Staff Pick
Are all your friends already talking about this one? They will be. It’s a powerful thriller — dark, funny, and surprising. It will captivate you. Recommended By Moses M., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
The instant
New York Times bestseller and “the perfect page-turner to start your summer” (
People, Book of the Week),
Luckiest Girl Alive is about secrets and lies…and whether or not the truth can really set you free.
“Loved Gone Girl? Luckiest Girl Alive is just as addicting” (Good Housekeeping).
As a teenager at the prestigious Bradley School, Ani FaNelli endured a shocking, public humiliation that left her desperate to reinvent herself. Now, with a glamorous job, expensive wardrobe, and handsome blue blood fiancé, shes this close to living the perfect life shes worked so hard to achieve. But Ani has a secret. Her perfect life is a perfect lie.
Theres something else buried in her past that still haunts her, something private and painful that threatens to bubble to the surface and ruin everything. The question remains: will breaking her silence destroy all that she has worked for—or, will it, at long last, set Ani free?
With a singular voice and twists you wont see coming, Luckiest Girl Alive is “completely unputdownable…until its final pages” (Entertainment Weekly).
Review
“[A] huge summer read...one of those great stories that you cant put down!” Reese Witherspoon, InStyle
Review
“The perfect page-turner to start your summer.”People (Book of the Week)
Review
“Dark, twisty...razor-sharp writing...propulsive prose...[The] reveal is a real doozy—a legitimately shocking, completely unputdownable sequence that unfolds like a slow-motion horror film. It instantly elevates
Luckiest Girl...and that momentum keeps going until its final pages.”
EW
Review
“Loved Gone Girl? We promise [Luckiest Girl Alive is] just as addictive.” Good Housekeeping
Review
“A pulse-pounding, jaw-dropping novel about how tragedy twists and shapes lives.”InTouch (A-)
Review
“[Ani FaNelli is] a cross between Sex and the Citys Carrie Bradshaw and Gone Girls Amy Dunne....Knolls debut truly delivers and will keep readers engaged until the end.” Library Journal
Review
“This is going to be the book you insist all your friends read this summer....[A] clever, cunning satire on the female condition in the 21st century.” Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
Review
“When Ani FaNelli wants something, she gets it: the job, the body, the man. What starts as a Mean Girls-seeming story line transforms into something so dark, so plot-twistingly intense that…well, actually, no spoilers here.” Marie Claire
Review
“Your next book.” People StyleWatch
Review
“The perfect kind of summer read: Nail-bitingly addictive, equal parts funny and twisted, and full of ‘I never saw THAT coming moments.” Glamour
Review
“Luckiest Girl Alive is crime fiction at its best, proving the genres deep connections to societys fears, ambitions, and ability to question the status quo. . . . Jessica Knoll is a writer to keep an eye on, especially after being compared to Gillian Flynn by Megan Abbott....However, I have found enough personality in Knolls debut novel to let her stand on her own, rather than label her ‘the next Gillian Flynn. Knolls version of the feminist crime novel is more steeped in pop culture than Flynns, and Anis psyche has nothing to envy of Amys: they are both troubled, and they both put up outstanding gender and class performances. But while Amy is more private and emotional, Ani relies on modern fashion references that will thrill even Vogue, Cosmo, and Glamour readers....Luckiest Girl Alive is the ultimate critical companion to millennial femininity.” Los Angeles Review of Books
Review
"[Readers] probably won't leave Luckiest Girl Alive wishing they had a friend just like TifAni, but...if they liked Gone Girl, they'll be thrilled to see another woman who's allowed to be smart and mean, vulnerable and detestable." Time.com
Review
“Knoll introduces you to your new best frenemy, and youre going to love it....Destined to become one of the summers most gripping reads.” Bustle.com
Review
“Dark, clever and wildly addictive.”SELF Magazine
Review
“With the cunning and verve of Gillian Flynn but with a febrile intensity all its own, Jessica Knolls Luckiest Girl Alive is a debut you wont want to miss. Sly, darkly funny and chilling-to-the bone, it gets under your skin and stays there.” Megan Abbott, author of Dare Me and The Fever
Review
“The most compelling debut novel I've read in years! Luckiest Girl Alive is intriguing, surprising, and even shockingly funny at times. And Ani FaNelli is a complex, heartbreaking, and unforgettable heroine.” John Searles, author of Help for the Haunted
Review
“At turns funny, shocking, violent and heart-rending, Luckiest Girl Alive hooks its reader and doesn't let go. Jessica Knoll's twisted, twisting debut beautifully explores reinvention, retribution and redemption—and all the rawness in between.” Miranda Beverly-Whittemore, New York Times bestselling author of Bittersweet
Review
“Fresh, funny, biting and shocking—Luckiest Girl Alive kept me riveted from cover to cover. I absolutely loved it.” Lauren Weisberger, New York Times bestselling author of The Devil Wears Prada
Review
“Luckiest Girl Alive is a wickedly well-plotted page-turner that lifts back the veil of Ani FaNellis glamour and privilege to tread amongst the sharp emotional thorns lying beneath. Knolls novel dazzles with humor, cultural insight, and thematic heft.” Alissa Nutting, author of Tampa
Review
“Compelling.” Booklist
Review
One of "18 Brilliant Books You Won't Want To Miss This Summer" The Huffington Post
Review
“Luckiest Girl Alive is Gone Girl meets Cosmo meets Sex and the City....Knoll hits it out of the park.” Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Review
“Readers guessing what the ‘dark underbelly of this story is can guess again. It is just the beginning, a trap set by the author [who] scatters the clues so obscurely and randomly that peeking at the ending is just a waste of time....No shortcuts here....Knolls knack for social nuances on both sides of the socioeconomic tracks deserves mention for the high praise it already is receiving in the book world.” Buffalo News
About the Author
Jessica Knoll has been a senior editor at Cosmopolitan and the articles editor at SELF. She grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia and graduated from The Shipley School in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, and from Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York. She lives in New York City with her husband. Luckiest Girl Alive is her first book.