Luckiest Girl Alive - Book Review

In a sea of fiction books with too many titles adding to its stock daily we might get to read lot of good ones or nice reads, but only few could be really amazing. Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll is absolutely such an amazing read I had the luck to come across!

TifAni FaNelli, who goes by Ani (Ah-nee) now and soon to be a Harrison has it all. She is 28 years old with a sparkling career and a blue blooded fiancee which any girl could be jealous of and especially the people who knows her past would marvel. Well, the success she has gained was not really offered to her in a silver platter. She had to put a lot of efforts to achieve all of that. Putting up a real stunt to look that happy wasn’t easy, she had to be very strong and determined as her ever so lucky and perfect life is nothing but a meticulously dramatised lie. Within that zero figure body covered in expensive clothes and jewellery lies the real Ani, harboring a dark secret from everyone around. Will she go on with the usual drama or finally let out her secrets and make peace with her past, is something for the readers to find out.

Ani is sharp, more than the people around her would register. She could assess the people and the situations to pull out a fine act and play innocent, obedient and vulnerable. The exact way the society expects her to be. At the beginning I found her quite vicious and ungrateful for she was really pretentious when her heart felt the exact opposite. Certain behaviour towards her loved ones made me question what’s wrong with her attitudes and behaviour. After all it was obvious that she is the luckiest girl alive! But soon enough the hazy truth, the reasons behind the transformation of TifAni into a cold and disturbed person would become clearer little by little.

The plot sways between the past and the present. Unwinding of the memories is at slow pace and finely blended with the current incidents. I was glued to the book careful not to skip even a single sentence with the fear of missing a crucial point. Even quite normal scenarios can suddenly become a plot twist. Every such spectacular turn of events would make me gasp in shock. And then I was ready to settle with the truth revealed but to my utter surprise I find that there is more to come. It happened this way until the very end. The journey of young Tifani FaNelli in the make of Ani would-be-Harrison is truly breathtaking.

I don't have firsthand experience of America, and I wonder whether the culture narrated in the story is common mainly with regards to school life and the teenagers. If it is, then it’s horrible! The children are given way too much freedom and chances to act as adults even before they are old enough to understand the things. This may sure lead to taunts and torture for another person. Its a pity that so many children are unfortunate to go through severe torments which would break them beyond repair and make them harmful people. They could be either harmful to themselves or to the society, however the matters should not be overlooked. The outcomes of denial would cause greater damage. Probably it would create Anis from the innocent TifAnis or Arthurs and Bens.

It’s a kind of story that I would wish to re-read as soon as I finished the book. I could be cautious next time at the places I was caught off guard and braze myself to take the blows. The language is profuse and the author has been very precise throughout the storytelling. Both characters and the readers have quite a lot to take in. Though its unexpected, the climax was well deserving. Finally I could say that protagonist was given justice.

I give 5/5 stars to this book and would highly recommend it to any reader. It may open your eyes to look at your loved ones who might have gone through similar mishaps, with more compassion and understanding. Hope everyone would try to be an Andrew Larson instead of a Luke Harrison!

Gangsta Granny - Book Review

I couldn’t keep my eyes away from the bright red cover with its cute drawing while I was browsing through the book shelves. And its very title “Gangsta Granny!” was intriguing enough to urge me read the book. How often do we come across words like Gangster along with a granny? We may hear some news of an old person being a victim of such but never a Gangsta Granny!

I believe there are two types of children in the world. Ones who would really love to visit their grandparents and the others who don’t. I’m pretty sure the latter is very few, because naturally grandparents tend to spoil and dote on us with so much love and care we are ever so eager to visit them anytime. Sadly, Ben belongs to the other category. He hated visiting his grandma. Nevertheless to his great dislike, his visits had to be quite frequent. To be precise, his parents would drop him off at granny’s every Friday, a day which he would dread through the whole week.

Now, there are too many reasons for Ben to hate the place. It was nothing but cabbage to eat and smell, scrabble so boring to play always. As a matter of fact we can’t blame his Granny either for making these visits that horrible. It’s actually his politeness to appreciate his Granny’s efforts have lead her to have all these misconceptions about Ben’s likes and dislikes. However, life won’t be so miserable for too long as one day Ben finds out that his Granny is the most interesting Granny in the whole world!

The story is narrated in an amusing way to the kids with bunch of funny words and cute drawings scattered here and there. The language is simple and expressive, the incidents are well connected to create great excitement with every turn of page. The character Ben is formed in quite a natural way which resembles the kids of his age everywhere. I believe that kids would really feel Ben as very close to their hearts.

Though the book is focused on entertaining kids it would be a light and fun reading for the adults as well. It would be a fine way to understand the children’s mindset through this book. Not just that, the story carries a clear message to the parents. It’s a pity that most of the parents try so dearly to fulfill their dreams through their kids. They often forget that the kids have their own dreams too. Just because they are not the same dreams as ours or not the common socially appreciated ones doesn’t mean that those dreams are not worth achieving. A person would excel in anything only when they have a passion within them. The story is an eye opener for parents to understand their children and support them to try their strength and follow their passion.

Despite being a kids story, I featured this book in my blog with the hope of reaching the parents and other adults who would have close interactions with kids. The book certainly provides food for thought.