now as adults, classmates revisit the memories of when a scandalous murder happened during their grad school years…

- average mystery/thriller to have on while doing tasks in the background
- not hard to follow, intriguing enough but never fully engulfed my attention
- overall a bit repetitive and felt like a mystery YA

This was definitely a slow burn, but kept my interest! There were a few satisfying turns of events that made things interesting - but overall it tied up a little too nice and tidy for my liking, and I like my thrillers a little messy!

An intriguing psychological thriller ripe with secrets and unreliable character. An easier “thriller” compared to others that are more true to the genre but I enjoyed the twists and turns, some of which surprised me!

A debut thriller about a woman who is desperate to escape her past and the horrific event she witnessed as a student at a prestigious journalism school.

I’m a sucker for dark academia so I read this one back in the summer as soon as I got it and it didn’t disappoint! I love dual timeline books especially ones that include college so this was right up my alley. I was really impressed this was a debut and can’t wait to read another book from @jennyhollander highly recommend. Get your copy today!

Thank you to @minotaur_books for my copy

There seems a tendency this past year or so, in psychological thrillers, to provide an unreliable first-person Narrator as Main Character, an individual whom the reader has difficulty experiencing empathy for, whether due to intuition, or the character's prickliness, or his/her/their attitudes towards other characters or the process of Narration, or other reasons. I find this trend discomfiting, and I experienced this exact discomfort from the very beginning in reading EVERYONE WHO CAN FORGIVE ME IS DEAD.
I just could not warm up to Charlie, and my discomfiture colored my attitude to the story. I thought either Charlie was a complete naif (unlikely), or she truly had something to hide about the events of several years earlier.

Actually, looking back, my problem with Unreliable Narrators in the Psychological Thriller subgenre dates back to my dislike of a certain famous British bestseller in early 2015. Or maybe my discomfort rises from reverse-classism on my part and i cannot elicit interest in a wealthy population hedonistically indulging both their desires and their dramas, often at the expense of others.

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
Everyone Who Can Forgive Me is Dead
Author: Jenny Hollander
Source: NetGalley
Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024

Everyone Who Can Forgive Me is Dead has a great title and an even greater premise. Ten years ago, our lead protagonist, Charlie (nee Charlotte), was part of a very bloody Christmas Eve occurrence that she has blocked from her memory. She doesn’t remember all the details and how she survived the bloodbath. But a fellow student at their exclusive college is now putting together a film of the night’s events, and Charlie, who has rebuilt her life carefully and is about to get married, knows this will drive the press crazy and ruin her well-built life. She is right. Just the thought of the movie affects not only her but her parents and little sister. The night’s events are vague, and I’m not sure I ever understood the whole scene completely, but it wasn’t a celebratory evening. In the end, I was not too fond of SO MANY CHARACTERS (take notes), and they are mostly not well fleshed out, with hair color, accents, and countries of origin differentiating them. I wasn’t sure I bought the groom because their chemistry was slightly off. I DID LIKE the therapy sessions as Charlie tried to regain her memory to understand the night’s events. I didn’t care for going forward and back in time. The book had a lot of promise, and I think Jenny Hollander will bring us some great reads in the future. This was her debut novel. #thriller #murder #mayhem #plottwist #ScarlettChristmas #press #tabloids #privacy #college #Fiction #mystery #death #memoryloss #deadpeople #partypeople #adult #suspense #Adult #psychologicalthriller @minotaur_books #arc @jennyhollander @netgalley
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I received a complimentary copy of this ARC. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own. Thank you to the publisher, Netgalley, and the author for the opportunity to read this novel. Pub. Date: Feb. 6, 2024.
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#book #books #bookAddict #BooksOfInstagram #bookstagram #bookstagramer #bookshelf #reader

There was a lot about this story, as well as the characters and their behaviors, that just didn't make a whole lot of sense to me, but overall, I thought this was a real page-turner of a thriller in what is fast becoming one of my favorite trashy genres, let's call it "annoyingly successful and attractive 20-somethings perfect lives disrupted by that whoopsie of a decade-old university murder and how you can't forget/self-medicate/bury/whatever the past."

Everyone Who Can Forgive Me is Dead is a book I didn't want to put down. It has two timelines, "Then" and "Now" and is narrated by Charlotte "Charlie" Colbert, one of the survivors of a tragedy in which three university graduate students were killed. Charlie has tried to put these events behind her with a successful job as an editor-in-chief and a handsome fiance. Now a movie is going to be made about the tragedy for the ten-year anniversary, and Charlie will do anything to keep this movie from making it to the big screen.

