Lucky

The protagonist, Lucky, uses many different names as a grifter, including Andrea (aka Andi), Bonnie Skinner, and Alaina Parkes. Her alias Alaina Cadence is created for non-criminal activities, such as going to college and starting an accounting and investment business. She uses yet another alias to visit her father in prison: Sarah Armstrong (who is John’s niece). At the end of the novel, she learns that her birth mother gave her the name Julia Mann. Choosing which name she wants at the end of the novel represents the end of her character arc. In the beginning, she did not have many choices. Her adoptive father John used her in various cons from a very young age. This causes her familiarity and comfort with criminal activities. She thinks, “[S]tealing felt so natural” (164). However, she frequently expresses her desire for a different life.

The unnumbered sections begin with Lucky as an infant. Valerie left her on the steps of St. Monica’s cathedral, and she was claimed by John. In the next section set in the past, Lucky is 10 years old. Over the course of the novel, the past sections catch up to the present—2008, when Lucky is 26.