What a wild ride! Just when you think you know what is happening the plot twists and you're left sitting there thinking about what just happened. Nine years ago Charlie is a witness to "Scarlet Christmas," a night at college where three classmates end up dead and a few are injured. Now, coming up on the ten year anniversary someone else who survived the night drags up the past and makes Charlie question what actually happened that night. The beginning a slow burn as Charlie struggles to not dive into the past, but the build is enough to keep you engaged. At the middle she starts exploring those memories and comes to a shocking conclusion. Now, I had already come to this conclusion and wondered what we are going to learn in the second half. Multiple twists occur and while it borders on the edge of too much it never crosses it.

A couple of things that don't add up are why exactly Stephanie wants the movie to happen so badly, especially as you read more of the book her motivation is questionable at best. The second thing is Tripp and Charlie's relationship. We seem glimpses into their lives and relationship and it all feels very forced- a relationship based on a lie and even really added up.

Charlotte (Charlie) is determined to remember what really happened the night her college friends were violently murdered

She doesn’t fully remember the “Scarlett Christmas” incident, due to alcohol , shock and fainting but she lied to police and said she did

Nine years later, it’s announced that the events will be made into a movie

Charlie is terrified that the truth will come out, even though she doesn’t know what the truth is

I liked the premise of the book but found the telling of it, frustrating. It was slow and confusing, mainly because Charlie was slow and confused

“It’s all kind of a blur but I know what happened” this kinda sums up the book and is the epitome of an “unreliable narrator”. If you’ve read any of my reviews, you may know that I dislike unreliable’s and unfortunately Charlie and I did not gel

Nevertheless, it was mysterious and I did want to know what happened; the reveal came in the form of a conversation rather than a flashback which was a little anticlimactic, but I am glad I got there

Thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for access to this audio ARC in exchange for my honest review

Thank you Net galley and the Publishing team for allowing me to read this arc. I was really intrigued by the plot and concept, but it wasn't my favorite. I went into the book because it was label as a mystery thriller and with the title and sound of the plot it was giving off who done it vibes and like it would be a book where I would be questioning certain aspects but in a good way. I think I could like this book but by the time I DNF it at 44 percent I just felt like I was reading a fiction book with an eerie feeling plot. This book didn't give me the mystery thriller vibe that I was looking for. Now I think the idea of the plot are good, but it doesn't give off mystery thriller when you are reading. One thing I will say though is that this book has anxiety and PTSD rep and I think the author really wrote it well and showed how much anxiety and PTSD can affect your everyday life.

When Charlie was in graduate school, she witnessed a horrific attack on her fellow students that was ultimately determined by the police to have been caused by another student who was deemed mentally ill. Charlie, however has always known there was more to the story than what was in the official report. Now, nine years later, Charlie’s life seems to be going really well with a great career and fiancé until one of her former classmates announces she will be making a movie about that fateful night.

I had really high hopes for this book based on the premise. I love any story where amnesia or memory loss plays a role in the plot. Unfortunately for me, this aspect of the story was not particularly well done. Much of the story felt like Charlie panicking not over trauma, which would have been understandable, but over assumptions that she was making.

This was set up to only go a few directions, and as we moved through the story, the options for where this could go dwindled. By the end, I felt that there was really only one direction this could take which made it feel very predictable.

That said, at no point was this boring. Despite it being a bit frustrating and a bit predictable I was actually quite entertained throughout the book and never even considered stopping it. In the end it was a middle of the road three star thriller for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book. I leave this review voluntarily.

"Charlie survived the Christmas Eve killings at her grad school nine years ago. Now she is a successful magazine editor about to marry a scion of NY publishing. But an old friend wants to make a movie about the events of that night, known to everyone as "Scarlet Christmas". And Charlie is afraid - because she lied about what really happened that night..."

Marisa Calin does a nice job with the audio performance. Lots of characters but she manages to keep them straight.

If you've read a thriller in the last five years you know how this one will go.
Something bad happened years ago - there are secrets - someone finds out and secrets come to light - dual timeline - consequences
That's how it goes. Charlie survived - can't really remember what happened. The old timeline is Charlie working with her therapist to remember. There's a twist! People in her current life are connected to those events. And maybe everything didn't happen the way she remembers.

The twists are a nice touch. I like the little surprises from Hollander. I really like Charlie's ending.

The book is formulaic but still entertaining.

I can see why people love this book, but I struggled with it.

I love a past vs. present timeline. But I found it hard to connect with any of the characters in both the past and the present. There was not much character development, which I think was part of my problem.

The twist at the halfway mark gave me hope that this slow burn would pick up. But it was a struggle to get to the end and ultimately fell flat for me.

*Thanks to Netgalley and Minotaur Books for this advanced reader copy*

I'll be honest up front and say that I requested this book on a whim, based on the front cover and the name of the book. I should know by now that this is a mistake. I may have eventually read it anyway, but I don't know that I would have rushed at the opportunity as much if I had read the synopsis.

