Lucky Dogs

by Helen Schulman

The paths of two women on opposite ends of a high-profile sexual abuse scandal set them on a devastating collision course.

On a sultry summer night in Paris, two women meet on line at an ice cream kiosk in the Ile de la Cité. One is tall, fair, striking, with an indeterminate accent. The other, a troubled American TV star, is hiding her beauty and identity under a shapeless sweatshirt, wearing sunglasses even in the darkness. When two leering male tourists hassle the pair, the blonde pulls out a knife and a sisterhood is born. Both women have been victims of male violence, and both are warriors--one trained and calculating, one instinctually ferocious. They each think they know who they are dealing with. But both are very, very wrong.

In a story that unfolds with unexpected humor and the pace of a thriller, acclaimed novelist Helen Schulman lays bare what happens to women--no matter how fortunate they may appear to be on the surface--whose lives have been warped by brutality and misogyny. The issues are universal, but the core of the story is intimate: a passionate exploration of love, betrayal and survival. Lucky Dogs asks and answers a shattering question: How could one woman so utterly betray another?

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction, Contemporary, Feminism, Crime, Womens, Audiobook

336 pages, Hardcover

First published June 6, 2023

About the author

HELEN SCHULMAN is the New York Times best-selling author of six novels, including Come with Me and This Beautiful Life. Schulman has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the New York Foundation for the Arts, Sundance, Aspen Words, and Columbia University. She lives in New York City.

Reviews

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lucky Dogs tells the story of a young up and coming starlet that is raped by a wealthy producer and the lengths he took to keep her quiet and discredited. Schulman based this story off of the Harvey Weinstein, that repugnant pig of a man and sorry excuse of a human being, and Rose McGowan story. This is, however, a fictional re-telling of that case.

Did you know that Weinstein hired ex-Israeli soldiers, one a woman no less, to befriend McGowan pretending to be a women's advocate to try and get inside information on not only her but his other accusers to make them look like lunatics? He had spies follow her and tapped her phones. She was literally under his microscope. The fear that must cause.

One has to ask themselves how a woman could willingly aid and abet a rapist. How one woman could do this to another woman and for what? A paycheck.

Schulman peels back another layer by allowing us to see how Nina, the spy in this book, was brought up in a war torn country and the horrors she had faced since childhood. Watching her own mother being raped by her uncle, her father leaving to never return. The bombs, blasts, and gunfire going off all around her. It made her strong, calculating, and very untrusting. Did it make me sympathize with her? No, it did not.

Even our main character, the actress, Meredith Montgomery, could be tough to sympathize with due to a lot of poor decision making but I think it gave us a peak into her mental state and how this truly dismantled her mind, body, and soul. She was not only terrified for her life but rightfully furious. Poor decisions or not, no one deserves this. She will always be the victim.

Being that this is a #MeToo telling politics do creep into the narrative. Some digs were taken at Donald Trump, America's poster boy of misogyny, so if that's a deal breaker for you then skip right along on your merry way.

There are 108 women that have accused Weinstein of either sexual harassment or sexual assault.

Really try and wrap your head around that number. It's mind boggling, truly. This is NOT fake news.

My fury is real. My faith in humanity is shattered. Yet, I remain hopeful that we as humans can and will do better. 4 stars!

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for my complimentary copy.

[Kelly (and the Book Boar) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did take a looky look at this opening line of Lucky Dogs’ synopsis which was the driving force behind me accepting an advanced copy:

The paths of two women on opposite ends of a high-profile sexual abuse scandal set them on a devastating collision course.

And when I was finished I actually took a gander at the author’s notes as well, which is another thing I hardly do. Unless you have lived under a rock for the past five years, you will automatically recognize this story right down to the shaved head . . . .



What I didn’t realize was this was LITERALLY ripped from the headlines and based the “Black Cube Chronicles” piece in The New Yorker by Ronan Farrow.

I was struggling with the heavy-handed writing throughout (this took me a full five days to read and if you know me you know that never happens), but the fact that this was a story already told (and told and retold) in recent past and yet felt sooooooo disjointed and a slog to get through when dealing with such titillating subject matter is just not something that can be ignored.

ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

[Katherine Vanderford · Rating 1 out of 5]

I feel bad rating this so low because of the content material. It’s such an important tale to tell, but damn, it was a fucking struggle to get through.

Way too descriptive and frantic writing style. I think I started and stopped the beginning 6 times before I forced myself to commit to the end. It just didn’t capture or hold my attention in anyway at anytime.

