To say that this book hit me out of the blue would be a gross understatement. Here I was, thinking I could read a chapter of this before going to bed and boom, it’s three hours later and I have a new YA contemporary favourite.
Lucky Girl follows Fortuna Jane Belleweather after she finds out the ticket she—kinda illegally—purchased won the jackpot and is now worth $58 million dollars. This is both epic and awful in equal measures, considering Jane’s problems could probably all be solved with that kind of money but that she can’t cash it in because purchasing a ticket if you’re under eighteen is a misdemeanour. Add into the mix that her small town in Wisconsin is basically turning the search for the ticket holder into a witch hunt and the fact that her mom is a hoarder who’d probably spend the entire money on stuff they don’t need instead of food, and you have yourself one heap of a clusterfuck.
Lucky Girl encompasses everything I want and need in a good YA contemporary—fast-paced narration without forfeiting fleshing out characters, conundrums that make you think about your own choices in life, and plunging into emotional topics that will have you reeling.
From the first page, Jane struggles with the “responsibility” that comes with her ticket. Her best friend Bran, who’s an aspiring journalist and makes it his mission to find the lottery winner, offers up horrid stories about lottery winners whose lives went downhill after becoming rich. Jane already knows that she can’t ask her mom to sign the ticket for her so she can claim the money; her grandmother would give it away without a second thought, which leaves only one person in Jane’s life who’s eighteen to sign the ticket. Holden, her ex-boyfriend who wants nothing more than to be filthy rich and who’s been wanting back into Jane’s world.
I loved how to the point this story was with everything we learn about Jane, her family and her relationships tied in really well with the overarching lottery win. Not to mention the in-depth look we get a mental health when it comes to Jane’s mother who is a hoarder and doesn’t really know how to stop—Jane enabling her is the least of their problems and I think that relationship and those issues were dealt with incredibly well considering how short this novel is.
The narration is impeccable as Pacton takes us from the initial euphoria of thinking about what that kind of money could do to the slow but steady paranoia that everyone is on to you straight down to the panic you imagine yourself to feel when someone in your life would do anything to take that money from you because you “don’t deserve it”. I loved the way this book revealed what money can do to people—from being worshippers at the altar of greed to those who would use it to save the environment—really, this book offered so many paths people take when they think there’s something to gain. The angst and anxiety really dripped off the pages and it left me an absolute mess by the time the climax rolled around.
I don’t want to spoil anything because I think this book is best read without too much info but let me say this: it’s hard finding people you can trust and though blood is thicker than water, there are always going to be people who value money over friends and families. The tough thing is to find out the people you know will stick by your side, money or not. And Lucky Girl is a nail biter when it comes to this topic.
Fast-paced and compulsively readable, Lucky Girl is a poignant and revelatory reflection on what money and greed can do to people—and that the best things in life are truly priceless.
Lucky Girl is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of May 11th 2021.
Will you be picking up Lucky Girl? Tell us in the comments below!
Synopsis | Goodreads
A hilarious and poignant reflection on what money can and cannot fix
58,643,129. That’s how many dollars seventeen-year-old Fortuna Jane Belleweather just won in the lotto jackpot. It’s also about how many reasons she has for not coming forward to claim her prize.
Problem #1: Jane is still a minor, and if anyone discovers she bought the ticket underage, she’ll either have to forfeit the ticket, or worse…
Problem #2: Let her hoarder mother cash it. The last thing Jane’s mom needs is millions of dollars to buy more junk. Then…
Problem #3: Jane’s best friend, aspiring journalist Brandon Kim, declares on the news that he’s going to find the lucky winner. It’s one thing to keep her secret from the town, it’s another thing entirely to lie to her best friend. Especially when…
Problem #4: Jane’s ex-boyfriend, Holden, is suddenly back in her life, and he has big ideas about what he’d do with the prize money.
As suspicion and jealousy turn neighbor against neighbor, and no good options for cashing the ticket come forward, Jane begins to wonder: Could this much money actually be a bad thing?
