The title caught my eye and the synopsis piqued my interest. Unfortunately, this turned out to not be for me. I lost interest very early on and couldn’t get myself to finish it. I requested the audio to see if that would help. The narrator was good, but I still was not invested in the plot or characters. I’ve seen positive reviews for this one so I still encourage people to give it a try especially being a debut.

Thank you, NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this ALC!

Charlie is a final girl in a massacre known as ‘Scarlet Christmas’. For the past 10 years she has worked to reinvent herself and put the memories of that fateful night behind her. She continues to see a therapist because she still struggles to remember exactly what happened the night her friends died. When one of the victim’s twin sister plans to make movie based on that night’s events, Charlie must put it a stop to it before her secrets are exposed.

This story starts off so intriguing and I was curious to see where the suspense and mystery would take me. Unfortunately, there’s too much time spent talking AROUND (and around) what happened on that night but not enough DETAILS. We don’t find out exactly how that night played out until about 70% in. By then, I was starting to lose interest and lost focus. The ending felt so rushed and the “big reveal” wasn’t as satisfying as I’d hoped for.

I did enjoy the small bits of mixed media: text messages, news articles, etc. I think as a debut, this wasn’t entirely bad and I believe the author has room to perfect her writing and plotting for future books.

After surviving a violent crime at her elite journalism school, Charlie Colbert leaves England and moves to New York. There she becomes a successful editor-in-chief, gets engaged to Tripp, who is from a wealthy family and a big fish in the publishing pond, and is able to work on healing from her past with the help of her beloved therapist, Noor. When on of her former classmates and friends decides the tragedy needs a retelling for its 10-year anniversary, Charlie's psyche cannot handle it and her life begins to spiral out of her control. The story is told from two different timelines (past and present), snippets of Charlie's therapy sessions, and press releases/marketing for the upcoming film.

Honestly, I'm struggling with coming up with the precise words for this review. The title and premise of this book sounded very interesting. However, the execution fell flat for me. The character development just wasn't as good as I would have liked. The MC was too self-deprecating and hysterical. The "forgetting" trope has been done and it felt rather forced. The plot moved slow dangling the carrot of what actually happened until close to the end of the book, which would have been fine if it were dark and twisty and crazy. But nope! Once the "twist" was reveled, I was left wondering if that was really all of it. And unfortunately, I believe too much was asked from the audiobook narrator. I mean, she definitely tried, but this would have benefitted from having multiple narrators due to the number of accents. Overall, this one just didn't work for me.

Thank you to NetGalley, Jenny Hollander, and Macmillan Audio for an ALC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I wanted a different ending. In the end, I didn’t care who pushed who out of the window-I totally understood why it happened and stood by them. I hate that the main character went through so many years of struggling when she did nothing. The amnesia seemed a bit much but I get how someone could black that much out too. Overall, it was a lot of work up for a semi-anticlimactic ending.

🌀Synopsis
Charlie has anxiety and amnesia. Years ago she was witness to a crime they called Scarlet Christmas. She disappeared after that, never wanting to talk about it or be in the spotlight for it. Her anxiety and amnesia made her think she’d done something wrong.
When the latest press on the event is a movie, she can’t hide anymore. Her fiancé is determined to help her through this but the more that gets brought up the more Charlie withdraws. She finally has a breakdown and another victim is able to help her piece together the rest of the night.
There is only one death that didn’t make sense and they are all able to finally get closure and move on.