[Em · Rating 1 out of 5]

Someone said this reads like it’s written by AI and it’s so true. Hated it but I’d spent too much of my time reading to not finish

[Sophia Eck · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF at 30%. felt suffocatingly meandering in its prose, like so evasive of its own plot almost? there are these bigger plots and stories alluded to by the characters, but instead of you leaving you curious, it’s just frustrating, like listening to people talk about their inside jokes without knowing them? and then instead of actually leading towards the interest, it cuts to this very jarring middle of war setting that is so at odds to anything before it. at the beginning it feels like nothing really happens with the story besides one scene but it alludes to this big reveal coming that you are not really contextualized into yet, so it just feels like you are at the end of a book you didn’t read the beginning of, and then for after that short snippet of Meredith’s perspective, the fact that you are suddenly you are dropped into a deep deep war perspective from the father of Nina, who is actually a child of war spying on Meredith i guess? this is said to be based on event from the Harvey Weinstein case but i don’t know anything about this particular incident so i was just confused and could not continue. great book cover but i don’t know, something about it just didn’t work for me.

[Elaine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lucky Dogs is full of justifiably biting anger as it takes on #MeToo through the ripped from the headlines story of a young actress raped by The Rug (Harvey Weinstein) and the former Mossad investigator sent to entrap and discredit her. Schulman writes well too, and the twinned stories of Meredith (the actress) and Smadar (the Bosnian immigrant to Israel with a traumatic past who ends up being Meredith's undoing) hold promise. I even admired Schulman's choice to make neither woman particularly likeable - a woman doesn't need to be relatable or make good choices to be a victim.

But the book's downfall is pacing pacing pacing. Part I is intriguing enough as it sets up Meredith's story and her meeting with Nina/Smadar - but all the dramatic tension in the book ends up being in that section. Part II makes a bold switch to go from Meredith's story to the siege of Sarajevo and Smadar's backstory. But this tragic - and traumatic - material is a bit of a muddle of voices and the section drags. The book never recovers. The final section, which details Meredith's life with her mother in a retirement community much like The Villages, is so boring I nearly quit - and I almost never DNF!

And there is no dramatic payoff at the end. A final confrontation is a cartoonish catfight worthy of the Real Housewives series. I don't know. I think Schulman can write and the material is worthy, but this is just a boring, often annoying book.

[AndiReads · Rating 5 out of 5]

A haunting, thrilling novel imagining a #Metoo story. When a struggling B-list actress strikes out against a very powerful and well known producer she has no idea what she is getting into. Likcing her wounds and hiding out in disguise in Paris, she is lonely and questioning her very existence. When she meets a pair that befriend her and help her with her plan to reveal the producer's horrible behaviour. The problem is that the pair is not to be trusted and the her life slowly begins to unravel If you love a metoo story (who doesn't), when fiction illustrates the current climate, or just want a thrilling novel to pull you in, Lucky Dogs is for you!
#Knopf #Pantheon #luckydogs #HelenSchulman

[Blue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meredith is so down and out. It has been said, once you reach the bottom there is no place to go but up. I am sorry. Waiting for her acension is like waiting to feel a hundred degrees in the winter while living at the North Pole waiting for Christmas. Patience is not easy to grow for most people. Maybe she should settle and think of getting rich on a show like Jeopardy.Why worry about acting in one of those movies where the woman dies and her lover holds her hand as she whispers an Elizabeth Barrett Browning poem.

Helen Schulman has the talent to make one feel guilty for not caring about Meredith. At least, squeeze out one tear. The author should write Historical Romances. Then, she could make loads of money to share with poor Meredith.

[Syd :) · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 Stars 🌟
Lucky Dogs has a unique concept, which is what kept me reading. It does raise important awareness, but the way the story was told didn’t really land for me. I think it could’ve been handled in a stronger, more impactful way.

[Regan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like/hate relationship with this one, the pacing was totally baffling to me, but the characters were bold & original. I think the cover threw me off—it’s sophisticated and subtle, whereas the book felt waaay more over-the-top and unhinged

[Maddie · Rating 3 out of 5]

(3.5) The story is interesting, well paced and balances the young ADHD-reader-attention-span with liberal (bordering on white) feminism.

The amount of neo-liberal “trump bad” dialogue and poorly shortened slang words (see: “resto” for restaurant and “flops” for flip flops) is exhausting— but I am hopeful that this was an artistic choice to voice our slightly unlikable (yet self aware) protagonist.

