This didn’t really work for me. I liked the first half, and it kept me invested, but then it fell flat for me. I felt like the stakes felt higher than they actually were and the twists weren’t really earned. But I did really like the idea of this story and thought it was well written. Definitely check it out if you like dual timelines with an unreliable narrator.

This started off so strong. There was a great mysterious atmosphere, fantastic British narration, and a plot that was engaging. I had to know what happened on Scarlet Christmas and with Charlie’s involvement. The book was fast-paced, which kept me wanting to listen. I do feel like the ending was a bit convoluted and wish it hadn’t been so drawn out. Overall, it’s a popcorn thriller and can easily be read quickly.

I was sucked in from the very beginning. I wouldn't call it a thriller, per se, but it is an interesting mystery, and I felt compelled to find out what happened.

Scarlet Christmas - the worst day of Charlie's life. She can't remember what happened, but is trying, if only to stop new publicity from ruining her life. Told in alternating time lines THEN (before and during Scarlet Christmas) and NOW, this debut novel moves along and keeps you interested in the various characters actions and motivations.

"What if everything you know about the worst night of your life turns out not to be true?

Nine years ago, with the world's eyes on her, Charlie Colbert fled. The press and the police called Charlie a "witness" to the nightmarish events at her elite graduate school on Christmas Eve—events known to the public as "Scarlet Christmas"—though Charlie knows she was much more than that.

Now, Charlie has meticulously rebuilt her life: She's the editor-in-chief of a major magazine, engaged to the golden child of the publishing industry, and hell-bent on never, ever letting her guard down again. But when a buzzy film made by one of Charlie's former classmates threatens to shatter everything she's worked for, Charlie realizes how much she's changed in nine years. Now, she's not going to let anything—not even the people she once loved most—get in her way."

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books for the free ARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed herein are my own.

This was so entertaining and I couldn’t wait to find out what happened next. I loved the dual timelines between the past and now and how things unfolded. There were some parts that felt a bit disjointed or glossed over but overall I really enjoyed it.

If you enjoy dark academia and Christmas horror stories you should check this one out.

I feel like I’ve read this before: past violent act involving lead character as a young adult - how her future is impacted as the truth comes out. It was…fine for me, not very memorable..

Charlie's captivating journey unfolds in a compelling narrative, keeping me on the edge with suspense and moments of intense tension. It was page-turning experience of trauma healing, offering a poignant exploration of resilience.
While the story grips with its compelling elements, the conclusion, though rushed, leaves a lingering desire for a more satisfying resolution.

Overall, a riveting read that resonates, despite the hurried ending. I’d recommend this to anyone who is looking for a physiological suspense more so than a thriller.

Thank you so much for the ARC of this title. For a debut thriller, I thought the premise and plot was very good. The dual timelines helped keep me wondering what would be revealed, and I liked going back and forth (this part was done well). Where it lost me was the pacing. It started strong, but then became repetitive and much slower paced in the middle, and then all of a sudden we were at the end. For me thrillers need to be pretty quickly paced throughout, and this one was unable to keep my focused interest. I think this will absolutely have an audience, but compared to some other recent thrillers it missed the mark a bit for me.

Jenny Hollander creates a page-turning adventure with a then-and-now format written flawlessly. As a young woman battles with herself to reveal the truth about a tragic event years ago. As her memory of that night starts to come through she struggles with the lie she feels she has told others. Charlie constructs her story during that traumatic event only to find out she was wrong—an interesting view of what happens to one's mind in a traumatic event. Holland intertwines the plot magnificently and keeps one highly engaged in every chapter. This was hard to put down novel and it did not disappoint. As hints were subtly given and yet I did not forsee the ending until it all unfolded in the last chapters. Thanks, NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the opportunity to read a wonderful mystery that I will inform others to read.

Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead is Jenny Hollander's debut thriller about Charlie Colbert, a woman who survived an attack on Christmas Eve while attending graduate school, which was dubbed "Scarlet Christmas" by the media and captured the nation's attention. The novel slowly reveals the life that she has since built and what actually happened that fateful night.

I was really looking forward to this one and the first half of my notes say a lot of things like "so deliciously good" and "totally caught up in this story", but what started out a five star read didn't end up that way for me. EWCFID has a lot of things I like - an unnerving atmosphere and constant suspense, a true crime feel, an unreliable narrator, dual timelines, and juicy secrets waiting to be revealed.

