Reviews with content warning for Gun violence - Luckiest Girl Alive

Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll

178 reviews

curiousfox's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

I resort to murder or crime thrillers as palate cleansers in between readings since they're easy to digest and are usually fun - for me, at least - no-stakes stories. They seldom leave an impression but you can't reinvent the wheel nor should you expect it.

The Luckiest Girl Alive fits in those molds and, yet, leaves an aftertaste. Maybe it's because it is based on the author's own life, or because it is actually realistic in some plot points - more than can be said about plenty of crime novels. It's the story of a girl, now a woman, who went through hell and is desperate to prove to everyone that it only changed her for the better. She is not likeable, which is an interesting aspect of the plot, since she could be seen as the author's insert and I wonder how well the audience would react if the author painted herself as the perfect character. And she doesn't try to be or to sugarcoat her behavior. She doesn't expect you to endear to her as so many people haven't before and it is almost a wall break how we are treated like one of her classmates, ready to despise her (I'm sure I'm reading too much into it). And yet, while you read and discover what happened in her past, you can't help but understand why she behaves like this. I've seen plenty of reviews mention her as shallow, deceitful, or elitist and she is all that, she's not the perfect victim and that was interesting to me.

Again, this is not a reinvention of the wheel but it's a somewhat smooth drive.

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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

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collarbonehigh's review against another edition

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slow-paced

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

0.5

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sargarri13's review

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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kwoot7's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

Choosing not to rate at the moment (4/26/24) due to the heaviness of the book making me not feel comfortable finishing the last <50 pages at this time.

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lianathereader's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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

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siobhanward's review

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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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