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Luckiest Girl Alive
Jessica Knoll, 2015
Simon & Schuster
352 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781476789637
Summary
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? (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1984 (?)
• Raised—Philadelphia area, Pennsylvania, USA
• Education—B.A., Hobart and William Colleges
• Currently—New York City, New York
Jessica Knoll has been a senior editor at Cosmopolitan and the articles editor at SELF. She grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia and graduated from The Shipley School in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, and from Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York. She lives in New York City with her husband. Luckiest Girl Alive is her first book. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
Luckiest Girl Alive is Gone Girl meets Cosmo meets Sex and the City.... Knoll hits it out of the park.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Readers guessing what the "dark underbelly" of this story is can guess again. It is just the beginning, a trap set by the author [who] scatters the clues so obscurely and randomly that peeking at the ending is just a waste of time.... No shortcuts here.... Knoll’s knack for social nuances on both sides of the socioeconomic tracks deserves mention for the high praise it already is receiving in the book world.
Buffalo News
This is going to be the book you insist all your friends read this summer.... [A] clever, cunning satire on the female condition in the 21st century.
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
Luckiest Girl Alive is crime fiction at its best, proving the genre’s deep connections to society’s fears, ambitions, and ability to question the status quo.... Jessica Knoll is a writer to keep an eye on, especially after being compared to Gillian Flynn by Megan Abbott. . . . However, I have found enough personality in Knoll’s debut novel to let her stand on her own, rather than label her "the next Gillian Flynn." Knoll’s version of the feminist crime novel is more steeped in pop culture than Flynn’s, and Ani’s psyche has nothing to envy of Amy’s: they are both troubled, and they both put up outstanding gender and class performances. But while Amy is more private and emotional, Ani relies on modern fashion references that will thrill even Vogue, Cosmo, and Glamour readers.... Luckiest Girl Alive is the ultimate critical companion to millennial femininity.
Los Angeles Review of Books
The perfect page-turner to start your summer (Book of the Week).
People
Dark, twisty...razor-sharp writing...propulsive prose.... [The] reveal is a real doozy—a legitimately shocking, completely unputdownable sequence that unfolds like a slow-motion horror film. It instantly elevates Luckiest Girl...and that momentum keeps going until its final pages.
Entertainment Weekly
Knoll slowly reveals the harrowing truth in a debut that’s part The Devil Wears Prada, part We Need to Talk About Kevin.
O Magazine
Loved Gone Girl? We promise [Luckiest Girl Alive is] just as addictive.
Good Housekeeping
A pulse-pounding, jaw-dropping novel about how tragedy twists and shapes lives.
InTouch
When Ani FaNelli wants something, she gets it: the job, the body, the man. What starts as a Mean Girls-seeming story line transforms into something so dark, so plot-twistingly intense that…well, actually, no spoilers here.
Marie Claire
The perfect kind of summer read: Nail-bitingly addictive, equal parts funny and twisted, and full of "I never saw THAT coming" moments.
Glamour
[Readers] probably won't leave Luckiest Girl Alive wishing they had a friend just like TifAni, but...if they liked Gone Girl, they'll be thrilled to see another woman who's allowed to be smart and mean, vulnerable and detestable.
Time.com
Knoll introduces you to your new best frenemy, and you’re going to love it.... Destined to become one of the summer’s most gripping reads.
Bustle.com
One of "18 Brilliant Books You Won't Want To Miss This Summer."
Huffington Post
One woman’s carefully orchestrated, perfect life slowly cracks to reveal a dark underbelly in Knoll’s knockout debut novel.... [W]hat sets this novel apart is the author’s ability to snare the reader from page one.... [A] completely enthralling read.
Publishers Weekly
[Ani FaNelli is] a cross between Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw and Gone Girl’s Amy Dunne.... Knoll’s debut truly delivers and will keep readers engaged until the end.
Library Journal
[A] dark, cynical psychological comment on our culture of excess and violence.... The promise of redemption in the end is not enough to balance the darkness.
Kirkus Reviews
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