As the title indicates, Lucky examines luck, which is often intertwined with hope. Being adopted by a grifter as an infant means that Lucky is raised around crime. The odds are not in her favor when teenage Valerie leaves her on the church steps for John to find. However, Lucky believes that the “odds couldn’t stay stacked against her forever. And when they changed, she’d truly be the luckiest girl in the world” (29). The text suggests that believing in luck gives people hope that motivates them to strive for different circumstances.

In the beginning of the novel, Lucky’s luck takes a downturn. She wakes up without her boyfriend, Cary, in Vegas after missing their flight to Dominica. Lucky believes that he has flown without her. However, she later learns that Cary’s mother paid to have him beaten up and detained while the flight was taking off because he owed her money. Lucky, having missed her flight, faces the repercussions of being wanted by the police. By beginning the novel with such dire circumstances and transforming them by the end, Stapley reinforces the power of luck and hope.

The central repercussion of being a fugitive is that Lucky cannot cash her winning

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