The narration from our feels like a 50 year old woman wrote from a 20-something’s point of view. Which as a self proclaimed 20-something, makes me cringe a bit.

A lot of talk for this being a thriller (?) but I never got that. A plot based of true crime and fast pacing does not a thriller make.

Tonal complaints aside, this is a well researched book (I say these kudos as someone who has lived in LA/Florida and gone on birthright!) that touches on the level of accountability women should take in our sisters safety.

[emmalina · Rating 4 out of 5]

once i picked it up i couldn’t put it down

[Francesca Nardi · Rating 1 out of 5]

ignoring the israeli propaganda everything else was so bad it gave me hope for that i will be published because how was this approved.
in hell they will force me to read this over and over again

[Robyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25⭐️ There’s a lot of important dialogue in here about the scope of responsibility of women to protect other women and what we owe each other as survivors, but the prose cheapened the point slightly and quite a bit of the plot felt disjointed. I did think both main female characters were interesting in their mirrored backstories, ambitions, and character development, and it was a quick but enjoyable read.

[Victoire Montibus · Rating 4 out of 5]

a book about female rage, the writing was energising and never seen before, loved how the two characters had completely different backgrounds but ended up being both as fucked up as each other

[Lindsay · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really thought I was going to love this book. Lucky Dogs is loosely inspired by and based on Rose McGowan's experiences with Weinstein and the team of spies he hired to befriend, betray and intimidate her into not publishing her memoir about him. A young actress, Meredith, is on the edge of a breakdown caused by the horrific rape and other sexual assault she suffers from a big wig producer she refers to as The Rug, and her inability to cope with the ways in which the industry and everyone around her has epically failed to protect her. She escapes to Paris to hide in a hotel and write a memoir she plans to expose him with while periodically writing thinly-veiled tweets hinting as much.

It's a pretty strong start despite the slightly irritating stream-of-consciousness style writing that jingles erratically around in her brain like loose pocket change. Where this book goes fully off the rails for me, though, is in Part Two of a Four Part novel (no chapters, few breaks, good luck) when out of nowhere you're jarringly thrust into a new POV–second person (the worst POV, imo), a man, in the middle of a war watching his wife get raped then thrown out of their home, from there just trying to survive. NOT the book I signed up to read. Yes, it sort of makes sense and somewhat comes together in the end, this is the father of the woman who grows up to be the spy that befriends and betrays Meredith, but this part, the second part, I can see being a place that a lot of people choose to put the book down and never pick it up again. I wish I had.

But, no, I struggled on through this and then much more pages of tedium and (weirdly) a focus on how this particular woman was as much a villain in the story as the man himself. Which felt, in the end, missing the point of the #metoo movement and just not a narrative I'm interested in following. The other parts are from the POV of Nina, the spy, and then back to Meredith. And I think this would have been a stronger (but still not really for me) book if they just went ahead and scrapped Part Two altogether. Even so, this is a SLOG, and ultimately, has no storytelling payoff worth making it.

If I were you I'd skip it. But, if you don't, I'd truly love to know what you think of it!

[Eliza Pillsbury · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a frustrating read. It’s a (only very lightly) fictionalized story of Rose McGowan, whom Harvey Weinstein hired ex-Mossad agent Stella Pechanac (called Nina or Smadar in the book) to spy on and intimidate out of publishing her memoir about her sexual assault at his hands (this was famously reported by Ronan Farrow for the New Yorker). I didn’t know to expect any of this from the marketing/synopsis/design.

The most compelling part to me was Smadar’s father’s interlude about the siege of Sarajevo, even though it felt at odds with the rest of the book’s story and style. Rose’s analog, Merry, felt inauthentic and grating. At times this was interesting, as the book considers why Rose McGowan was sort of left behind by the #MeToo conversation that she ostensibly started because she wasn’t an “ideal victim”—but also, made for a rough reading experience. (At one point, Merry writes out the abbreviation “IDK” in a sentence, and I legitimately stopped reading to roll my eyes. That’s not how people speak!) It was a page turner, but like a car crash from which I couldn’t look away.

Most crucially, Schulman cheapens her thesis question of “How could one woman do this to another woman?” The answer she seems to present in her characters is simply that Smadar/Stella was a psychopath. And that’s not very satisfying or even interesting, at least to me.


”The monster has been inside me,” I said.

“You too?” she asked eagerly. In this alone, she was glad for company. “He’s been inside me all my life.”

“Put your hand on my head, Mama,” I said, sobbing. “Pat me, Mama, please.”

