An NPR Best Book of 2017 An official Book of the Month Club selection Three women, early twenties, find themselves aimlessly adrift in Erika Carter’s fierce and darkly funny debut novel, Lucky You . Ellie, Chloe and Rachel are friends (sort of); waitresses at the same tired bar in the Arkansas college town they’ve stuck around in too long. Each is becoming unmoored in her own way: Ellie obliterates all feeling with alcohol and self-destructive acts of sexual promiscuity; Chloe pulls out patches of her hair and struggles to keep incipient mental illness at bay; changeable Rachel has fallen under the sway of a messianic boyfriend with whom she’s agreed to live off-grid for a year in order to return to “health” and asks Ellie and Chloe to join them in “The Project”. In a remote, rural house in the Ozarks, nearly undone by boredom and the brewing tension between them, each tries to solve the conundrum of being alive. By turns funny, knowing and hauntingly sad, Lucky You delivers the kind of study in damage and detachment that made Mary Gaitskill’s Bad Behavior or Joan Didion’s Play It As It Lays so memorable. With startling exactitude and wickedly deadpan humor, it lays bare the emotional core of its characters with surgical precision. The writing is deft and controlled, as natural and unforced as breath—which makes it impossible to look away. Praise for Lucky You An NPR Best Book of 2017 An Official Book of the Month Club Selection 1 of 6 New Paperbacks You Should Read in August ( Vulture ) "[A] cooly enigmatic debut."― O Magazine "If your fever dreams of going off-grid remains unfulfilled, sublimate with Erika Carter's chillingly adroit debut novel, Lucky You , about three twentysomethings who, bored with life in a college town,move to the no-paced Ozarks―where life lessons in sexual tensions,isolation, and personal foibles shift into fast-forward."― Elle "Beautifully, sharply, humorously deployed prose." ― Southern Living , one of the Best Books of the Year "...[A] rich and observant debut."― Marie Claire "Carter has written a wonderful novel, intelligent but unpretentious.As an author, she's both unsparing and compassionate, and among hergreatest gifts is an ability to find a savage kind of beauty in theunlikeliest of places . . . Lucky You is, in the end, challenging, intelligent and, yes, quite beautiful." ―Michael Schaub, NPR online "[A] perceptive debut novel . . . The women's journey ofself-discovery, or lack thereof, make them perfect 21st-centuryheroines." ― Vulture , 1 of 6 New Paperbacks You Should Read in August "A darkly funny and melancholic look at the inevitable uncertainty of early adulthood." ―PureWow "As a novel about detached youth, Lucky You absolutely fits the bill . . . Certain moments of linguistic detailshine like the disco ball depicted on the book's cover . . . It's rareto see the plight of millennials cast outside of urban centers, out inthe country, with frat couches on lawns and Old Crow Kentucky bourbon as well whiskey. Lucky You accurately and empathetically depicts the struggles of certain Southerners, and for that alone, it's worth a read." ― BOMB "Carter's ambitious debut novel delves into the ennui that comes with being young and unsure... Carter's no-nonsense prose is darkly witty, lacking theself-indulgence or mean-spiritedness often seen in stories about modernyouth... Carter's compassion for her lost young women is clear, and thestory never falters from the starkly realistic trajectories marked outfor the protagonists. The result is a clever and honest look at theconsequences of youthful malaise." -- Publishers Weekly "Throughout the novel, Carter's language is surprising, even tactile... Amelancholy, elliptical tale of friendship and alienation in the South." ― Kirkus Reviews "Carter's sharp debut novel reads like a long-remembered nightmare,eerily realistic and subtly horrifying . . . Off-grid-living storieshave become quite popular as of late . . . and Lucky You is a niceaddition to the canon . . . Readers will be hard-pressed to put the book down as the girls make their breaks back to civilization." ― Booklist "With lean and impressionistic prose, Erika Carter casts a mostcompelling light on three young women trying to bloom into their veryselves. But this blooming is never easy, and Carter renders itgorgeously with street-wise compassion, grit, and a kind of dark,life-loving humor that is absolutely irresistible to read. Lucky You is not only a superb novel, it heralds a strong and authentic new voice among us. From here on out, I will read whatever Erika Carter writes!"―Andre Dubus III, New York Times bestselling author of Townie " Lucky You is a wry and unflinching portrait of three young women navigating darkand complicated issues of love and sex and loneliness, depicted with asharply observant eye, precision prose, wicked humor and courageousinsights into the hearts of these characters.