Luckiest Girl Alive ending explained: is it different from the book?

And in adapting her own work for the screen, the author has made a couple of changes to it's conclusion – read on for everything you need to know.

Luckiest Girl Alive ending explained

Throughout the film, we learn that Ani's seemingly perfect life is masking a troubling past. At first, it seems that this might have its roots in a horrifying school shooting she witnessed as a child, but it soon emerges that her trauma goes even deeper than that.

In flashbacks, we learn that she was raped by three of her classmates at the rich private school she attended: Peyton, Liam and Dean. At the time, she decided not to pursue the matter with the law, and was instead victim blamed and taunted by fellow students.

We then discover that the school shooting was perpetrated by Arthur, a fellow student who was also the victim of bullying, and he had spared Ani as she had also been bullied. Dean survived the shooting and he then spread a rumour that Ani had been involved in planning the massacre.

In the present day, Ani decides to take matters into her own hands and writes a powerful essay about her experiences of sexual assault – after she records Dean (who has since become a writer and advocate for gun control) confessing that he had raped her.

The film ends with Ani making the decision not to go ahead with her wedding to Luke, who had previously seemed like her dream man – after he said she should have dealt with the incident privately. Instead, she accepts a job offer at the New York Times, and her essay prompts several other women to come forward with their own stories of assault.

Is the Luckiest Girl Alive ending different from the book?

The ending to the film is slightly different to that in the book – with Knoll altering the conclusion based on experiences she herself had following the publication of her novel.

Ani's personal essay about her experiences as a victim of sexual assualt does not feature in the book, which instead ends in a more low key manner. Knoll explained in an interview with Entertainment Weekly how the decision to a was made after she had written a similar letter of her own.

"When Mila came on, there were several conversations about how the ending wasn't quite landing," she said.

"At some point I do remember saying how when I wrote my essay for Lenny Letter that I was just inundated with messages from women sharing their stories, and that unlocked something in us where we were like, 'Maybe there's a way to use that to shape our ending.'

"It's very meta that it's a fictional story, a fictional character, but there are even more elements that are inspired by my real life. I like that we looked at the year that followed me writing the book and writing my essay, and the reaction to it and going on a TV show to talk about it. I liked that we embedded that into the movie because I think it makes for a more epic journey that Ani goes on."

Luckiest Girl Alive is streaming on Neftlix now. Sign up for Netflix from £6.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.

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