“Okay,” she said. “I will.”

My mother did as she was told.

She was nothing like her daughter.

[Devin Mainville · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heavily influenced by the Harvey Weinstein story, Lucky Dogs follows two women - a young starlet taken advantage of by a nameless uber-producer and the ex-Mossad spy tasked with ruining her. Both stories are interesting in their own right, but they do not go together. In fact, switching between the two POVs feels like reading two different books.

I can see where Schulman was hoping the narrative to go, but it never quite makes it. Instead, we have a stream of conscious narration of a woman spiraling in real-time juxtaposed with a harrowing tale of sociopathy borne of childhood trauma. But what annoys me the most is the inclination to focus on a woman’s actions within a rape story instead of the repugnant man actually at the center.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

What is not clear from the jacket synopsis of this book is that this is very directly a #MeToo story. Hollywood celebrities who were involved in the real scandal are name dropped frequently, and there are obvious real world corollaries to the characters. Our protagonist, Meredith, is a young actress laying low in France after a being victimized by a Weinstein-esque rapist/powerful producer. She meets Nina, who shares her own account of sexual violence and quickly wins Nina's trust and solidarity.

I can't say too much without risking spoilers, but suffice it to say Nina is not what she seems, which is why the book is so propulsive and exciting and nuanced. It tackles a lot of uncomfortable or difficult topics, like the involvement of females in condoning or even participating in the exploitive rape culture of Hollywood, what makes a victim sympathetic, the sacrifices we make for dreams, the limitations of birth and opportunity, and who we owe loyalty to.

Would have been five stars but for the anticlimactic ending, but definitely still worth reading!

Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC.

[Zibby Owens · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a dazzling and propulsive book about two women on opposite ends of a high-profile sexual abuse. It is about a young actress (Meredith) who is traumatized by a wealthy producer and tries to tell her story on social media. Eventually, she goes to Paris and meets with a woman (Nina) at a women's rights group. Only Nina isn't who she claims to be. The book eludes to the heartbreaking "Me Too" story that impacted Hollywood.

This book explores love, power, betrayal, obsession, and survival. It shows how easy and how fast women can become victims. The issues are universal, but the story's core is very intimate. The book is told in two POVs of the two main characters. I found it hard to see how a woman could betray a fellow woman, but it was an interesting angle and perspective that added to the story. The book dives into and investigates the tough but real question: "How could one woman betray another?"

To listen to my interview with the author, go to my podcast at:
https://www.momsdonthavetimetoreadboo...

[Fiona McLaughlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick, engaging read! It’s a fictional story based on the true event of a private Israeli spy agency hired by Harvey Weinstein to prevent Rose McGowan from publishing her memoir that included her account of being raped by Weinstein. The spy (irl and in the book) grew up in the Bosnian civil war and falsely befriended the actress and betrayed her. The book flashes back and forth between the perspectives of the actress and the spy. However the writing wasn’t always exactly my style. Also I wonder if the author got approval from Rose McGowan to write this?

[Mia Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whoa. I just want to read about vengeful complicated women forever. Two of the strongest narrative voices I have read in a long time and a vivid, interstitial look at the me too movement. You can feel the research in this book but not in a clunky way—the author is so fast and adroit and dare I say bathroom make up post clubbing glossy (i.e. gorgeous, fatal, raw) in her description of Mossad, the Bosnian war, and the backrooms of Hollywood. The ending was a little strange/unfinished/inexplicable to me and while we returned to Meredith’s voice, we never got to hear from Samara after the main action which felt imbalanced. But when I say no one has captured Harvey Weinstein’s effect in this way…I mean that no one ever could give it as gritty, poetic, historical, global, and physical a fictive consideration. Other than the ending: sublime, quick, dangerous.

[James B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to Netgalley and Knopf for the ebook. The author has taken the reporting on the Weinstein abuses and pulled her own story about an unstable young actress who gets abused by a producer and a young woman who befriends the actress, but turns out to be an ex Mossad agent spying on the actress, hired by the monstrous producer. The author splits the story and alternates chapters by doing a deep dive into each woman and their lives to show how they both made the choices that they did.

[Kelly Parker · Rating 2 out of 5]

After two weeks, I’m still only 24% through this book, so I’m calling it quits. It’s just not holding my interest.
Thanks to #netgalley and #knopfpublishing for this #arc of #luckydogs in exchange for an honest review.

[J Kromrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this eARC.

