By Tyra Forde
Content warning: miscarriage, graphic scenes
Lucky, the fourth novel by Canadian author Marissa Stapley, will take you on a road trip so enthralling, pages will be turning as fast as a moving vehicle. The novel isn’t thrilling for its heists, which Luciana “Lucky” Armstrong and her boyfriend, Cary, have already carried out, but rather how long Lucky will survive once she’s left alone. Broke and using an alter ego that is now wanted across the country, Lucky gets a glimmer of hope from an old lottery ticket she purchased. With the tagline of the novel, Stapley asks the million-dollar question:
What if you had the winning ticket that would change your life forever, but you couldn’t cash it?
From the West to East Coast, Lucky clings to the small slip of paper that could be her getaway car from the life of crime she’s always wanted to leave. But she soon learns to have a chance at the cash, she will also need to cling to her father, who she pushed away; her mother, who abandoned her at birth; and her boyfriend, with whom she has built a life with. A story about integrity, family, and forgiveness, Lucky is a novel with a character you will root for until the bitter end.
Broken into two parts, each chapter contains both the current narrative and a flashback to Lucky’s adolescence. Now in her mid-twenties, the memories serve to round out her life story without excessive exposition weighing down the main plot. The flashbacks also allow perspectives of secondary characters to shine through, which reveals key information about Lucky’s history. Stapley is successful in this strategy. The flashbacks continue until the past catches up to the present in an exhilarating yet hopeful conclusion that had me craving a sequel even though the standalone novel is nicely bookended.
Lucky explores the spectrum of good and evil and the importance of honesty through its titular character. Lucky may not always be on the side of right, but her eternal optimism shows her heart is in the right place even when her head makes a wrong decision.
At just over 230 pages, the novel is fast-paced and well-timed and constantly left me curious about what would come next. Stapley’s writing style is dynamic and easily matches the personalities of the various characters both in Lucky’s life and the characters that she creates to cover her tracks as she races across the country. The novel has been optioned for television and based on my enjoyment of the book, I would gladly watch the TV show and read other books written by Stapley.