Lucky Girl

Amanda Maciel

Apr 2017 · Sold by HarperCollins

About this ebook

Lucky Girl is an unflinching exploration of beauty, self-worth, and sexual assault, from the author of the acclaimed Tease.

Rosie is a beautiful girl—and it’s always been enough. Boys crush on her, men stare at her, girls (begrudgingly) admire her. She’s lucky and she knows it.

But it’s the start of a new school year and she begins to realize that she wants to be more. Namely, she’s determined to be better to her best friend, Maddie, who’s just back from a summer program abroad having totally blossomed into her own looks. Rosie isn’t thrilled when Maddie connects with a football player who Rosie was hooking up with—but if it makes her friend happy, she’s prepared to get over it. Plus, someone even more interesting has moved to town: Alex, who became semifamous after he stopped a classmate from carrying out a shooting rampage at his old high school. Rosie is drawn to Alex in a way she’s never experienced before—and she is surprised to discover that, unlike every other guy, he seems to see more to her than her beauty.

Then at a party one night, in the midst of a devastating storm, something happens that tears apart Rosie’s life and sets her on a journey of self-discovery that forces her to face uncomfortable truths about reputation, identity, and what it means to be a true friend.

Ratings and reviews

Lucky Girl is a book that discusses the underlying rape culture that exists in everyday life - the one where a regular party girl is slut-shamed easily, where she doubts herself because she thinks she is responsible for inciting the crime - you know, regular ingrained misogyny. Rosie is pretty - the whole town knows it, and she loves it. She likes that she can have any boy she wants, and when her friend Maddie returns, from her summer abroad, more beautiful, she is a little jealous and unsure at first. She thought her friendly dynamic was based around the fact that she is the prettier and more experienced one. But then when Maddie's new boyfriend assaults Rosie at a party, and Maddie thinks she was hooking up, Rosie is at a loss as how to explain it to her. Firstly, she feels guilty for attracting his attention (even though she had hooked up with him before Maddie and he got together) and secondly, she feels like she has projected this image of a loose party girl who no one will take seriously. The book subtly approaches these topics of slut-shaming, rape culture, prejudices, and how boys get away easily with stuff, as well as how girls are conditioned into blaming themselves for other's reactions to them. Rosie almost becomes a rape statistic and her first response is to deny anything ever happened. She is embarrassed by it, blames herself for it, feels unworthy of her friendship because of it - while the boy who did it still goes on living his life as normal. And although it comes from the perspective of a girl who is pretty and therefore more likely to gain unwanted attention, it also points out that this is a universal problem. There is also a very important sex-positive message which while not overt, still is pervasive in the book's theme. While I loved the message this book gives, and how it is a good example of a coming-of-age novel that approaches topics like sexuality subtly, it is perhaps not a book I would recommend solely on the basis of that. Like, if you wanted me to prescribe a book to you about said topic, this wouldn't be the first book to spring to my mind. This is because while it does speak about these things, it doesn't feel fully invested in it. There are too many plot threads running around like the storm, that whole story arc with Alex (which felt extraneous) and her arc with her sister - it felt underdeveloped and unpolished in those regards. The writing is okay, but nothing to jump up excitedly about. In short, despite the way the author handled these serious topics, it ultimately felt like an average sort of book.

About the author

Amanda Maciel has worked in book publishing since graduating from Mount Holyoke College and is currently an executive editor of children’s books. She spends her free time writing, running, and helping raise her young son with her husband and their cat in Brooklyn, New York. Tease is her first novel.