My main problems with Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead have to do with the end of the novel. The main twist came too early and then too much time was spent on the epilogue, wrapping everything up neatly with a bow. The explanation for what happened was not only confusing in the way it was written, but it was also a big, uninspired letdown. Also, I wish the past storyline had been expanded so that equal amounts of time were spent between the two.

Overall, Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead is a fine first outing and I would likely read another book by the author.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press, Jenny Hollander, and Netgalley for an advance digital copy. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own and given voluntarily.

3 stars

Recommended for readers of:
Psychological Thrillers and Suspense, Mysteries, General Fiction, Women's Fiction, True Crime, Contemporary Fiction

This slow burn psychological thriller focuses on the life of Charlotte (“Charlie”) Colbert almost a decade after she and her grad school friends experience a horrific act of violence at the hands of a classmate. Her memories of that tragic event, now referred to as “Scarlet Christmas”, are blocked, which leads her to believe that she was more involved than she can remember.

When the sister of one of the victims wants to create a movie revealing the “true story”, all that Charlie has built for herself after the event - her editor-in-chief job, her engagement to the heir of a prestigious publishing company, and her perfectly composed front - are on the brink of collapse. She has to figure out what happened that night and break through the black holes of her memory to learn the truth. Alternating between past and present, the reader uncovers bits and pieces of the tragedy along with Charlie, leading up to the moment when all is finally revealed.

This was a quick read for me. As a reader, I really did feel like I was in the dark for most of the book…with the alternating timelines giving small glimpses of the truth along the way. I wasn’t a huge fan of Charlie’s character, if I’m being honest. But her character is grappling with trauma, grief, and fear, and her reactions demonstrate that. The twists were not as shocking in nature for me, and I did have some inkling as to where the story was headed. I did enjoy the ending, which was kept a little open, but pointed towards healing.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Minotaur Books for this advanced copy, in exchange for my honest review.

**Many thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press-Minotaur, and Jenny Hollander for an ARC of this book!**

You've heard of White Christmas...Green Christmas...but have you ever heard of SCARLET Christmas?

Charlie Colbert's here to tell you about it. Well...what she can REMEMBER about it, anyway. See, 9 years ago on Christmas Eve, Charlie was attending college at the prestigious Carroll school, surrounded by a group of friends that felt like family, until that one terrible night...where 3 of them died. Charlie fled the scene, making her an immediate suspect, but she somehow manages to escape the law and maintain her innocence, due in large part to a huge gap in her memory.

In our '9 years after the tragic event' present day, Charlie has managed to rebuild her life in a significant way: she's editor in chief at a well-respected magazine C, and she's engaged to Tripp, a handsome richie-rich boy who is set to help keep her safely ensconced in a comfortable life. When the sister of one of the victims of the murders reappears, however, and Charlie discovers she is setting out to make a MOVIE about that awful night...all of the fears and panic has about that night and the gaping holes in her memory come flooding back. Why CAN she only remember such tiny fragments about the timeline of that night? And why does she have a sinking suspicion that SHE might have had something to do with the bloodbath? An once this filmmaker begins digging around...will opening night mean a final curtain call on Charlie's shiny new life?

There's no way around it, so I'll just come out and say it: when by the end of a book, you discover the best thing about it was the TITLE? There's just no way to feel good about that. From the very beginning, it became evident that this was going to be a bit messy and elusive as a read...which in principle isn't a deal breaker for me, especially in a story like this one. The narrator has memory issues: of COURSE we as readers are going to be left in the dark, struggling to put pieces together, make educated guesses, fill in the blanks until we are let in on the secrets somewhere down the line, often AS the main character figures them out.

But there is a difference between purposefully messy and just simply incoherent...and this book too often fell FIRMLY in the second category.

First off, this story is full to bursting with unlikable, rambling characters. I had so much trouble caring about ANY of them, even our MC. They were all so bizarrely written, it felt like an adult trying to hang out with the Gen Z set and using slang words completely out of context...until all the kids stop what they're doing and stare blankly over at them until they shrink back into the corner. We were told over and over again how British Charlie was, although I'm not sure WHAT relevance that had to the plot to be such an important fixture of the story. Everyone constantly brought up everyone else's accents and affects as if none of these college kids had ever seen a person slightly different than themselves before...and it just made the whole thing feel OFF.