The reader doesn't really know what happened on that Christmas Eve almost ten years ago. However, pieces of the story slowly come out through Charlie's conversations with others, sessions with her therapist, and a few interview transcripts and news stories. There are times when I was confused which would usually frustrate me, but in this case, it just made me curious to keep reading to learn more.

I don't want to say too much because I was completely shocked by a couple of the reveals at the end and I want other readers to have the chance to experience the same surprise. However, I was happy with the explanations of what really happened and with the hopeful ending. I am looking forward to more from this debut author. (4.5 stars)

I received an advance copy of this ebook at no cost from NetGalley and Minotaur Books. My review is voluntary and unbiased.

Sadly, this one was not for me. I tried doing the audio first and just could not connect with the narrator, and it was harder to follow along with the story with newspaper clippings and such. Once I switched to the ebook I was hoping I would connect with the story more, but I just was not feeling this one. Lots of skimming to get to the heart and twists of the story and I still wasn’t all that thrilled with it. Hoping I’m in the minority for this one, but it really fell short from my expectations.

Thank you St. Martins Press, Minotaur books, and Macmillan audio for my ARC and ALC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I really loved this one, I couldn’t put it down! You’ll have to look past the fact that it’s almost a carbon copy of Luckiest Girl Alive and The It Girl…but you’ll fall in love with the dry witty humor and get immediately sucked into the drama of it all. Thank you to @stmartinspress and @netgalley for my copy!

This book had a ton of promise for me. I loved the premise and it started out strong. Then it kind of fell apart. The characters were unlikeable, the pacing was slow, the mystery was confusing. I think because I listened to this mostly on audio, I robbed myself of the full experience. It wasn't because of the narration, which was great. Instead I found myself frequently confused and I think that's where reading this fully on ebook might have helped. I can see promise in Jenny Hollander's work and I will happily read her next book.

This was a dark academia thriller with a ton of (memorable) characters and even more secrets and bad behaviour. EVERYONE WHO CAN FORGIVE ME IS DEAD follows Charlie, a not-so-reliable character who went through a traumatic experience- dubbed 'Scarlet Christmas- while in journalism school but has blacked out most of the nitty-gritty details. We go on this journey with her while she undergoes therapy to figure it out, but at the same time is having to deal with the event being turned into a movie, and the possibility of the public learning the truth before she does.

I thought this book was pretty twisty, I was 75% of the way through and still didn't really know the truth, along with Charlie. I felt that reading it through her perspective gave me a headache because she became borderline unhinged, and I felt it!

Once we start getting some answers, I feel like the book moves at a pretty quick pace. I liked the exploration of friendships new and old, and navigating life through traumatic events. Thank you to Minotaur Books for gifting me this debut!

Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead (ARC)
Jenny Hollander
3.75⭐️

Pub Date: 2/6/2024

This had a good and strong start. It was definitely intriguing because all fingers (even her own) point to Charlie, the FMC. It seemed like she was more than just coping through the trauma and more so hiding something. The plot honestly made me feel anxious, confused and disoriented in a good way. The timeline was separated to "then" and "now" so we have a lot of flashbacks in this book. Actual reality and Charlie's reality were too difficult to decipher initially. Although I will admit, the writing style seems to be very messy for me. I thought I missed a couple of details here and there when I was reading it but it just wasn't made clear. But then again, the FMC's life and thoughts were messy too. So I guess that can be attributed to that. Overall I was able to understand the plot and it was intruiging enough to keep reading.

What a ride! This was a fun thriller/mystery with a little dash of dark academy vibes & dual timelines. The author did a great job with incorporating therapy appointments to support the past timeline rather than just a true then/now plot line. I also enjoyed that I didn’t know exactly what was going on for most of the book 😂 I know what you’re thinking “isn’t that a bad thing?” But in this instance no i don’t think so! I was hooked, I wanted to know what happened that night & it kept getting more complicated with all the different characters showing up! The only thing that didn’t work for me was the ending, or rather the reveal bc I don’t think there was anyway I could have guessed who did it. Again not a bad thing, but sometimes I just want some clues to lead me toward a person 🤷🏻‍♀️ that’s probably just a me thing tho! For a debut novel, I think the author did a great job building suspense & characters that you actually want to keep reading! I will keep my out for what she does next!

On a whim, Charlie Colbert decided to leave her home in London and go to journalism school in New York. She’d inherited some money from her grandmother, so the expensive, exclusive graduate school tuition would be paid for. All she had to do was to leave her parents and her younger sister to chase a dream on the other side of the world. Little did she realize how much would change for her.

