A review by lifeisaeisha
Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This book if hard to rate because it does some things very well, while failing in other areas.

The good: 
  • it's very hard to talk about
    rape and sexual assault, especially as a survivor. So I definitely give the  author her props for approaching both that and school shootings,
    and depicting them both realistically. 
  • The story was incredibly engaging. Although the characters were largely unlikable and at times insufferable, the plot had me locked in and I couldn't wait to get to the bottom of Ani's story and understand why she turned out the way that she did. 
  • I think it was important to show characters like Ani's mother and
    the planned parenthood nurse
    . Women who perpetuate patriarchy by dismissing, downplaying, and outright ignoring obvious abuse.

The bad: 
  • Right out the gate we are introduced to Ani's disordered eating, but at no point is it acknowledged as such, or as a thing for her to work on. Both times her best friend bright it up, she dismissed her and moved on. 
  • The plot with
    the teacher
    was suuuuper unnecessary, and it was never acknowledged how creepy and inappropriate it was.
  • (A personal gripe, not so much a fault of the author.) I would have liked to see more of how
    the documentary turned out and the fallout for Dean
    . I understand that Ani's closure came from the face to face acknowledgement of his crimes against her, but it would have been nice to see him finally lose.
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