On top of this, Charlie's memories are tied to whatever she discovers with her therapist Nori, and when I say I feel sorry for Nori...it's not an understatement. The sessions were almost as painful as the plot in general and twice as pointless. I also couldn't understand how Charlie was able to simply gloss over this high-profile crime and tragedy and move effortlessly into a new life...it's mentioned that her new magazine KNOWS who she is...so as editor-in-chief of a well-known magazine, she was hoping to somehow hide in the background? It really didn't make any sort of sense. Charlie also thinks she has pull with Stephanie, the sister of one of the victims, who is at the helm of the film...and I have no idea why she would think this or why anyone believes her about ANYTHING, frankly.

Of course, once we get to our 'big reveals' at the end all is explained...but in a pseudo-heartwarming way, we are presented with a sort of saccharine ending where I think we are supposed to feel sorry for Charlie (?), followed by almost an ENTIRE chapter, for no reason whatsoever, about her new dog. I'll be honest, when I first started reading this particular chapter, it was a bit unclear it was even ABOUT a dog...I thought I somehow had missed Charlie having a CHILD. As grateful as I was for this not to be accurate, it still made me laugh...but at the end of this 'thriller,' I don't think I should have been laughing. We also find out it is Charlie's 35th BIRTHDAY which seems laughable to me...at 36, this character read a lot more like 15 than 35.

Sometimes the cover of a book can feel like a lot like a movie trailer, where sometimes all you get is a couple of quick pictures, a title, and a release date to whet your appetite. If all of the pretense is enough to draw you in, you might buy a ticket, grab your popcorn, and expect a certain level of entertainment to come your way for the next hour or two. But in the case of EWCFMID (yup, it's even long as an acronym!) an attention-grabbing title just couldn't make the steep price of admission worth it.

2.5 stars

#EveryoneWhoCanForgiveMeIsDead @MinotaurBooks #smpinfluencer

Jenny Hollander's Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead is an enthralling and thrilling narrative that will captivate you from beginning to end. This mesmerizing book is brimming with ingenious turns, a masterfully constructed storyline, razor-focused prose, and an immersive journey that will leave you spellbound.

3.5* What a catchy title!! This is exciting as a debut for this author. I started this and put it down over a three month period, so now that it is done I must say I did enjoy it. I need the main character's therapist, Noor...with her odd therapy sessions, but when you are working with an unreliable narrator with a distorted memory or a good liar you have to be clever in this endeavor. A fun Christmas party is labeled as the "Scarlet Christmas" after three people were slaughtered. Charlie cannot remember what happened after the police wanted her to be a witness to the nightmare. She blacked out so She lied about what happened because she thinks she had something to do with it. Is she guilty or a good liar?
Charlie, ten years later, has a nose job and different hair color to change her appearance from this ordeal. She has moved up in society as an editor-in-chief of a magazine company and engaged to the wealthy and handsome Tripp. She knows to never let her guard down in case she is discovered.
Her nightmare is about to hit the big screen when one of her friend's sisters decides to make a movie out of it. Charlie is afraid of what they will make of her story and will realize she has lied about it.
It started off strong and I thought it was worth riding it out to see what really happened. I did rush the ending and might have enjoyed it more had I not.
Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Nine years ago, “Scarlet Christmas” took the tabloids by storm after a tragic event took place at an elite graduate school. Now, Charlie, who fled the scene unscathed all those years ago, has turned her life around and her back on her old friends. With the ten year anniversary approaching, Charlie fears the secrets she kept that night are close to bubbling up and will do anything to keep that from happening.

EVERYONE WHO CAN FORGIVE ME IS DEAD by Jenny Hollander is a slow burn mystery debut that hooked me in from the start!

Alternating from past to present via the means of a therapist kept me on my toes and really added to the slow unfolding of the story from a reader’s perspective.

I was intrigued by the secrets and the interactions among the characters, which made this one super easy to devour!

The end was maybe a bit lackluster considering all of the buildup, but a great debut regardless!

