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raenoel 's review for:
Luckiest Girl Alive
by Jessica Knoll
1 1/2 ⭐️
As many have said before, I also think this was a cheap rip off of Gone Girl, but not in any of the compelling ways.
I hated Ani. She was obnoxious, vapid, and never seemed to pinpoint her actual motivations. You would think she was leaning towards understanding what happened to her was wrong, but then she would quickly erase it with some other thought she found more important. I understand this thought process as a teenager, but not as an adult. Maybe if it was a coping mechanism, sure, but nothing like that is ever explored.
If you value clothes and status over everything else in your life, why would you be surprised that other people don’t feel the same way? You picked a shitty partner, based your relationship on lies, and got mad when you realized that he wasn’t supportive enough when he never was in the first place. That’s the huge difference between writing a boring book (like this one) and a compelling one (like Gone Girl). If I am not invested in what happens to the main character because you’ve done nothing to endear me to her or make me want to see her succeed, then why would I care about what ultimately happens to her? I’m glad I didn’t, because nothing was really even wrapped up in the end, so I would have been so annoyed if I actually gave a fuck about Ani. Or Tiff. Or whatever she’s going by now.
Lastly, don’t make a teacher be the one to help a 14 year old victim and have her sleep in his bed. I don’t care if he’s not in the bed. I don’t care if his intentions were innocent. I don’t care if he was reserved and didn’t do anything other than help. And most importantly, don’t leave it at that and never have Ani acknowledge that it was wildly inappropriate. Don’t leave young readers with the impression of a young teacher bringing his student home as being acceptable, under any circumstance. Just because he’s only “a few years older” doesn’t mean he’s not an adult in a position of power of an impressionable adolescent who is in the most vulnerable state of her life. I don’t understand this thought process a lot of authors seem to have with sketchy teachers and I don’t know why we keep allowing it. Unless this is My Dark Vanessa and you are going to commit to the work of exploring this byline, aka after you see him as an adult and still are reliving your teenage fantasies then go through therapy to realize why you are having those fantasies to begin with, then I don’t need to have it as a pointless side plot that adds nothing to the story.
TL;DR: All of the characters were unlikable (except Arthur, I genuinely liked him, go figure) and Ani learned nothing from her own actions towards others or their actions towards her. Ani did nothing with her story and I’m assuming there will be some future revenge, but who knows, cause we don’t get to see it
As many have said before, I also think this was a cheap rip off of Gone Girl, but not in any of the compelling ways.
I hated Ani. She was obnoxious, vapid, and never seemed to pinpoint her actual motivations. You would think she was leaning towards understanding what happened to her was wrong, but then she would quickly erase it with some other thought she found more important. I understand this thought process as a teenager, but not as an adult. Maybe if it was a coping mechanism, sure, but nothing like that is ever explored.
If you value clothes and status over everything else in your life, why would you be surprised that other people don’t feel the same way? You picked a shitty partner, based your relationship on lies, and got mad when you realized that he wasn’t supportive enough when he never was in the first place. That’s the huge difference between writing a boring book (like this one) and a compelling one (like Gone Girl). If I am not invested in what happens to the main character because you’ve done nothing to endear me to her or make me want to see her succeed, then why would I care about what ultimately happens to her? I’m glad I didn’t, because nothing was really even wrapped up in the end, so I would have been so annoyed if I actually gave a fuck about Ani. Or Tiff. Or whatever she’s going by now.
Lastly, don’t make a teacher be the one to help a 14 year old victim and have her sleep in his bed. I don’t care if he’s not in the bed. I don’t care if his intentions were innocent. I don’t care if he was reserved and didn’t do anything other than help. And most importantly, don’t leave it at that and never have Ani acknowledge that it was wildly inappropriate. Don’t leave young readers with the impression of a young teacher bringing his student home as being acceptable, under any circumstance. Just because he’s only “a few years older” doesn’t mean he’s not an adult in a position of power of an impressionable adolescent who is in the most vulnerable state of her life. I don’t understand this thought process a lot of authors seem to have with sketchy teachers and I don’t know why we keep allowing it. Unless this is My Dark Vanessa and you are going to commit to the work of exploring this byline, aka after you see him as an adult and still are reliving your teenage fantasies then go through therapy to realize why you are having those fantasies to begin with, then I don’t need to have it as a pointless side plot that adds nothing to the story.
TL;DR: All of the characters were unlikable (except Arthur, I genuinely liked him, go figure) and Ani learned nothing from her own actions towards others or their actions towards her. Ani did nothing with her story and I’m assuming there will be some future revenge, but who knows, cause we don’t get to see it