Reviews with content warning for Murder - Luckiest Girl Alive

I find this one difficult to review — I want to give it five stars because I get Ani. I’ve been there. I was her for a very long time. But I read Bright Young Women first and this one is not written as well, in my mind.
It is spoken from the mind of someone who has experienced it and it breaks my heart. No individual should ever encounter such atrocities in their life, but “we live in a world.”

Onto the big stuff:

The dedication is for those like TifAni, and I get this one. Not as extreme, but still a terrible situation with a “friend” — well at least the one that was a turning point in my life. And that makes me angry. The other time is held on a back burner because one is “so much worse.” Both are what they are.
But, I also held it in and didn’t tell people what had happened until I couldn’t hold it in any longer. That was the first time I had fallen asleep on the phone with someone. I bawled my eyes out to a good family friend about what had happened to me four days after my 18th birthday.
“Let me take you out for dinner, only as a friend!” Says the 21 year old who had somehow gotten my Snapchat a few months before and talked to me, a mere high school senior, nonstop. Is the age gap large? No, but I was freshly 18 and it’s still r@pe. (Funny enough how Ani wasn’t attracted to Dean and didn’t like him, that’s how I felt about this guy too). Terrified to say no, terrified to fight back. Terrified to cut him out of my life. Terrified because he even followed me to college. I missed out on so much trying to keep him happy. But I broke free. I’m able to call a spade a spade, and I have come back stronger and less angry now.

For those like Ani, I see you, I hear you, I am you.

Content Warnings

emmyshh's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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_mikenyikes's review against another edition

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3.0

It would’ve been four stars if I read it when it came out, but the book does not hold up.

Content Warnings

januaryghosts's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I could not handle all of the eating disorder and body dysmorphia in this novel. There are pages of this book that could be cut down if we weren’t subjected to paragraph after paragraph about what food Ani is eating or trying to not eat or how much weight she has gained or lost to fit into more equally over-described clothes. It’s just this ongoing neurosis in the novel that doesn’t contribute to the plot or character’s journey. By the end, we’re supposed to believe that Ami is committed to becoming a better person and to getting help for herself, but her disordered eating isn’t really addressed. It honestly kind of felt like the author included all of that to bag on women and how they treat their bodies and the bodies of others.

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squeakypeach's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Content Warnings

siobhanward's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This book felt... unnecessarily intense? If that makes sense? The plot was ok - the characters, especially Ani were unlikable, but I get that was intentional. The afterword from Knoll about her own experiences definitely added a lot of context, but even then it didn't necessarily justify how graphic a lot of the book was. Knoll definitely has a gift for writing characters that were hard to like, and while it worked in this book, it still made the book a challenging read. I also was kind of frustrated that with the build up to what happened with the Five at Bradley, I wish there had been a bit more resolution around that. It just felt like everything wrapped up suddenly and that was it.

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