Lucky

Lucky by Alice Sebold

This book is both fascinating and disturbing. As Sebold details her rape vividly, the reader feels terrified, as if they are there with her. She then describes the pain, the fear, and the burden of being known to everyone as a rape victim. One part of the book that was especially intriguing was when Alice spotted the rapist walking the streets near her college. She notified the police and they took her to the station, where she was questioned about his appearance. One officer then took her and her friend Ken looking for the rapist. The officer was so angry about the rape he attacked three innocent African American boys while Ken whimpered next to her in the car. Though throughout the whole book she is trying to consistently appear strong, this is the point where she began to feel angry. She realized she was in the middle of it all, and somehow she didn't exist. She believed she was just a victim whose condition made people feel nervous, guilty, or incandescent. I liked this part because it was simple for me to relate to; I knew I'd feel exactly the same way if I were in the same situation. One part of Lucky I was not as fond of was when she first told her parents about the rape and her father couldn't understand how the rapist could have attacked her when he left the knife on the sidewalk while she was raped underneath a bridge. I felt like he was suggesting that she was willing and that it wasn't necessarily rape. I have to disagree, because it is obvious within the first chapter that it was against her will. Although she did not share the concrete details with her family, he should have at least given her his trust. I would recommend this book for a mature reader because the first chapter of the book is extremely graphic on her rape. It is unnerving in the most interesting way, and I was delighted to read it.

6 out of 6 people found this review helpful.

Lucky

From the opening pages, Sebold tells the reader a truly horrifying story of her rape in accurate and quite graphic detail. And whilst horrified at what she has endured, you want to read more - to see how someone survives an attack like that, and what life is like for a rape victim in the hours, days and week afterwards. I couldn't put this book down - a combination of great writing and admiration for the author, made this a compelling read. Lucky is about Sebold's experience as rape survivor, her eventual court experience, and the sad aftermath of her first two years of college. It's no secret that I've been raped myself and am in litigation regarding it up to my neck so it was interesting to see my own reaction. It's a helpful book to read in regards to coming to terms and being honest regarding rape. It's very grounding. The one thing I really enjoyed about it was getting to know Sebold as a person, it truly helped contextualize the characterization and plot of The Lovely Bones. If you're planning to read TLB, I'd recommend giving Lucky a read first, or at least reading it down the line as I did, as the two books are connected despite their differences (ie fiction vs non-fiction). I recommend this book. It was difficult, and at times chilling to read, but worth every single word.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Highly Recommended - you must check it out!!

"Lucky" by Alice Sebold is the amazing tale of the battles and triumphs she endured after being the victim of a terrible crime. This book walks the reader through the crime itself, the emotions Alice was feeling, the trial, the way people treated her as news spread that she was a rape victim, and everything in between. Many people say that one decision can change the rest of your life and after reading this book, it seems no one knows this better than Alice. In just one year her life had been turned upside down. Though a reader will never truly understand what she was going through, this book gets you about as close as you can be. A reader immediately empathizes with Ms. Sebold and that feeling remains for the entirety of the novel. This novel does not only cover one year. It reflects on her past and stretches to more than ten years after the night of the crime. Despite the long time span covered in this book, it is still filled to the brim with details and extraordinary descriptions. When I first heard about this book I felt it was going to be beyond my maturity and geared specifically toward female adults, but now, having read it, I would easily recommend it to a vast majority of my friends and family. Though it is a very serious topic, Alice Sebold managed to weave humor into this novel very smoothly, making it a much easier book to read. All in all, “Lucky” is a very enlightening and enriching book that shows the good, the bad, and the ugly. I would highly recommend it to any adult and most high school students, based on maturity. It is a book I did not want to put down, even through the battles.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Have you ever felt alone

Have you ever felt alone, scared, or not understood in a world of millions of people? This is a story of the brutal assault and rape of Alice Sebold; it gives an excellent insight to what a victim of this sort of crime would go through as they heal. The book is not for everyone because it is very detailed upon the rape in the first several pages. Throughout the book you realize just how realistic everything seems, if I closed my eyes I can picture everything that happen and replay it in my head almost as if I witnessed it happen. You get a visual image of what the victim would experience as they go through their recovery and trial. The author is ¿lucky¿ that her rapist is caught and sentenced to a maximum sentence for the crime.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Loved it!

This book got off to an incredibly fast start. The opening chapters immediately discussed the brutulity and struggle that Alice went through in her rape. The fast-paced nature of the book made it interesting and made it hard to put down. The middle of the novel got a bit slow but the ending was shocking and made the read well worth while. I would recommend this book for those who have always wondered about a victim¿s life after the press and the spotlight is gone.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Great book!

I really enjoyed this book, i could really feel the pain that she went through and how hard she was trying to help the other two!