Charlie Colbert was part of a tragedy at her elite journalism school. The tragedy was dubbed "Scarlet Christmas" by the press because the event took place on Christmas Eve. Charlie leaves England and moves to New York and becomes a successful editor-in-chief for a popular magazine. She is also married to Tripp who is from a wealthy family. Charlie is able to move on with her life with the help of her therapist, Noor. The story moves between Then and Now and it includes times during therapy sessions. When a classmate from school announces that she plans to make a "Based on a True Story" about the events, Charlie's life begins to spiral as she becomes more and more convinced that she was more than just a "part" of the tragedy.
I felt that this story was long winded and slow to get to what should have been an attention grabber. This story never got me engrossed in the characters or the events. I don't enjoy DNF'ing books because I have the hope that they eventually get better but this one really pushed the limits. This was my first Jennifer Hollander read so I would like to read another by her to see if this is a normal writing style or maybe just a "one off." I did read this book via audiobook format and the narrator was British. I felt at times the narrator spoke too fast to understand sometimes but other times, I felt like it needed to faster. I attempted to trial 1.25x speed as I listen to other audiobooks at this speed but because the narrator read too quickly at 1.0x speed, a faster speed wasn't a viable option. The narration of the male characters was good as one sounded like a New Yorker, one was Southern, and one sounded of Germanic descent. The female characters were sometimes a little harder to decipher between.
Unfortunately, for me, this book missed the "thriller" aspect, and it didn't capture my interest.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read this advanced readers copy of this audiobook.

I found the characters to be very bland and unlikable thru the whole book, and that even though it’s a thriller I couldn’t get hooked on the story or characters. I feel like the whole book lacked depth or any character development, and being very anti-climatic.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

𝙎𝙝𝙚 𝙝𝙖𝙨 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙤 𝙡𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙛𝙤𝙧―𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙤 𝙝𝙞𝙙𝙚.

I’m so bummed I ended up not enjoying this book and the synopsis sounded so interesting. I didn’t hate it by any means, but I also wasn’t the biggest fan. It was just an okay read for me.

I did a combo of the ebook and audio. The story started on a good start, I was immediately intrigued and invested. I loved that throughout the book Charlotte was super unreliable, I couldn’t even process what was true and what wasn’t.

I thought the writing was very interesting, I definitely could see myself picking more up from this author. However, I didn’t really get the thrills from this book. Sure there were a few twists here and there, but I felt like the story did too much in the beginning and not enough towards the end.

I would say the first half of the book was enjoyable, but the second half is where it completely lost me. I lost interest and it felt way too slow, I wanted more suspense.

Overall, this was just an okay thriller for me. I had such high hopes as the premise had me entertained, but the second half of the book is what really put me off. I would still recommend this, just don’t expect too much of a thriller, and know it’s more of a slow burn.

Thank you so much NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the review eARC and Macmillan Audio for the ALC in exchange for my honest review!

If you liked the movie "Luckiest Girl Alive" starring Mila Kunis, you'll love this book. In fact, the movie was mid for me, but this book was a much faster, twistier read.

Charlotte, a transplant from England to New York, has the perfect life - rich fiance, dream job, massive apartment, designer everything. But a tragic incident from her past--campus killing that was media fodder at the time--where she was one of the only unhurt survivors is the only thing that could bring it all crashing down. You see, she lied to the police and told them what she remembered... only she blacked out and couldn't remember. She fears what lives in that blank space. Now, when the sister of one of the victims wants to make a movie about the incident, Charlotte will stop at nothing to make sure that doesn't happen.

This is told in first person POV, as most thrillers are nowadays, and in a dual timeline - now and then (the days leading up to the event). I didn't mind this because the past timeline was revealed as Charlotte talks to her therapist to try to remember what happened and why it happened. The narrator was great. Her slight British accent is lovely and her attempts at an American accent are sufficient.

This novel brings up some interesting moral thoughts - can we trust our memories? can subliminal messaging and feelings make us remember things incorrectly? how well do we really know ourselves?

Overall, the big event "Bloody Christmas" didn't seem as big of a deal to garner all the attention it apparently got in the media and the continued hype ten years later. This isn't a make it or break it point for the book, but I had to suspend my disbelief a little.

Two of the twists I didn't see coming (so yay!). One of them was revealed at about 50% and added a lot of tension to the rest of the book. The other one was a bit out of left field and somewhat unbelievable. Why weren't the characters talking about this throughout the entire book?

Every reaction from Charlotte seems like A BIG DEAL. She runs to her therapist basically daily (great for normalizing therapy and mental health treatment, but it got a little redundant in terms of plot). I still really like Charlotte and was rooting for her despite her self-deprecation.

The ending was a bit tied up in a perfect, little bow. But sometimes that's good in a thriller. It was a little bit of light at the end of a dark tunnel.

