THE LUCKIEST GIRL ALIVE by Jessica Knoll
Ani FaNelli has spent years cultivating the perfect life. She has a fiancé who comes from old money (this is an important distinction to Ani), a job in New York at a trendy women’s magazine, and a closet full of tasteful designer clothes (no gaudy logos allowed). But when she agrees to be interviewed for a documentary about a tragedy that rocked her affluent town when she was in high school, the secrets of her messy past come back to haunt her. As she tries to process the fear and guilt behind these memories, fissures appear in the façade of her perfect life, and Ani must decide if the life she’s fought so hard for is the one she really wants. Filled with tension and surprises, The Luckiest Girl Alive kept me reading until the last page, but I put it down feeling unsatisfied. Ani, who comes off as vain, manipulative, and shallow, is not a very likable character, but I was interested enough in the plot to look past that in the hope that she’d have a strong character arc. And Knoll certainly doesn’t shy away from addressing issues like body image and rape, which I give her props for. But in the end, I was frustrated that Ani didn’t seem to change or learn much. This was an entertaining and quick read, but I felt like Knoll only got about halfway to a strong resolution.