Luckiest girl alive / Jessica Knoll.

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  • Additional Information
    • Publication Information:
      First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition.
    • Abstract:
      Summary: Twenty-eight-year-old New Yorker Ani FaNelli seems to have it all: she's a rising star at The Women's Magazine, impossibly fit, perfectly groomed, and about to marry Luke Harrison, a handsome blueblood. But behind that veneer of perfection lies a vulnerability that Ani holds close and buries deep -- a very violent and public trauma from her past that has left her constantly trying to reinvent herself. And only she knows how far she would go to keep her secrets safe. When a documentary producer invites Ani to tell her side of the chilling incident that took place when she was a teenager at the prestigious Bradley School, she hopes it will be an opportunity for public vindication. Armed with the trappings of success -- expensive clothes, high-powered byline, a massive engagement ring -- she is determined to silence the whispers of suspicion and blame from her past, and prove once and for all how far she's come since Bradley. She'll even let them film her lavish wedding on Nantucket, the final step in her transformation. But perfection doesn't come without cost. As the wedding and filming converge, Ani's meticulously crafted facade begins to buckle and crack -- until an explosive revelation offers her a final chance at redemption, even as it rocks her picture-perfect world.
    • ISBN:
      9781476789637 (hardcover)
      1476789630 (hardcover)
    • Accession Number:
      2014023382
    • Accession Number:
      ocn883147884
      883147884
    • Accession Number:
      lcc.ocn883147884

Reviews

Booklist Reviews 2015 April #2

Knoll's novel jumps decades, flashing back to TifAni FaNelli's traumatic adolescence as she plans to meet a group of documentarians who want to know "what really happened" at Bradley High School. As a teenager, Ani had been raped by multiple boys at a party, then she was caught up in a Columbine-esque disaster at her high school, and assumed to have been an accomplice in the shooting since she had been friends with one of the gunmen, and he targeted the students who attacked her. Ani reexperiences guilt and anger at not having come forth to report the rapes, though her older and wiser self realizes it was out of desperation to fit in with Bradley's popular, wealthy students. These are demons she is still fighting as she prepares to marry her fiancé, Luke, in the hope that, as she freely admits, the influence of his wholesome upbringing will help her in her effort to redeem her past life. The plot is slow to unfold, but Ani's predicament is compelling. A powerful depiction of the psychological trauma of rape—­excellent for book discussions. Copyright 2014 Booklist Reviews.

PW Reviews 2015 March #5

One woman's carefully orchestrated, perfect life slowly cracks to reveal a dark underbelly in Knoll's knockout debut novel. Ani FaNelli has left her Main Line suburban Philadelphia roots behind to reinvent herself as a writer for a successful New York magazine. She is now engaged to the successful, wealthy Luke. But her past threatens to come back to haunt her, in the form of a documentary about a school shooting that happened at her prestigious private high school years ago. Ani leaves New York to travel back to suburban Philadelphia to tell her side of the story. Knoll carefully unravels Ani's past, her fractured relationship with her mother, and her suffering at the hands of her fellow high school students. Flashbacks reveal the psychological and physical damage inflicted by Ani's classmates, the effects of which linger in the present. And a chance encounter with Ani's former teacher, Andrew Larson, reminds Ani of her decision to participate in the documentary and opens up a host of questions she wants to ask him about his participation in it. Yet what sets this novel apart is the author's ability to snare the reader from page one, setting the tone for a completely enthralling read as the secrets are revealed. Agent: Alyssa Reuben, Paradigm Agency. (May)

[Page ]. Copyright 2014 PWxyz LLC