The Luckiest Girl Alive is a story about TifAni FaNelli, a 28 year old women, living the perfect life with a glamorous job at The Woman’s Magazine and a¬†rich and handsome ¬†fianc√©, Luke, with whom she lives in¬†New York. We find out that she is planning to take part in a documentary about an incident which occurred at her school when she was a student there, and how she wants to create the perfect version of herself to portray to the world in time for the filming of the documentary. The cherry on top of the cake is¬†her huge emerald engagement ring and her approaching¬†wedding to Luke. ¬†The book flits back to her starting at a new school, the prestigious ¬†Bradley School, and begins building up to the event that changed everything.
Early on in her new school TifAni attempts to get in with the popular group and ends up being invited to a party with only the boys from this group. She drinks a lot and blacks out, she wakes up intermittently to find three different boys on top of her, she was raped by them at the age of 14.
In her dedication, author Jessica Knoll writes
To all the TifAni FaNellis of the world,
I know.
Recently she wrote an article for Lenny Letter opening up about the real rape she experienced at a party when she was at school which was the influence behind TifAni’s experience. A lot of people drew parallels to her and TifAni and she found lots of women coming forward with their own experiences and asking her if she had experienced what TifAni had. At first she denied it, but at a book event in New Jersey she finally told the truth¬†when one women asked her¬†about her research.
‘Something similar to what happened to Ani happened to me’, I responded for the first time ever, and she grabbed my wrist and held it tight, blinking tears, while I smiled brightly insisting in a foreign falsetto, ‘I’m fine! It’s fine!’
I’m not fine. It’s not fine. But it’s finally the truth, it’s what I know, and that’s a start.
This was a really gripping book that I couldn’t put down. Jessica Knoll is a wonderful author who makes the story come alive. You can’t help but feel for TifAni dealing with such a terrible experience, and finding no-one she could confide in. Hopefully with brave people like Jessica we can continue to keep the dialogue going, and young women (and men) who experience rape and abuse will find people willing to listen and support them.
-Danielle Triggs
Junior Girl
Girl Museum Inc.