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Ok book

The beginning got straight to the point however,the story dragged throughout most of the book.

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Not a feel good book

This book was terrifying and heartbreaking and the fact that it is not fiction left me in awe of Ms. Sebold. Sexual assault is so often not talked about, this book reminds us of the person that the newly defined victim once was. A young innocent college girl who suddenly is reduced to 'Lucky'.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

HVw

This book is very good i loved it(:

Wow.

I was sucked into this book. The story, the author's humor, etc. I don't know why people would complain about it being graphic... what are you expecting in a memoir about a rape? The foul language was a bit much for me at times but she is accurately portraying her experience. Brave woman. First book of its kind. Her honesty was a blessing.

Very intriguing and awesome book!

I had read a previous book to this one, but was shocked when I found out it was a story about the author! I loved the book and it was very well written! I had it finished in 24 hours because I couldn't hardly put it down! So moving and inspiring! A must read!

Great

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0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

An Exhilarating Read...

Alice Sebold somehow gathered the strength to share her horrific experience with world after a decade and a half. Her emotion pours out of every page in this novel. It is well written, engrossing, and informative. She incorporates vivid, graphic descriptions when telling her story. It is so merciless that one can not possibly comprehend it all at once. Sebold had to have an extraordinary amount of strength and determination to withstand not only the rape, but also the trial. This experience eventually took its toll on her. After the trial she tried to lead a "normal" life, whatever that was, but fell into the drug scene of New York City's East Village. Two things saved her from this awful lifestyle. She began to teach at Hunter College and found that her students became the people who kept her alive. She felt as if she could get lost in their lives. Given the circumstances, she also read the book, Trauma and Recovery. She talks about “reading about herself” and how all of the stories “allowed her to begin to feel”. Even though this book contains graphic descriptions and explanations, I would recommend it to any mature young adult to open their eyes to a real tragedy…to real trauma. Most of us do not understand the horrors people face on a daily basis, nor do we care, until something traumatic happens to us. This book can also be used as a guide to other females who have experienced this same tragedy. They might be looking for someone to relate to…to feel that they are not alone in this. I have learned to appreciate my own life after reading this book. We all take certain aspects of our lives for granted at times. This made me realize how “lucky” I am and how I must appreciate all of the good people and experiences in my life.

accurate and eye-opening account of rape and the process of recovery from rape

Lucky by Alice Sebold is an eye-opening novel that portrays all the fears, emotional issues, physical trauma, and the road to recovery experienced by rape victims. With a graphic introduction giving a detailed description of the beating and rape this college girl went through one night in a tunnel, readers can truly put themselves in Alice's shoes. Alice found her experience to be horrid and disastrous, yet the police told her she was relatively lucky to still be alive. A large portion of the book does focus on the rape trial and justification process Alice went through in order to courageously prove her rapist, Gregory Madison, guilty of rape. This section of the book displays the long, difficult process of confirming the offender and providing evidence of his fault. Although this is not the most exciting part of the novel, it helps the reader to see rape recovery from all aspects. With her rape experience, she entwines her family life including her mother's past struggle with alcoholism and nervous flaps. She shows how her rape effected her family, too, and dealing with the circumstances was not easy for any of them. Through overcoming her rape and getting her life back on track, Alice explains how this unwanted and unexpected event in her life took over her life and stole her innocence. She shares with us her attempt to return to her life as a ordinary college student and her venture into the college world around her. Alice's life does dramatically change after being raped, and many of us can not directly relate to her problematic situation. This life touching narrative allows readers to engage in her experience and see what she truly went through. Rape victims like Alice can also use this story to help them personally recover from their similar trauma. Rape does subsist and unfortunately takes place quite often around us; this novel helps readers to more accurately understand this struggle.