I strugged with this book. I had a hard time getting into the book, then hit a stride and thought I was digging the story. Then, after about 60% of the way through, I started struggling again, and it never recovered for me. I think I ended up liking it more than I thought I would, but it fell flat. 3 stars.

I thought this book was fine but with all the hype surrounding it, I wonder if I had unrealistic expectations that it did not meet..

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Quick fun read. Enjoyed the story and it did keep me wondering what was going to happen next. Nothing crazy sophisticated but definitely a fun read

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance review copy in return for an honest review. I really wanted to like this book but I felt like it didn’t live up to the hype. It just fell flat.

This is Charlie Colbert’s story. She is from the UK but goes to NYC for grad school to become a journalist. But then a tragedy happens: Scarlet Christmas, as it’s referred to, a day when multiple students died. Charlie was there but has no memories of the events. After the media swarming her, life slows down a bit. Now, a decade later, she’s editor of a successful magazine and engaged to Trip, from a very wealthy family. The events of the past come rushing to the forefront as another student from that night at grad school plans a movie based on Scarlet Christmas. What really happened that night at school? Is Charlie responsible, a killer?

I started this one over twice because I just couldn’t keep track of the characters and plot. I did listen all the way through, and continued to mix up and forget characters and plot lines. Right off the bat, I should have known this is not the book for me because of the subject matter. As a mother of a school-aged child, I cannot stomach school violence in books. I don’t mind murders, assaults, kidnappings, and all the other stuff typical of a mystery, but school shootings and such are just too much for me. So that aspect of the book left me unsettled.

I didn’t feel invested in the characters or story and not just because I couldn’t keep track of them. I also didn’t like most of them. However I think some of the characters were written purposefully to be disliked so credit to the author. Charlie as the narrator was somewhat unreliable, complicated by the gaping hole in her memory. Like I said, this just wasn’t the book for me. I liked the author’s writing style and the narrator did a good job but I just couldn’t get into it. For another reader this may be a great read. But that reader isn’t me.

This book was good, don't get me wrong. However it just wasn't the right type of book for me. I did finish it. I definitely wanted to know more, find out what happened, great twist Throughout the book. Unfortunately it just wasn't the right fit for me. Glad I was able to listen to it.

Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead was a miss for me. At about 25% I debated whether I should continue but I was still intrigued enough I decided to see where it was headed. Unfortunately it didn’t pick up for me and I should have just stopped this one when I felt it. The story felt too similar to too many other thrillers I’ve read and I think I’ll quickly forget it entirely. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the free audiobook and ebook to review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC of this book.

The main character, Charlie, was a great character and I really enjoyed her trying to recount her memories of the fateful night through therapy. I would have liked to see more of that. I also enjoyed the reveals about halfway through the book. The writing was great, but sometimes I felt the plot wasn’t flowing. I do think that this is a good debut and I’m interested to see what the author writes next and how they improve their storytelling.

This thriller was not one of my favorites. The plotline is familiar and overused. A young woman flees murder scene at grad school. Years later, she is a successful magazine editor and engaged to a handsome, rich, successful publishing magnate. One of the woman's former classmates comes to town and wants to make a film about the murder. Same ol', same ol'. The characters did not grab me, and at times, the story began to stall. The narrator did a great job.

I really enjoyed the twist and turns of this audiobook. The narrator however made it hard to want to continue. I think I would have enjoyed reading this book more than I did due to the narrators voice. There were too many characters in this book, both male and female for one narrator to read. It was super distracting but overall I did like enjoy the story and was surprised by the ending.

Thanks so much to Macmillan Audio for the gifted ALC!

I am always on the lookout for thriller debut authors and was so excited about this one!

Ultimately, I ending up thinking it was just ok and maybe that's due to reading "Listen for the Lie" right before this which had many similarities. I think the way in which the past/present plots where laid out didn't give enough to me up front to keep me invested. While the twists at the end were pretty good, it came a little too late to save this from being just okay for me.

I also found the narrator hard to listen to and I am not picky with narrators at all, so it's very rare that a narrator takes away from the story but sadly in this case she did.

I still think there will be a big fan base for this one and hope it's very successful!

It will be out on February 6th!

The book was very engaging in the begging but as I continued to read it became harder to read. I lost interest and found myself no longer wanting to read the book. I would say it is a good read but it does slow down and I struggled to finish this story.

I listened to the audio version of this. I got it from NetGalley as an ARC. I think labeling this as a thriller was little bit of a stretch. It was predictable and I didn’t really see it as a thriller. There name is about the only thrilling part of this
book. It took forever to get to the point and a lot of build up happened. It was an okay read, but I wouldn’t recommend unless you just want to see what it’s about.

This book was really difficult to get into, and to finish. A horrible memory in childhood pushed down. Not forgotten, but compartmentalized in her adulthood. Then a person from her past that knows the truth comes back to being the memories back and threaten her future. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.