I wanted to love this. I have been looking forward to it for a while but, it just fell flat. It didn’t make me feel like it was a thriller. I didn’t feel like I was desperately waiting to see how the story unraveled. Left me feeling really blah.

What if everything you thought about the worst day of your life was actually a lie?

Charlie came to New York City for journalism school and stayed because after tragedy she fell in love with the city. She has become a highly successful magazine editor and is engaged to an old money heir to a publishing firm. However, Charlie is hiding dark secrets about the Christmas Eve night when students at her school were killed, and she blacked out and found herself covered in blood.

This story had such an interesting premise, but seems to get a bit lost in the weeds of flipping from Then and Now - it gets a bit confusing what is memories and what actually happened. We start picking up speed as Charlie is meeting with her therapist and then ... the therapist goes on vacation.

Honestly, this feels like a whole series of miscommunications and secrets that did NOT need to be hidden and could have saved people from years of guilt and pain, and at the centre is an unlikable poor little rich girl in red bottoms.

Great debut!

This was so intense, with a narrator, Charlie, who admittedly is unreliable. Ten years ago she was the lone survivor of "Scarlett Christmas" - a bloody massacre that ended in three deaths. Charlie struggles to remember that night.

She's in therapy. She's trying to remember. But she worries if she should. And we are along for the ride right until the very end.

The ending was a bit unrealistic - but it's fiction! I was invested until the last word.

I had the audio and the ebook and found both great. The narration was really good!

Many thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and MacMillan Audio for an ARC and ALC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you St. Martin's Press for accepting my request to read Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead in exchange for an honest review on NetGalley.

I actively seek and get excited when I see debut novel when submitting a request to read on NetGalley, I click author as my reason. Thirty years ago I would read in line while waiting to pay for a new release. Now I have stacks of books and devices and like to cold read -- I know I've already picked the book through the synopsis, cover, or seeing debut. Thus when I sit down to read it much later -- resell me: keep my attention blindly. Everyone Who Can Forgive Me is Dead grabbed me immediately. If my windows were open my neighbors would have heard me when I finished reading -- no way, wow, her first novel.

I struggled early on fighting my urge to reread the synopsis versus letting the story play out. The tone was giving me mass school shooting vibes and I am not comfortable with that subject matter in fiction thrillers. I held firm and true to my love for storytelling and forged on as if the synopsis and/or Google were not at my fingertips. Hollander wrote a good story. She had my (minus the language and my mass shooting vibes) undivided attention. The first 75% was like a logic problem. It was smart with details sprinkled that left me fulfilled and not thinking about the solution. The solution is where the story fails. There are a lot of banterings between characters and the story flips back and forth between past and present. It isn't smooth.

All-in-all this is a good time. It should not be taken seriously. I finished with an accomplished sigh, a smile and am ready to move on to my next read.

Published: 02/06/24

3.75⭐️ This was a pretty solid thriller. The lost memory trope has been done a good bit and I thought it was a good take on it, however, once the twists started coming I was bit confused by some of the revelations. I still don’t fully understand what happened to Dee and I can only assume. Overall, I enjoyed it and will read more from this author.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, Minotaur Books, and NetGalley for a copy of this e-book in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoyed the cast of characters, especially the main character Charlie and her struggle to cope and regain her memory of a horrible night from her past. The suspense carries throughout which I live in a slower-burn and well-plotted thriller. This is one I would definitely recommend.

I have been provided with a review copy of Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead from NetGalley for an impartial review. Oh my gosh this story was just epic. I just couldn’t put this story down and I was just captivated by everything that was taking place. The author truly outdid herself with this story. This story just had my emotions all over the place and I am so sad to see this book end. I just can’t wait to see what’s next from this author.

Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead follows Charlie, one of the survivors of "Scarlet Christmas," who has rebuilt her life since that horrible day. She has blocked out memories of what really happened that night but is sure she lied to the police. When one of her classmates who was the first on the scene announces that she is going to make a movie for the 10th anniversary, Charlie freaks out. She is engaged to a powerful man in the publishing industry and she imagines that the truth will come out with this movie as the public will realize it doesn't make sense and will try to put it together. She has reinvented herself to be a strong, powerful editor-in-chief and is not willing to lose that.

From the start, this book is fast-paced and intriguing. I had a hard time putting it down and sacrificed a lot of sleep! It is told from two timelines - "then" and "now," which works well as Charlie is trying to regain her memories. This was a fantastic debut novel and I'm interested to read what the author does next.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.

Happy pub week to Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead by Jenny Hollander. I’m so grateful to @minotaur_books for a e-arc of this one and to @macmillan.audio for an ALC. This twisty, dual timeline thriller came out on Tuesday.

Nine years ago, Charlie Colbert was part of a nightmarish event at elite journalism school that was dubbed the Scarlet Christmas. After being interrogated by the police, she fled and rebuilt her life hoping to cut all ties with that terrible night, and she’s done a pretty good job. She’s the editor-in-chief at a major magazine and engaged to an heir to a publishing fortune. But when someone from that night decides to reopen everything by producing a movie about that horrible Christmas Eve and expose the truth once and for all, Charlie panics. Is she hiding something about what happened?

I really enjoyed the premise of this book and the twisty dual timeline, but I got a little confused about what was actually happening. Charlie is an unreliable narrator in the strongest sense of the word and there were moments in the book where I thought something was being presented as absolute fact that turned out not to be. That said, there were some fun twists that I think were handled really well, but overall the mystery didn’t work for me because it was sort of built on a house of cards. I did love the themes of friendship and perception in the book, as well as the idea that you can’t outrun who you really are.