I would definitely recommend this audiobook (or regular book) if you love thrillers, campus mysteries, and character studies. It was a super fast read that was well-paced and well-written. Honestly, I couldn't put it down (or take out my earbuds as it were). It also gives us a small glimpse into the lives of the living victims and families involved in tragedies that become true crime fodder.

Thank you to NetGalley, Jenny Hollander, and the publisher for allowing me to honestly review this Advanced Reader Copy.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for an advanced audio copy in exchange for my honest review. 2.5 ⭐️ Unfortunately this was a miss for me. I was waiting for the first half for something to happen and then when the twists did come, I got very confused because there seemed to be TOO much going on. It seemed overall to lack cohesion in the plot points, which at least for me made it difficult to follow. I also did not like any of the characters (I’m sure part of the point) so that made it hard to want to keep going. The audio narrator was fine but her Southern accent was so forced to the point of feeling cringey. I know she wanted to distinguish between characters but I honestly just found it annoying. I always love a good college setting so I enjoyed that part of the book but unfortunately little else.

I’m glad I read this Via audiobook very engaging✨

The back and forth from the Then and Now POV got a little confusing at times✨

I wish we would have heard and saw more from her therapist ✨

The twist, whisdunit at the end has my jaw on the floor✨

Very nice ending, gave a good vibe of a positive cycle rebeginning✨

Oh boy. This was not successful. 😬 This is about a young woman, Charlie, who is a survivor of a violent crime from her college days. She’s still very traumatized and has spotty memory of the event. Then someone else who was there decides to make a movie about it, and Charlie gets worried about what she did or didn’t do. What memories has she blocked? What’s going to be revealed?

To start off positive, I will say that this is serviceable if you are not well read in the thriller genre. This is short and bingeable. It has some reveals. I did want to know what happened.

But I have sevvvveral problems with this book.

1. I listened to the audiobook, and I felt so bad for the narrator. Accents were required, including some twang. It wasn’t the worst I’ve heard, but not great either.
2. The title is fantastic. It’s also completely wrong. Bizarre choice imo.
3. Charlie has to be one of the most annoying POVs to read. It was like I was in the head of a hysterical woman in a movie from the 50s.
4. The crime even as the public know it is not revealed until close to the end of the book. For most of the book I didn’t know what was supposed to have happened never mind what Charlie forgot or what she thought she might have done. I could theorize nothing. It was clear by the end that this was an intentional move to create certain reveals, but they just felt like purposeless “gotchas!” Revealing info you hid does not automatically create a “twist.”
5. Why did she need the therapist to get her memory back? She seemed completely unnecessary to the process - only necessary in that it dragged out the flashbacks for artificial story purposes.
6. Once we DO know what happened… it’s like, that’s it? That’s what she’s been panicking about? And then the last little twist happens that undoes some things and omg… 😐 really?? A big nothing.
7. The ending just… keeps going. And there’s much about that is weirdly tidy and sweet. I was rolling my eyes. I rarely need an epilogue in a thriller. Can’t go into too much detail for spoiler-y reasons, of course.

So, I feel bad, but this was not good…

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

If you like reflective, dark, mysterious books with unreliable narrators, then you need to check out Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead by Jenny Hollander. The book follows Carlie Colbert, who witnessed a horrible crime nine years ago, and is just starting to get her life back on track. With a tenth anniversary documentary of the crime being produced Charlie is forced back into the public eye regarding what she saw that night. The truth? Well, Charlie doesn't actually remember anything about the crime. And she lied to police about it. Fearful about the truth that might come out Charlie and her therapist begin to dive back into what actually happened that night. And what Charlie's subconscious might be hiding. Charlie is the best kind of unreliable narrator, because she herself has no idea what happened. As the book progresses and more memories resurface the reader slowly realizes they have no idea what happened that night. No idea who is actually dead, or who might be next.

Thanks to NetGalley for the audio ARC.

