Luckiest Girl Alive: Now a major Netflix film starring Mila Kunis as The Luckiest Girl Alive

Luckiest Girl Alive resonated with me. It was one of those novels that at points I had to force myself to keep reading, not due to it being bad but due to it being too real. Not perhaps with some of the circumstances but with the descriptive sense of emotion.The main character, yes rather a silly name Tifani Fanelli - known when we first meet her as Ani - is eminently unlikeable. This continues throughout the book. She's about to marry a rich guy and the first part of the novel focuses very much on her reasons for doing this and her constant struggle to seem as if she "fits in" to that world. She is sarcastic, seemingly selfish and as I said terrifically unlikeable in a lot of ways. And honestly I never truly warmed up to her...About to film a documentary - a "retrospective" on an incident at a private school she used to attend, we start to get some of her backstory. Gain a better understanding of her - whilst she perhaps was always annoyingly needy the fear factor came later, as we see her as a teenager this comes more into focus. There are some emotive themes here which I won't go into as I don't want to spoil it - but Jessica Knoll does a great job of showing us then and now, the nuances of what have brought her to this point.Some of the most powerful scenes in this book happen in one spot - when Ani is telling her story of that day to camera and we finally see the end game fallout - but this point IS more powerful due to the slow build up preceding it, both in the present time and in the past - getting a feeling for all those involved, and even hints of the aftermath that has followed Anni ever since.The reveal moment is not what this book is all about though and that was something else I loved about it. It is a tool to allow the character to choose her path through life - the path of least resistance or a possible one to real happiness and acceptance. What happens after the reveal is just as important, or perhaps even more so, than what has gone before it. The true unpredictability of this one is not WHAT happened but what eventually Tifani will choose because of it.There is a sentence in this book that stayed with me."You only scream when you're finally safe."I get that.I would definitely recommend this one - not as the next Gone Girl - SERIOUSLY publicity people ENOUGH already you are doing this book AND Gone Girl no favours whatsoever - but as a strong and resonant character piece that talks about truth and consequences, puts one human being into a major spotlight warts and all, where the huge event in her life is not necessarily the one that defined her and her choices are up for the harshest scrutiny. You may not like Tifani but you will want her to be ok. Whether or not in the end you think she will be I guess will come down to your own feelings and the path you may have taken. Food for thought indeed.Great book. One I will return to.**purchased copy**Happy Reading Folks!

Luckiest Girl Alive - the title makes you feel as if you more or less know what the book may be about leading you into a sense of security which is ripped away almost instantly. From the outside Ani looks like she has everything, a great job, fiancé and an apartment in Manhattan. Ani is not your typical character though, she's a master at deciphering what any person might want from her or for her to be - especially Luke her fiancé, she is an inwardly clever woman who has be building this facade that is Ani since she left school where something terrible happened. A documentary producer wants Ani to open up about this terrible incident that happened at school in her teenage years, the reader is taken into a nose dive discovering the truths of a difficult and traumatising time. What I love about this book and the author is that Ani is a punchy character. She hides her truest self under her designer clothes and her need to be the version of a woman who is perfect for whomever she is around. Her desire to outwardly look perfect - the extremes she is willing to do or not to do to appear effortless. In this time many feel the need to do this same thing and I believe the author taps into the current dilemma of a young woman while sharing insightful moments to the world around us. At times it can be a challenging read, TifAni (as she was known at 14) goes through such a lot in what seems like a short amount of time. She moves from Catholic School to prestigious Bradley and even at such a young age is already trying whatever she can to fit in and be friends with the popular teens. This turns what could have been a beautiful red rose (book cover) into the black rose that is so perfectly captured on the front cover portraying her tarnished soul. I nearly gave this book 5 stars - but I felt the end came upon us very quickly and almost rushed. Without giving anything away I wanted the ending to be edgy and dark like the rest of the book was but it was surprisingly soft.

I absolutely loved this book. It was way better then the movie. But I mean all books are usually better then the movie. Gave way more details and really drew you in!

"I couldn't imagine anything worse than spending every day of my life with a physical reminder of the terrible things life can do, of the ever-present reality that no one is safe"#luckiestgirlalive by #jessicaknoll @jessicaknollauthor is the story of TifAni FaNelli, a succesful magazine writer that is going to get married to the perfect man, according to everyone around her, in a couple of months. But before that day comes, she is asked to film a documentary about the worse 6 months of her life. When she was 14 years old. A story about a gang rape, bullying and a school shooting.How to tell when an author is excellent in what she does? How to tell when a story is perfectly written? When every single page made me feel nauseous, made me want to scream of impotence, made me cry in anger, made me feel like I needed to do something, anything.This story is full of evil people, yes, EVIL. Every single one of the characters in this book was evil in it's own way. Not one of them was redeemable. The story was a horrible story, that made it worse than a horror story, since everything I am sure happens in a daily basis in real life.I felt impotent to realize how much torture a human being can do to another human being, even at 14 years old. How much we don't really know what a friend should be like. What a mother should be like. How a teacher should be like."Is it rape if you don't remember it?" "Is it worth losing your popularity over to speak up if you don't even remember it?"

Excellent novel.... gripping.....enjoyed it.

Started off quite good, but it didn’t flow well and how it ended was disappointing. Quite a shame as it could have been great. Considering it was based on events from the author’s life, and something that many have experienced, it could have been so much better. The film was also disappointing (i watched it after reading the book) i really like Mila Kunis, but i thought the casting of the movie was very poor and nothing how the characters were described in the book.

Keeps you going and only lets you know the path when you're already there with the character, very well written.