I absolutely loved the audiobook. The narrator, Marisa Calin, did a fantastic job, not only with conveying Charlie’s panic and state of mind, but with all the different accents of the characters in the book. I was really, really impressed and will definitely keep my eye out for more books narrated by her. I was glad to have a physical copy as well because there were things I wanted to look back at to reread.

I think if you go into this one with the right mindset, it’s a lot of fun. I really enjoyed listening to it, and it’s quite possible that I missed some details that would have made the plot make more sense.

Thank you NetGalley & St Martin's Press for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review! This book is out NOW & I suggest picking this one up 😍

Well, I haven't devoured a thriller like that in YEARS. I never wanted to put it down, even when I had to get work done. A quick 300-ish page thriller is one of my favorite things to read.

I really enjoyed this - the story was captivating, it held my attention, wondering what the hell is going on - and what could be coming next. Was it predictable? Yes. But I never mind predictable thrillers when I'm having a good time with it. I really enjoyed the writing, the twists & turns, & all of the characters.

Highly recommend if you're in the mood for a page turner with multiple timelines - and an unreliable (at times) narrator.

Normally I love a book with a gradual unveiling, it keeps me reading to find out more. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy the writing style of this book and it made it really hard to look past. I found the whole plot incredibly choppy and the timeline changes were done in a way that made it hard to follow.

Thank you Netgally and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to review this arc.

With flavors of dark academia, dual timelines, and secrets galore, this has the makings of a great thrill. Certainly not how I saw this ending by any means, so that was a pleasant surprise. I am largely conflicted as to the rest of the plot though. Felt like focus was stressed on parts of the plot that really didn’t move the story along. While it did give us a glimpse into Charlie’s mental health, it was hard to focus on the overall purpose and drive that the plot centralizes on.

This was just “fine” for me. I think if you don’t read many mysteries or thrillers you may enjoy this book much more than I did. I felt the reliance on the red herring lasted way too long and I just didn’t become invested in any of the characters. I was interested in the plot enough to want to know how it ended…which was unsatisfying for me.

This was a bit jumbled which made it extremely hard to read. I tried. I think I’ll try the audiobook and see if I follow it better.

Overall I enjoyed this. I felt like the twist was kind of expected but still a bit of a surprise. The repressed memories theme was interesting. The ending just really dragged on and on. We also never really get much of an explanation why Steph even was making a movie. I didn’t love the characters that much - Charlie was not super relatable, and her relationship with Tripp was definitley superficial at best.

I really disliked this book. I make it a point to finish ARCs I receive but I just can't keep reading this.

I'm pretty far in and still know nothing. The Scarlet Christmas thing sounds interesting but no one is telling me about it and I'm stuck hearing a first person account from one of the most insufferable characters.

This had a lot of potential to be a great mystery but the pace is too slow and there's nothing to connect us on any way to the plight of the characters.

This one really drew me in with its provocative title, which I still think is neat, but it just couldn't get there.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read, listen, and review. Narration was terrible too.

This one had a really promising plot line. Reminded me of "Luckiest Girl Alive" . I felt like it fell flat though. I was kind of bored and was ready for it to be over. So, thank you for the advanced copy but it wasn't a favorite.

This is like a lot of thrillers, where the mystery depends on someone not remembering something important. Not knowing can be frightening, and it can influence all the relationships you have for the rest of your life.
In this story, there is one important mystery, but it appears to have been resolved. What will happen when someone does a story, years later, that can uncover the truth?
Overall, this was a satisfying read because there was a lot of tension and the characters learned a lot about themselves.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this

I had a bit of a hard time with this one. I don't think it was slow, but it took a long time to wrap my head around the characters and what was going on. The author did a good job with the characterization, but in trying to maintain the mystery of what happened almost 10 years ago, it seemed like something was lost in the translation. I found myself going back and forth to see who people were as random characters popped up.

However, the story was intriguing. Why has Charlie blocked out what happened that dark night at the university? And why did it happen? And why is Steph (Stephanie) eager to make a tell all movie about it for the 10-year anniversary? We (the readers) want to know just as much as Charlie does when finally, after years of therapy, she is ready to face what actually happened. But is her memory of that night faulty?

I would have liked to connect with more with this thriller that had lots of twists and turns from this debut author.

I really liked the premise: a young woman, Charlotte (Charlie) from England, while in graduate school in the U.S., witnessed a horrific event that ended in death or injury for several classmates. The circumstances were so traumatic that Charlie blocked them out. She became an editor at a magazine and is very successful. But now that Charlie has rebuilt her life, one of the other "survivors" of the incident decides to make a movie about it, and threatens to expose what really happened. Charlie, having blocked out much of what happened, is convinced that she may have been responsible and that her whole life will come apart. I liked some of the characters, including the protagonist, her boyfriend and the differences between them (his family was basically a bunch of stuffed shirts who were just as worried about what might come out as Charlie, since they were going to get married and they were wealthy).
The novel was a bit slow to start; it took awhile to become invested in the "thriller-ness" of it and the pace is a little problematic for a book of this type. It really picked up the pace about a third of the way into the book.
The story was also a bit confusing; Charlie's sister in England was affected by the notoriety of the event, but I wonder why this would have been such big news in England, nor are we told what other things contribute to her condition (she was presented as fragile). After the first third of the book, lots of things were happening but it got a bit confusing at times. I was engaged though. However, the ending is probably what reduced it for me from 3.5 to 3 stars because it did not really make sense to me.
Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.