Highly Recommended

At the end of her freshman year at Syracuse University, Alice Sebold was brutally beaten and raped inside a tunnel as she walked back to her dorm room from her friend’s party. In her memoir, she describes this awful event and what her life was like in the year following the incident. Sebold includes flashbacks of her childhood that help readers understand her better. She entitles her book, Lucky, because shortly after her rape a policeman told her a girl who was recently raped in the same tunnel was murdered and dismembered; therefore, Alice was lucky. As Alice begins her journey of healing, she attempts to convey to her readers that you and you alone can save yourself.
The memoir begins with an extremely graphic description of Sebold’s rape. The gruesome narrative will cause some readers to think it is a fictional piece because it was such a savage attack. However, her explicit account of the assault is very effective because it conveys to her readers the traumatic nature of the attack. She then goes on to portray the events immediately following the rape. She describes her visit to the hospital followed by her parents picking her up. Anytime her parents had picked her up in the past, she always looked her best. This time, she still wanted to look her best in an effort to show her parents that she had not changed. After a rather uncomfortable reunion with her family, Alice realizes that as much as she wanted people to treat her the same, she had indeed changed. This had been the hardest part− readjusting to the world after she was raped. Alice exclaims she now saw “violence everywhere,” and was “divided against the world.” Throughout her journal, Alice explains that for a long time after the rape, her family and friends, the people who were supposed to be there for her through anything, treated her differently or overprotected her. They also viewed her as damaged and not like the witty girl she once was.
By including flashbacks of her life, Alice tells her readers that secrets were always kept in her family, and she was always taught to be reticent. Hence, her memoir served the purpose of revealing herself to the world and exposing her biggest secret of all. The second half of the book includes the turning point in Alice’s life when she spots her assailant, and he is apprehended. He is brought to trial, and Alice courageously testifies.
I highly recommend this memoir because the themes of survival and overcoming a traumatic incident serve as an inspiration to anyone who has faced a difficult experience. Seybold’s account of her rape, told with complete and utter honesty, gives hope to others that have suffered similar atrocities. Alice Seybold is living proof that “what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger.”

Eye Opening!

Alice Sebold's book "Lucky" is meticulous recollection of her rape, and her life afterwards. I liked the book enough to get through it, but it did give off that page turner feel. I have an enormous amount of respect for Alice Sebold and that she had the courage to come out about this horrible part of her life, not everyone can do that. In the beginning of the book I was confused concerning the parts where she went into detail about her childhood and family, but later it helps you understand why they do certain things in the book. I really appreciate the message Sebold sends across to her readers through this book. It shows how something like a rape can really affect a person's life, and also the people in that person's life. She did a great job of showing how victims and their friends don't exactly know how to deal with it at times, and that the victim is truly the only one who understands. It makes you realize even more how horrible the crime of rape is, and how it can ruin someone's life. Sebold's friends, relationships, schooling, and mindset were all drastically changed at some point due to her rape. Luckily, Sebold got back on the right track eventually, but her rape experience obviously caused her to make some bad decisions. I'm not saying she regretted making these decisions, because there's no doubt this helped her grow as a person, but there is also no doubt that her life would have been completey different if this horrible account never happened to her. Sebold displays a controlled memoir of her rape by being matter-of-fact on many subjects, but also caring in first-hand aspects that need it.Overall, this book was a pretty good read, and absolutely opens the readers' eyes to all the aftermath that a rape brings to the victim's life forever.

Simply amazing.

This book is extremely intense yet so captivating. Alice Sebold is one of my favorite authors and she tells her story with such brilliance.

Strong Enough

Lucky by Alice Sebold was published in 1999 and has hundreds of editorial and reader reviews. It is a seminal memoir on the subject of rape, giving permission to other victims to break their silence. The book is so important, it merits opinion eleven years later.

The book begins with the terrifying experience of the author being raped. It's graphic, it's real, and it hurts to read. Alice was able to tell the events in a clear voice that could have gotten lost in the chaos of the long ordeal. A memoir about rape is a writing nightmare, yet Sebold creates enough connection between author and reader to generate compassion for the victim and rage at the perpetrator. Then, he apologized!

Alice had few friends to run to, and relied on acquaintances and strangers to help her in the aftermath, which is ugly, painful, and infinite. Within the story, the reader will find exactly how a rape victims feels: "damaged goods, ruined." Or from a different planet.

Sebold examines her family dynamics as she tries to recover. It appears that each member of her family lives on a different planet, revolving around each other but never really making contact. Her mother has anxiety; her father is isolated; her sister is perfect. This sets Alice up for taking the journey alone while trying to maintain her sanity, a grade point average, and the court proceedings.

The transcripts of the court proceedings are long and arduous. One can only imagine what it must have been like for Alice to be the witness in her rape trial, being put on the spot, with soiled underwear sworn into evidence. You'll find clever comments by Sebold that help the reader grasp intonations of sarcasm and scorn from the perpetrator's attorneys. Sebold was strong enough to survive when others would have folded.

Alice admitted to a common result of sexual violence, which is using drugs to escape. She discovered that she has post-traumatic stress disorder. She does not sugar-coat the violence that is rape, the intimidation that is the criminal justice system, or the ironies of life that is stranger than any fiction.

TOUCHING STORY

From the very beginning of this book, the author grabs your attention and keeps it throughout the story. The writing is descriptive and her pain is felt throughout the chapters. I only hope he is still locked up like the animal that he is.

Very real!

As a rape victim, I thought Alice Sebold's retelling of her personal experience was very real, and I think someone who hasn't experienced something so devastating can maybe BEGIN to understand what goes through the mind of someone who has to endure it. I was kept glued to this book until the very end.