Lucky took me into an unknown world that shocked me in regards to human motivations. Would you consider a rape victim “lucky”? Anyone would certainly frown upon that comment. In this book Alice Sebold shows and tells us about her rape encounter. It seems almost surreal how anyone could embrace such a violent attack and still have the audacity to write a book while reliving old memories. The story begins with a vivid description of the rape that happened while walking home by her college campus. It was an event that would affects her mindset for time to come, and her persona completely changed as she valued life and her family a lot more.

Within the book I saw the change in Alice from her walk in the park before the rape, to after. Her memoir was filled with detail and emotion as she tried to move on and restart her life. Everyone knew her as the girl who got raped, and for a while that was all she was. She reveals her life and describes every emotion she is going through, leaving nothing to the imagination. I felt like her sister, knowing everything about her, and seeing her suffer. Being so close to her as to want to take action and protect her from anyone. This book definitely brought forward a part of life that is often unseen. It is rare to hear of trauma victims who have the bravery to retell their encounter. In the book there is an inspiring quote that says, “You save yourself or you remain unsaved,” which means is up to one to be able to move on and try and restart their life.

The reaction to Alice’s rape by her family is typical. They try and create as much comfort as possible while giving her a normal life. Alice notices, and hates the fact that everyone has changed their view on her. She changed in everyone’s eyes, and it was up to her to prove to them that she could come up from that event and be a better person. She found motivation through writing and learned a lot about herself while trying to get through the obstacle placed in front of her. It was an obstacle that she was called” lucky” to have had. Lucky because in that same place a girl had gotten killed years back, lucky because she came out alive, and lucky because she was able to get through the trauma.

Lucky definitely took me into Alice’s life. I got to know who she really was, her thoughts, and her motivations. Her memoir is full of rich details and examples that either connect to you or leave you appalled at what any person could go through. It is definitely a book worth reading and it shows the spirit of a raped girl to go through recovery, and it has a relieving ending that brings justice to her case. Even though I am not familiar with any types of these stories I feel like Alice is just as normal as anyone else. Everyone has hardships, and it is up to each one of us to recover and move on.