Huge thanks to St. Martin’s Press, Minotaur Books, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Publication Date: February 6

As I’m reading this book I’m thinking this sounds so familiar. Where have I read this? Then I realize that the plot is very similar to The Luckiest Girl alive. -She’s a Journalist ✅
-Engaged to a man from a wealthy family that doesn’t seem right for her ✅
-concerned about family getting involved in scandal ✅
-Mysterious event in college that led to friends death and traumatized her ✅
-Planning a wedding and giving off vibe of marrying for money ✅
- A Book about the tragedy is released and being made into a movie. ✅
- The family wants to stop the movie so it doesn’t tarnish their name. ✅

You get my point. It was too similar to be coincidence. A bright 🚩 flag of plagiarism was distracting me from the story. I kept comparing the two books and honestly The Luckiest Girl Alive was the winner.

This book lacked character depth and complexity. The chapters about her grad school time was very juvenile. It was easy to mix us the characters because you didn’t know a lot about any of them. The book went from bad to worse in my opinion. The author used tactics to create suspense that were infuriating. First off it is unclear what actually happened in college but some students died. It’s unclear whether the narrator is unreliable or has some amnesia. Does she remember but she’s not telling you. This goes on for so long that it gets annoying. All in all I wasn’t a fan of the book. Pick it up read and see what you think. I might be the minority on this one.



Thank you to netgalley for the opportunity to read this book.

This dark and twisty thriller focuses on Charlie, a survivor of what the media dubbed Scarlet Christmas when she was in graduate school. Almost ten years later, a former classmate is set to make a movie about the events of that awful night, and Charlie is desperate to a the movie from being made.

I started this one on audio, and had a very tough time getting into it in that format. The story utilizes interviews, articles, and other additions that made it difficult to keep track of where in the timeline I was currently. When I switched over to the ebook, I was able to enjoy the story much more.

The story is fascinating psychologically, with a main character who just cannot remember several events in the past and who is trying to push past that block and remember the trauma. Charlie is high flying journalist these days with a very rich fiancée who is the heir to a publishing throne, and we see a bit of how the other half attempts to solve their problems.

I found the beginning to be a bit slow, with a much stronger second half. The actual events of the night in question are eventually revealed, and I was surprised by the finale. A good slow burn thriller debut!

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

Charlie - a living witness of “Scarlet Christmas” an event that occured 9 years prior while she attended graduate school, has rebuilt her life after the traumatic events.

When she finds out another classmate is making a movie of the ordeal, Charlie tries desperately to stop the movie being made.

The story is told through dual timelines as current day Charlie works through her memories with her therapist as well as media and press from the fall out of “Scarlet Christmas”.

Now. I am not sure I would call this a thriller BUT I still enjoyed it; psychological mystery or suspense for sure ! I didn’t always love Charlie - she was downright exhausting sometimes- but her journey through her grief and experience was well written. I did think the plot was interesting- it kept me wanting more- and the ending - essentially 9 years in the making- was satisfying. Would recommend!

Thank you to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for this ARC!

This one was a like not a love, it was fun, thrilling, couldn’t wait to find out the ending…. But, there was just something missing. That oomph factor. Otherwise great read! Really cohesive between timelines.

3.5/5 ⭐️
Rounded up ⬆️

𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬:
The premise for this sounded so good and promising, the book started off strong and I was into it….BUT then it just fell flat for me. I felt like there were parts that dragged, parts that were too repetitive, and not enough details of important things in the book but rather things going around in circles. At times I debated on DNFing this book, but I kept going (but I probably shouldn’t have if I am being honest.) The beginning was strong and had my interest, the middle dragged on, and the ending felt so rushed and left me feeling underwhelmed. So I will basically say that the beginning of this book was 4 stars, but the middle and ending was 2 stars…so I am rounding it to 3 overall. For a debut it was not horrible, but it definitely was not what I was hoping for and did not grip me in and keep my interest. The “big reveal” also was lack luster and there was no “wow” factor. The storyline was interesting, but this “thriller” lacked any sort of thrills for me and just left me wanting so much more.


𝐌𝐲 𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠:
⭐️⭐️⭐️3/5

An addictive book, Everyone Who Can Forgive Me is Dead will capture your attention from the very first page. The title alone will catch anyone's attention, although it is a little misleading. I will not say more about it, but it's not what you're tempted to believe.
It has a well laid out plot, which contains lots of juicy details and drama. The characters are mostly unlikable, but they work well in this context. And the ending was decent, although it took me by surprise. All in all, I enjoyed this highly entertaining book, and I recommend it to those who are looking for a fast, intriguing mystery.
Thank you Jenny Hollander, Minotaur Books and Netgalley for my advanced readers' copy.