This was one of those books I wanted to pick up when it came out, but I was sidelined by what always feels like a million other books. When a dear friend gave me a gift card to a used book store, I ran for Jessica Knoll's Luckiest Girl Alive.
TifAni FaNelli has done everything in her power to reinvent herself in adulthood -- taking on a shortened version of her name -- Ani, gussying up her wardrobe, writing for a popular magazine with cache, finding a wealthy fiance, and snagging a TriBeCa apartment. All of this so that she could escape her freshman year of high school at The Bradley School and the infamous person she quickly became after an incident so horrifying that it made national news. When Ani goes back home after agreeing to appear in a documentary on the crime, she must face who she was and who she has become, and neither are people she is proud of.
I wasn't sure if I had this one hyped up too much before I read it -- I did know a few of the plot points. I will say, that which I heard did not at all ruin this story for me. I read it a lot like a thriller, in that I found I couldn't put it down. I was fascinated with the character of Ani and how absolutely abhorrent she was as a human being, and how I couldn't wait to figure out what her number was. When reading about this book before I bought it, I found that people either loved or hated Ani, and I think that speaks to Knoll's ability to write a character that was genuinely dislikable, and that was the whole point. I can't speak for Knoll, as she wrote this and I didn't, but I think the whole point of Ani is that she is a shitty person and she is designed for us to hate her. She says early on in the book that she wants to turn the tide and be the tormentor rather than the tormented. (I am paraphrasing, of course.) All of the characters were interesting and half horrible, half sympathetic, and that was a fairly realistic portrayal of people in general. No one is likable or sympathetic all of the time, and there's no reason a character should be.
I found that Knoll did a bang-up job of carrying the through line through the first third of the book to keep me interested to find out how Ani ended up where she did. I was so engrossed in where the story was going that I found myself looking for reasons to go back to my book. It was intriguing and nail-biting, and the story vacillated between terribly and painfully realistic to unbelievable while still being, for me at least. completely absorbing. I got it, and while I still didn't particularly care for Ani as a person, I thought Knoll did made outstanding work of telling her story. When she got revenge, I was with her. It wasn't the way you think it will be in the story, but it does come in the end. It takes the whole book, but the Ice Queen melts, although you won't know how or why until you understand the whole story. And I can't tell you that here, because the spoilers are yours to find and not mine to give away.
There is much I want to say about this story, and much that I won't. I am in the camp that really, really enjoyed this book and I am glad that I barreled through it last weekend. I am looking forward to Knoll's newest book and seeing what she comes up with next.
I wasn't sure if I had this one hyped up too much before I read it -- I did know a few of the plot points. I will say, that which I heard did not at all ruin this story for me. I read it a lot like a thriller, in that I found I couldn't put it down. I was fascinated with the character of Ani and how absolutely abhorrent she was as a human being, and how I couldn't wait to figure out what her number was. When reading about this book before I bought it, I found that people either loved or hated Ani, and I think that speaks to Knoll's ability to write a character that was genuinely dislikable, and that was the whole point. I can't speak for Knoll, as she wrote this and I didn't, but I think the whole point of Ani is that she is a shitty person and she is designed for us to hate her. She says early on in the book that she wants to turn the tide and be the tormentor rather than the tormented. (I am paraphrasing, of course.) All of the characters were interesting and half horrible, half sympathetic, and that was a fairly realistic portrayal of people in general. No one is likable or sympathetic all of the time, and there's no reason a character should be.
I found that Knoll did a bang-up job of carrying the through line through the first third of the book to keep me interested to find out how Ani ended up where she did. I was so engrossed in where the story was going that I found myself looking for reasons to go back to my book. It was intriguing and nail-biting, and the story vacillated between terribly and painfully realistic to unbelievable while still being, for me at least. completely absorbing. I got it, and while I still didn't particularly care for Ani as a person, I thought Knoll did made outstanding work of telling her story. When she got revenge, I was with her. It wasn't the way you think it will be in the story, but it does come in the end. It takes the whole book, but the Ice Queen melts, although you won't know how or why until you understand the whole story. And I can't tell you that here, because the spoilers are yours to find and not mine to give away.
There is much I want to say about this story, and much that I won't. I am in the camp that really, really enjoyed this book and I am glad that I barreled through it last weekend. I am looking forward to Knoll's newest book and seeing what she comes up with next.
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