Lucky Girl by Allie Tagle-Dokus
Published by Tin House Books
Publication date: October 28, 2025
Genres: Book Clubs, Debut, Fiction, Coming-of-age, Literary
What is life like when you have an extraordinary gift? When you’re a child with an ability that goes far beyond your years and you have the determination to see it grow? For Lucy, the ability was dance and her ambition so fierce it takes her to the heights of commercial success in Lucky Girl, an insightful novel about coming-of-age and what happens after dreams come true.
Lucy has always loved to dance and her mother rallied to get her the lessons, costumes, and choreography she needed. When she was only 11 she landed on a dance challenge television show. One of the judges is an eccentric popstar named Bruise who decides Lucy is her muse and that she needs her for her music generating a seismic shift in Lucy’s life. From a struggling family battling economically and with mental health issues she finds herself in L.A. in a mansion with her own private dance studio, the best choreographers, attending parties with celebrities, and being fawned over by every person she meets. There are no rules or boundaries. Bruise writes songs for her, stars with her in the videos, and takes her on tour when the album goes viral. But as the fame increases so does the pressure.
This is an observational novel, written solely from Lucy‘s perspective, but author Allie Tagle-Dokus inhabits her character so deeply that the entire story has the feel of a memoir. It’s bright, dark, sad and funny, relatable, and foreign, in the same way as Lucy herself. She faces going from 11 to 16 not having been in school since the 6th grade, finding fame, and being shackled by it only to have it all disappear.
Lucy slips through the slender opening in the door to fame, shedding everything but her skin, leaving behind family and friends. Through her Lucky Girl showcases not just the pain required to achieve such a dream, but also the poignant realities a childhood phenomenon must confront when she’s no longer the winsome, lithe sprite the world demands.
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