Scan barcode
A review by booksonthecouch
Lucky Girl by Jamie Pacton
4.0
Jane (born Fortuna Jane Belleweather) is a seventeen year old high school senior living in small town Wisconsin. Jane was recently dumped by her boyfriend of two years, and lives with her mother, who is deep in the throes of a hoarding disorder since the death of Jane’s father 5 years ago. On a whim, Jane buys a lottery ticket, which ends up being the only winning ticket for a prize of more than 58 million dollars. The only problem: Jane’s still two weeks from her 18th birthday, and there isn’t really anyone over 18 she trusts to help her cash the ticket. To complicate things further, Jane’s best friend, Brandon, has made it his mission to find the lottery winner and uncover why they haven’t come forward.
Throughout the course of Lucky Girl, Jane grapples with what to do about the winning ticket. Pacton does an excellent job of portraying life in the kind of small town where everybody is in everybody else’s business. Though the premise is fun, this book deals with heavy topics including mental health, poverty, power/control dynamics within relationships, and historic negative outcomes for lottery winners. Representation includes: child of parent with mental illness, hoarding disorder, anxiety, trauma, and grief/loss. The protagonist is bisexual (incidental to plot!) with a Korean best friend. I also appreciated the representation of a male/female platonic friendship.
On the topic of mental health: Though definitely experienced through the perspective of a frustrated daughter, Pacton deals with hoarding disorder realistically and with sensitivity, including exploring the catalyst for the behavior (a traumatic loss), Jane’s mother’s perception (items need rescuing), and characters understand that they can’t force change. Jane’s own experience with grief is also explored, including within the context of the ways the parent/child roles shifted following the loss of her father.
I really enjoyed Lucky Girl, and enjoyed how the narrative pushed the reader to think not only about what options Jane had, but also what they might do in a similar scenario. I think this one will have broad appeal with YA readers, and I’ll keep this one on my list for bibliotherapy, especially for youth with adults in their life impacted by hoarding disorders.
Thank you to Netgalley, Page Street Publishing, and the Author for providing me with an advance copy of Lucky Girl to review. All opinions are my own.
Throughout the course of Lucky Girl, Jane grapples with what to do about the winning ticket. Pacton does an excellent job of portraying life in the kind of small town where everybody is in everybody else’s business. Though the premise is fun, this book deals with heavy topics including mental health, poverty, power/control dynamics within relationships, and historic negative outcomes for lottery winners. Representation includes: child of parent with mental illness, hoarding disorder, anxiety, trauma, and grief/loss. The protagonist is bisexual (incidental to plot!) with a Korean best friend. I also appreciated the representation of a male/female platonic friendship.
On the topic of mental health: Though definitely experienced through the perspective of a frustrated daughter, Pacton deals with hoarding disorder realistically and with sensitivity, including exploring the catalyst for the behavior (a traumatic loss), Jane’s mother’s perception (items need rescuing), and characters understand that they can’t force change. Jane’s own experience with grief is also explored, including within the context of the ways the parent/child roles shifted following the loss of her father.
I really enjoyed Lucky Girl, and enjoyed how the narrative pushed the reader to think not only about what options Jane had, but also what they might do in a similar scenario. I think this one will have broad appeal with YA readers, and I’ll keep this one on my list for bibliotherapy, especially for youth with adults in their life impacted by hoarding disorders.
Thank you to Netgalley, Page Street Publishing, and the Author for providing me with an advance copy of Lucky Girl to review. All opinions are my own.