Charlotte “Charlie” Colbert was a survivor of “Scarlet Christmas”—an event popularized by the media because it involved the deaths of several graduate students at the prestigious Carroll University School of Journalism where Charlie was also enrolled. If you’re reading this and confused about which students died, don’t worry! I went back because I wasn’t sure if I missed it, and realized it was intentionally vague at the beginning due to Charlie’s attempts to repress memories of what happened and push forward.

Which brings us to the present timeline of the book (we actually don’t visit the past storyline as it’s own narrative, but learn about it through media coverage and Charlie’s sessions with her therapist). Charlie has an incredible life in the present day! On the surface, at least… A Londoner living in New York, Charlie is the editor-in-chief of C—a popular women’s magazine linked to a broader newspaper.

Charlie is also engaged to a man named Tripp who is a handsome, filthy rich, old-money heir to a publishing magnate. More importantly, Tripp is kind and loves Charlie. When Charlie receives an email from a former classmate that one of their cohort is producing a movie based on the events of that night long ago, Charlie spirals. She has worked hard to repress memories from that night. Now she may have no choice but to relive them, as she does everything she can to prevent the movie from portraying the truth of that night.

What I liked

Told through present day timeline, media excerpts, and sessions with Charlie’s therapist where she works to uncover memories from that night, the plot is compelling and well-paced. Charlie was a great narrator. She is aware that she is unreliable, which is a departure from many novels with this general plot.

Charlie is a plucky, upbeat, and driven. From early on, Charlie mentions using her British-ness to her benefit. The posh-er she makes her accent, the more people respect her opinion and don’t question her. This is a super-power Charlie has at work and in life. It helps her gloss over questions about the trauma for the sake of British reservedness. I liked that her cageyness with the reader is part of her efforts to just push forward in life and not think about the people or events of graduate school.

Despite her trauma and obvious challenges, Charlie isn’t the typical basket case that narrates these types of novels. Her memory blackouts in the past are specific to that night. She didn’t let it break her, but it is slowly seeping into her well-curated life. Charlie knows that once the story becomes a sensation, true crime fans won’t hesitate to pick it apart and find the holes in the story she told police.

I was confused at times about which students died that night, but later realized it was kept intentionally vague. Charlie has a list of names and events she has forbidden being mentioned in her therapy sessions prior to this book. Now that she has pressure to remember everything from that night, she has the opposite approach and begins to speak about her past much more openly.

I was gripped by her story, wanting to know more and more leading up to the event. Her former boyfriend Jordan is the person who emails her about the film, so we know he is alive. Similarly Steph is creating the film, so she clearly lived as well. But some of the other deaths are more mysterious until about halfway through. I’ll be honest, at times I even questioned if Charlie really got an email from Jordan or if this was a manifestation of her survivor’s guilt.

What other readers disliked

There were more critical reviews than I expected when I went to read this book. Many liked the book until the last 30% or so, where things heat up and a lot of truths are revealed. This is the part of the novel where Charlie is honest with Tripp, her therapist, and herself about what she knows about that night. From there, things are fast-paced.

Most of the criticism I saw of this book fell towards that final third. Readers sometimes felt that the story wrapped up a bit too neatly and abruptly, leaving some plot holes. I actually agree with these points, though I didn’t think it was a bad thing. I liked that the story had a full conclusion and the plot holes really didn't bother me. I thought they were mostly explained in the final chapters.

Don’t wait for a final twist in the epilogue, it is meant to showcase what happened eighteen months after the main events of the novel. The twist comes before that and has a complex development that I absolutely loved. I was surprised to find many disliked it, because it was so delicious and satisfying, in my opinion!

Final Thoughts

I absolutely loved this book, and was surprised reading early reviews that others felt differently. I think it goes to show that for any book, we should take the reviews with a grain of salt. Know going in that not every book is for every reader. I actually loved the ending and how it came together, and the epilogue answered those typical lingering questions in psychological thrillers where we ponder “so what happened to these characters I got to know over the course of this book?”

I love books set on a campus especially when there is a mystery involved. I enjoyed this thriller and the characters. The ending felt a little too perfectly wrapped up but overall an enjoyable read.

Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead by Jenny Hollander is a solid psychological thriller debut.
The characters are intriguing, the plot is captivating, and the whole story kept me reading all night.
The settings come to life through convincing descriptions, allowing the reader to clearly visualise them.
The dual timeline and it’s unreliable narrator were cleverly done here.
A highly entertaining and absorbing story.
Overall, this is definitely one that kept my interest and I enjoyed reading!
Definitely one I would recommend.

Thank You NetGalley and Minotaur Books for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

I had some mixed emotions about this book but I definitely liked it.

It kept me hooked from the beginning. The main character, Charlie, survived a violent episode at her journalism school known as Scarlet Christmas. It's haunted her ever since and she's blocked out a good portion of the night. Given that she can't solidly remember the events, she's not sure what role she may have played and now one of the other alumni wants to put out a movie about the night's events. This basically sends Charlie off the rails and she is risking everything she's worked hard to gain in her life - - he posh career as an Editor-in-Chief for a major magazine and her engagement to Tripp, the eldest son of a powerful old money New York family. She also is obsessed with her concern for her family back home in England and what the paparazzi will do to them. Especially her special needs sister, Felicia.

The story is told in two timelines - - the present day and the past leading up to Scarlet Christmas. I really enjoyed the story for the most part. I did think that Charlie's obsessive paranoia got a little excessive at times but it fit the plot.

AUDIOBOOK REVIEW: The audiobook narration was really good. The narrator's voice did a great job with Charlie and the depiction of her emotional state. 4 stars

Thank you to NetGalley for early copies of both the audiobook and ebook.

Everyone Who Can Forgive Me is Dead had tons of twists and turns like you would expect from a book like this. Charlie was a very unreliable narrator which is always fun, keeps you guessing haha. At times I was a bit confused as it jumped around a lot. I think there was a bit too much going on. The first half didn't keep me super engaged but I think that was more so my busy schedule this month. Overall a good thriller but not my favorite.

3.75 stars rounded to 4, because I didn't put the book down until I finished it. I really wanted to know what happened. That's a huge plus, of course. :)
*
There are many characters thrown at us in this one, but except for one or two that I either couldn't remember or mixed with someone else, they were well developed. I liked Charlie's voice and rooted for her, although sometimes she made questionable decisions. Some twists were so unexpected; it was great.
*
But at some point, I felt that what happened during the Scarlet Christmas took a little too long to be revealed. Everything was based on it, yet Charlie refused to tell us what happened—not the secret story, but the story that has been out in public, in the news, etc. Don't get me wrong, I loved the mystery, and I did want to figure out what had happened instead of reading a full description at the beginning. But I think it took too long. Charlie withheld too much information for me to be able to guess anything, and I was just frustrated instead of feeling somewhat clever.

*Thank you, Jenny Hollander, NetGalley, and Minotaur Books for the e-ARC.*

I'm not totally sure where things went off track for me with this one.
Thank you to St. Martin's Press for the eARC of Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead.
The Cornell School of Journalism was the site of brutal murders on Christmas Eve nine years earlier. It became known as Scarlet Christmas.
Charlotte "Charlie" Colbert was present for the events, and compartmentalized her trauma so much that she became a successful editor of a major magazine.
But when she learns that a movie is in the works detailing the fateful event, Charlie is forced to unlock her memories.
I was hooked for about the first third of the novel. Then things might have gotten a bit messy and wordy IMO, and some reveals didn't blow me away.
Still, a solid debut and I recommend!
For release on Feb. 6.

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
🌃

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.
🌃

#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.