Lucky Dogs by Helen Schulman is a gripping and thought-provoking novel that delves into the dark corners of power, betrayal, and survival. Set against the backdrop of a high-profile sexual abuse scandal, this book weaves together the lives of two women whose paths intersect in unexpected and devastating ways.

The story begins on a sultry summer night in Paris, where two women meet at an ice cream kiosk on the Ile de la Cité. One is a tall, fair stranger with an indeterminate accent, while the other is a troubled American TV star hiding her identity under a shapeless sweatshirt and sunglasses. When faced with leering male tourists, the blonde woman pulls out a knife, and a sisterhood is born. Both women have been victims of male violence, and both are warriors—one trained and calculating, the other instinctually ferocious.

As the narrative unfolds, Schulman masterfully explores the complexities of trauma, self-preservation, and the bonds that form between survivors. The issues at play are universal, but the heart of the story lies in the intimate exploration of love, betrayal, and the lengths to which one woman can utterly betray another.

Schulman's prose is sharp, evocative, and unflinching. She peels back the layers of her characters, revealing their vulnerabilities, fears, and hidden strengths. The pacing is relentless, akin to a thriller, as we follow these women across continents and decades. The novel's unexpected humor provides moments of relief, but the underlying tension never wavers.

Lucky Dogs is more than a mere page-turner; it's a searing examination of the human condition. Schulman's portrayal of the tangled web of power dynamics, secrets, and the choices we make when faced with unimaginable circumstances is both haunting and unforgettable.

In this fictional re-telling inspired by real-world events, Schulman captures the essence of resilience and the indomitable spirit of those who refuse to be silenced. As readers, we are left pondering the shattering question: How could one woman betray another so utterly?

This novel is a tour de force—a raw, unapologetic exploration of survival, sisterhood, and the lengths we'll go to protect ourselves and those we love. Lucky Dogs is a must-read for anyone seeking a powerful and unflinching look at the human psyche in the face of adversity.

[Holly Kiss · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really had no idea what I was getting into and I do believe there should be TRIGGER WARNINGS for this book. SA, Me2 movement discourse, the Bosnian war discourse, Israel Palestine conflict, zionism etc.

With that being said I am only rating this story a one because of the authors note I truly didn’t want to rate it at all and at multiple points I wanted to dnf it. It did not seem believable to me that a wealthy movie executive would have the power to employ ex mossad agents through private companies to follow and spy on the women whom he had assaulted and were pressing charges against him. I also guess I didn’t realize people were actual bond level villains in real life.

After reading this book I have realized I am extremely uneducated.

I did not know the extent of the Rose McGowan/Harvey Winestein case. And now reading this story I wish I would’ve read McGowan’s memoir instead and will now be adding it to my tbr. I was sooo unaware of what I was getting into when I started this story all the reviews I read said it was a story about two women bonding over their similar hatred for abusive men (I realized half way through the book I missed the part where it said “how could one woman so utterly betray the other”) I am grateful to the author for the light it shed on this story it’s something I never thought could happen in real life (due of course to my own ignorance) and multiple times throughout the book I thought this is so unrealistic, little did I know I was wrong. But I also feel conflicted about whether it’s ethical for someone to profit off of a portrayal (no matter how loosely based) of someone else’s trauma.

God I have so many thoughts and feeling about what I just read. I know I need to read it again (AND MCGOWNS MEMOIR) to really understand the entire thing. I think I’ve been living under a rock.

The way this book was promoted made me think it was gonna be a fun lighthearted book, It is NOT (reminds me of the whole conversation on the It Ends with Us promotion controversy) I think people need to be aware of what they are getting into with this story. This is not fun these are heavy complicatedly dense topics and you (as well as I) have to educate yourself to fully understand it.

[babyleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25 ⭐️
“How could one woman do this to another woman?”
Lucky dogs speaks on important topics like SA and the perfect victims, however the execution was not the best. The writing style is definitely something ive never seen before (self consciousness) and it was dragged to the point i lost interest. I wished the ending was different? It felt rushed that last confrontation and feel that Meredith deserved a better closure.
Both meredith and nina are very interesting characters and you learn their backstories through the book, both are flawed, imperfect with very different upcomings… but i did not root for any of them.
I suggest looking for TWs!

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75/5

Thank you for the opportunity to read this novel. The snippet for this novel had me hooked and at times reading this novel, I absolutely loved it. However halfway through, it was hard to find the power to finish. There was nothing wrong with the writing. I feel it was me who wasn't in the right mindset to enjoy it more

[becca · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars- review to come!