Luckiest Girl Alive: A Novel
*NOW A NETFLIX FILM STARRING MILA KUNIS*
Fans of Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train will thrill at this “perfect page-turner” (People)—that Reese Witherspoon describes as “one of those reads you just can’t put down!” This “dark, twisty” (Entertainment Weekly), instant New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling novel follows an unforgettable young woman striving to create the perfect life—until a violent incident from her past threatens to unravel everything and expose her most shocking secret.
HER PERFECT LIFE IS A PERFECT LIE
As a teenager at the prestigious Bradley School, Ani FaNelli endured a shocking, public humiliation that left her desperate to reinvent herself. Now, with a glamorous job, expensive wardrobe, and handsome blue blood fiancé, she’s this close to living the perfect life she’s worked so hard to achieve.
But Ani has a secret.
There’s something else buried in her past that still haunts her, something private and painful that threatens to bubble to the surface and destroy everything.
With a singular voice and twists you won’t see coming, Luckiest Girl Alive explores the unbearable pressure that so many women feel to “have it all” and introduces a heroine whose sharp edges and cutthroat ambition have been protecting a scandalous truth, and a heart that’s bigger than it first appears.
The question remains: will breaking her silence destroy all that she has worked for—or, will it at long last, set Ani free?
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*NOW A NETFLIX FILM STARRING MILA KUNIS*
Fans of Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train will thrill at this “perfect page-turner” (People)—that Reese Witherspoon describes as “one of those reads you just can’t put down!” This “dark, twisty” (Entertainment Weekly), instant New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling novel follows an unforgettable young woman striving to create the perfect life—until a violent incident from her past threatens to unravel everything and expose her most shocking secret.
HER PERFECT LIFE IS A PERFECT LIE
As a teenager at the prestigious Bradley School, Ani FaNelli endured a shocking, public humiliation that left her desperate to reinvent herself. Now, with a glamorous job, expensive wardrobe, and handsome blue blood fiancé, she’s this close to living the perfect life she’s worked so hard to achieve.
But Ani has a secret.
There’s something else buried in her past that still haunts her, something private and painful that threatens to bubble to the surface and destroy everything.
With a singular voice and twists you won’t see coming, Luckiest Girl Alive explores the unbearable pressure that so many women feel to “have it all” and introduces a heroine whose sharp edges and cutthroat ambition have been protecting a scandalous truth, and a heart that’s bigger than it first appears.
The question remains: will breaking her silence destroy all that she has worked for—or, will it at long last, set Ani free?
Alyssa Donati –
Knoll ricochets words like Nadal slams tennis balls….Gillian, here’s your dark horse…
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.
@razzle.reads –
Solid read
📚BOOK REVIEW📚Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica KnollRating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5Genre: Mystery ThrillerTropes: dual timeline, secret past, fake life, childhood traumaAni 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.
Cristie –
I will say that I enjoyed reading Luckiest Girl Alive
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.
Cliente Amazon –
Keeps you going and only lets you know the path when you’re already there with the character, very well written.
Liz Barnsley –
Luckiest Girl Alive resonated with me. It was one of those novels that at points I had to force myself to keep reading, not due to it being bad but due to it being too real. Not perhaps with some of the circumstances but with the descriptive sense of emotion.The main character, yes rather a silly name Tifani Fanelli – known when we first meet her as Ani – is eminently unlikeable. This continues throughout the book. She’s about to marry a rich guy and the first part of the novel focuses very much on her reasons for doing this and her constant struggle to seem as if she “fits in” to that world. She is sarcastic, seemingly selfish and as I said terrifically unlikeable in a lot of ways. And honestly I never truly warmed up to her…About to film a documentary – a “retrospective” on an incident at a private school she used to attend, we start to get some of her backstory. Gain a better understanding of her – whilst she perhaps was always annoyingly needy the fear factor came later, as we see her as a teenager this comes more into focus. There are some emotive themes here which I won’t go into as I don’t want to spoil it – but Jessica Knoll does a great job of showing us then and now, the nuances of what have brought her to this point.Some of the most powerful scenes in this book happen in one spot – when Ani is telling her story of that day to camera and we finally see the end game fallout – but this point IS more powerful due to the slow build up preceding it, both in the present time and in the past – getting a feeling for all those involved, and even hints of the aftermath that has followed Anni ever since.The reveal moment is not what this book is all about though and that was something else I loved about it. It is a tool to allow the character to choose her path through life – the path of least resistance or a possible one to real happiness and acceptance. What happens after the reveal is just as important, or perhaps even more so, than what has gone before it. The true unpredictability of this one is not WHAT happened but what eventually Tifani will choose because of it.There is a sentence in this book that stayed with me.”You only scream when you’re finally safe.”I get that.I would definitely recommend this one – not as the next Gone Girl – SERIOUSLY publicity people ENOUGH already you are doing this book AND Gone Girl no favours whatsoever – but as a strong and resonant character piece that talks about truth and consequences, puts one human being into a major spotlight warts and all, where the huge event in her life is not necessarily the one that defined her and her choices are up for the harshest scrutiny. You may not like Tifani but you will want her to be ok. Whether or not in the end you think she will be I guess will come down to your own feelings and the path you may have taken. Food for thought indeed.Great book. One I will return to.**purchased copy**Happy Reading Folks!
Ana Karen Valenzuela –
“I couldn’t imagine anything worse than spending every day of my life with a physical reminder of the terrible things life can do, of the ever-present reality that no one is safe”#luckiestgirlalive by #jessicaknoll @jessicaknollauthor is the story of TifAni FaNelli, a succesful magazine writer that is going to get married to the perfect man, according to everyone around her, in a couple of months. But before that day comes, she is asked to film a documentary about the worse 6 months of her life. When she was 14 years old. A story about a gang rape, bullying and a school shooting.How to tell when an author is excellent in what she does? How to tell when a story is perfectly written? When every single page made me feel nauseous, made me want to scream of impotence, made me cry in anger, made me feel like I needed to do something, anything.This story is full of evil people, yes, EVIL. Every single one of the characters in this book was evil in it’s own way. Not one of them was redeemable. The story was a horrible story, that made it worse than a horror story, since everything I am sure happens in a daily basis in real life.I felt impotent to realize how much torture a human being can do to another human being, even at 14 years old. How much we don’t really know what a friend should be like. What a mother should be like. How a teacher should be like.”Is it rape if you don’t remember it?” “Is it worth losing your popularity over to speak up if you don’t even remember it?”
KLW –
Started off quite good, but it didn’t flow well and how it ended was disappointing. Quite a shame as it could have been great. Considering it was based on events from the author’s life, and something that many have experienced, it could have been so much better. The film was also disappointing (i watched it after reading the book) i really like Mila Kunis,but i thought the casting of the movie was very poor and nothing how the characters were described in the book.
DerFrühling –
Großartig geschrieben, großartige Story, bis zum Ende spannend, toll gezeichnete Charaktere mit tiefen Geschichten – bitte nicht vom Titel dazu verleiten lassen zu denken, dass dies Chick Lit sein. Ganz große Belletristik!