always a writer or an editor for a beauty / fashion / women's magazine of some kind???) Except this book has a very deep, dark story from her deep, dark past. I agree with other reviewers that "TifAni" wasn't very likable. I thought she was kind of snooty, pretentious, spoiled, whiny and annoying. Just a few pages in, I was getting really sick of her obsession with her weight, same with her obsession with designer labels and keeping up appearances...trying too hard while trying really hard to not look like you're trying too hard, lol. But then keep reading, and you begin to understand how she got that way. Ok, so this part is similar to how Gillian Flynn writes: the characters are made unlikable for a reason- so you can see how damaged they are and why. The rest of the characters seemed one or two dimensional at best. I think the author could have given them more depth. The story itself didn't seem all that believable to me. Having said that, I bought this book last night and read it in just a few hours. The book had a good story line, held my attention and I couldn't put it down. To me, this still makes for what I consider a "good" book, because it served that purpose and took me away into another world for a while. When I think of Gone Girl, I think of a story that is being told from different viewpoints with more well-developed characters. The characters in Gone Girl aren't likable either, but you see much more to them. Also, Gone Girl has more unexpected twists and turns and practically does a 180 about halfway through. In Luckiest Girl Alive, the story just develops further and you find out more about what happens in Ani's sordid past. But you expected it to be sordid to begin with. Don't get me wrong, it kept me reading and it was done very effectively, but I'm kind of over just about every new book out being compared to Gone Girl...