Nine years later, Charlie is the editor of a prestigious magazine and engaged to Tripp, a successful son in an old money family, one of the old guards of New York Publishing. Charlie works so hard to have it all. She keeps herself slim, she sees her therapist weekly, and she hides her panic attacks. Or, she had been. Until it all started popping up in the media again.

Charlie had been one of the students caught up in what had been called Carrell University’s “Scarlet Christmas,” the night that left three students dead and many unanswered questions.

When it happened, Charlie had been covered in blood and in shock. She’d had to practically be carried out of the building, even though she had no wounds. At the hospital they had cleaned her up and changed her clothes, but it was days before she could talk about what she had seen. She ended up lying to the police about what had happened. She’d had to lie. If she hadn’t, they would have arrested her.

Now, as the days tick down to the ten-year anniversary of the Scarlet Christmas, it’s all starting again. The reporters with their questions, the news stories, the emails and phone calls. With the current frenzy for true crime media, there is also podcasts and shows asking all over again what happened and what got missed and why there are holes in the original timeline. A news anchor, Stephanie Anderson, is making a movie about Scarlet Christmas. Charlie wants to stop this movie from being made, especially by Steph. Steph knows too much. She had been there too. It was her sister who had been attacked first.

As Charlie unravels, trying to hide her most terrible secret, she gets more and more desperate, more and more unhinged. But as she gets closer to the truth, she finds that she gets closer to who she really is. When she finally learns the truth she’s been keeping from herself all those years, will it help her heal, or will it break her apart completely?

Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead is a stellar debut novel about the consequences of mental illness and unprocessed trauma. Told through the eyes of a survivor of a brutal attack, with detailed flashbacks of the semester of grad school that led up to the horrible events, this story unfolds like an onion, the layers wrapped over each other with a tiny kernel of truth in the middle that changes everything.

I thought this book was amazing. With Charlie as an unreliable narrator and those around her wanting to help but not being able to crack through her tough outer shell, this story gets so tense that I could feel my own muscles tense. Stop and remember to breathe as you read this one, be wary of elevators, don’t touch the broken glass, and remember that the best way out is through. There are so many lovely surprises along the way with this one that I don’t want to give much away, but know that it is worth every single word to get to that ending. This is not one to miss, and remember the name Jenny Hollander, as (I am hoping) this is just the first of many exciting thrillers coming from her.

Egalleys for Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead were provided by Minotaur Books through NetGalley, with many thanks.

Charlie Colbert has spent nine years trying to rebuild her life and avoiding the horrors of her past. Just when things get a little too comfortable for her, another witness to the events threatens to bring everything back into the limelight. Charlie has to decide if it’s finally time to find out the truth before everyone else does.

Everyone Who Can Forgive Me is Jenny Hollander’s suspenseful debut novel. This psychological thriller has just the right mix of twists and false leads to keep the mystery afloat.

This book had me hooked from the very beginning. There were a few places that I would have liked a little more detail, I can see how that would have upset the overall pacing of the story. The storyline flowed well even with the bouncing between timelines.

I’m always looking for good stand-alone thrillers to recommend and this one fits the bill. I look forward to reading more of this author’s work in the future.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to Minotaur Books!

This story had so much potential, but overall, I feel like the ending was disappointing. The ending was confusing, lackluster, and rushed. I loved the plot and build up until the last 30 (ish) % of the book. The dual time lines were a great idea to get a sense of what happened (then) and how Charlie is mentally handling facing those events again (now).

I felt like the characters could have been developed better. I found myself getting them confused because names were thrown out but not many key differentiating traits were mentioned. I found myself going back in the story to try to figure out who everyone was. The author didn't seem to develop them beyond a name, hometown, and hair color.

Overall, I would read this author again, as this is a debut novel for this author. It was an intriguing story and idea, but the ending just wasn't my cup of tea.


Thank you to Minotaur books, NetGalley, and the author for providing me with an ARC. This is my voluntary and honest review

This was a 3.5-4 star to me. There were certainly some wow factors in the book but everything put together didn’t wow me. It was a super interesting story, I wish it moved a bit quicker!

An interesting "thriller." I found it a bit lacking in the middle, but overall, I enjoyed it. The writing is good but it felt slower like a character study without really delving into those characters? Hard to explain but I felt like it could have used a tighter edit. The plot itself is interesting but the ending left me feeling like you REALLY had to suspend disbelief. That said, I did enjoy the reading experience and kept turning the pages.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I eat this trope every single time! I love when an anniversary ruins but in reality showcases every single secret. I loved these people cause they were not only unlovable but also realistic and for some reason i love that only in this genre.
One person turns up dead and we see what follows..
4/5