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sariahsharp 's review for:
Luckiest Girl Alive
by Jessica Knoll
I felt a lot of ups and downs while reading this book. I like books where the narration switches between the present and the past, but sometimes this jumped too quickly and was it was hard to make that switch. Then there was our narrator, the main character, TifAni (which... *seriously*??). From the start you realize she is just a mean girl. The most insecure, self-centered mean-girl I've read in a long time. Her obsessions as an adult include being skinnier than everyone else, being more New York than anyone else, designer labels (but done *just* right), and sex. She is just all show. I can't stand her reasonings. Her obsessions as a teenager include getting popular, being wealthy, labels, and sex. Ultimately, her entire life is centered around being the shining star amongst everyone she knows and sex. It made her completely unlikable and totally unrelatable. And then there's the plot: Everyone here on Goodreads is comparing Luckiest Girl Alive to Gone Girl, and I'm just not seeing it. Everyone is talking about all the twists. There was exactly one twist that I didn't see coming. And I don't know that I'd call it a twist so much as I didn't see this event coming as part of the story. The story deals with so much dark material, and it made me sad and anxious throughout. However, there is SO much that is worthy of discussion and should be discussed more often. I was shocked and dismayed by the actions of so many of these characters, especially the high school ones. I just don't see my friends or most of the kids I knew at that age as acting like that, but I do know that those things happen. It's all over the news all the time. You'd think we'd be used to it by now, but we're not. Anyway, it hurt me on an emotional scale to read the words they said to each other, to read the actions they took with one another, and it just seemed to *accepted*, like it was totally normal behavior. It makes me wonder how people can live in a world like that and not try to change things, to make things better. Change the culture and environment they are in to a more positive one. Here I am, rambling on about fiction... but I know there is a basis of truth in it all. So overall... yeah, I ended up liking the book. Still can't stand Ani (that's what TifAni insists she go by as an adult), but that doesn't mean it wasn't a pretty well written book. For my sensitive reader friends: this is chock full of offensive language and graphic details of sex and rape.