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

This story from Jenny Hollander was a whirlwind mystery. Our narrator Charlie and her friends experienced incredible trauma in their college years, and her hazy memory of the events leads her to spiral when she learns that a movie is being produced. I found the pacing of this story to be difficult, particularly in the audiobook format. While the beginning of the story took it's time to build up to the twist, afterwards it felt like an information overload. I found myself needing to revisit passages multiple times to fully grasp what had taken place. Charlie's anxiety and desperation to regain her memories of the events was clear through Hollander's writing, almost a fault, as the story sometimes felt like we were caught in her anxiety spiral with no way out. I'm still unsure if I could describe exactly what happened on "Scarlet Christmas"...but perhaps that is part of the point? Memory is a fickle thing...can it ever be trusted?

I thought the narrator did great work bringing this story to life and, while I did have to listen to passages multiple times, it was an enjoyable experience because of their performance.

Many thanks to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!

Charlie Colbert survived the “Scarlet Massacre” while in college. She tries to distance herself from the events of that night until one of her old college friends wants to make a movie about the events. Charlies doesn’t want the movie to be released because she may or not have been the perpetrator of the massacre...

I enjoyed this thriller. I thought it was fast moving and I was curious about the night of “Scarlet Massacre” Charlie had everything going for her, a successful job and a successful husband, if the truth came out about that night she would be ruined. I was invested in the story till the end.

The narration of the book was done well and I would read from this author again. I would recommend this book to people who like a fast-paced thriller about someone’s who’s past is coming back to haunt them.


Thank you Minotaur, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for my free ARC of Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead by Jenny Hollander — available Feb 6!

This book kept me guessing and stressed until almost the very end. I enjoyed the plot and trying to predict and figure out what would happen. The audio was fantastic.

3★

Honestly, this book fell a bit flat for me. I was really into the story for the ¾ but when the twists started unraveling, it just felt messy. Being in Charlie’s mind was hard because she bounced around so much and was, at many times, irrational. Her reactions to the things going on around her felt so strange. Maybe that was the point but idk? I didn’t love the plot, especially the “memory loss” angle.

However, I did LOVE the narrator! She was amazing. Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this audiobook ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Minotaur, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for my free ARC of Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead by Jenny Hollander — available Feb 6!

Read this if you:
🔥 enjoy a slow-burn suspense story
🎙️ love questioning whether or not your narrator is reliable
🎓 ever had toxic college friends (didn't we all?)

Charlie Colbert survived a massacre nine years ago at college, and she's done everything she can not to be associated with "Scarlet Christmas" since then. When she hears one of her former friends is making a movie about the events of that tragic night, Charlie spirals into panic over the lies she told and her own role in the disastrous killings of her friends.

Oof. This one was just not for me. I'm not sure how I feel about Charlie, but I certainly don't empathize with her, and the whole "lost memories" bit felt like a convenient plot device more than a realistic struggle. I think the suspense in this story was just a bit too slow and drawn out, and the final reveal was super flat after all the build-up. There is real potential with this book, but it ended up missing the mark for me. I'm still a bit confused still about what went down and who was involved, so DM me if you read this one so we can chat 🤣

⭐️⭐️💫

Unfortunately I don’t think this book was for me. However, I still am able to see several good qualities- the twist about 50% through was jaw dropping. And it will keep you guessing to the end. As always, just because it wasn’t for me doesn’t mean it won’t be for you!

But to me, the story felt redundant and like the problem was introduced too soon- which made it seem like Charlie was rehashing the same anxiety over and over. The audio didn’t do much to keep my attention either.

The title of this book was enough to have me intrigued. How could you not want to read this.it was a very bingeable debut novel, and I thought that the narrator, Marisa Calin, did a fantastic job with it.

I listened to this book in 2 sittings. The story is told through the eyes of Charlie, a British student who travels to New York to study. She finds herself caught up in the events of “Scarlet Christmas’ when a number of students died. Only Charlie can’t remember what happened that night nine years ago. All she can remember is lying to the police. She is trying to retrieve the memories with the help of a counsellor, but it might be too late. A movie is coming out that threatens to tell the truth of that night.

I really enjoyed how the author gave us little bits of Charlie’s past as the story was going. We don’t know quite what happened either until close to the end. It was frustrating but worked well in this story. There are some very unlikeable characters and some that I did like. I am still not sure which category Charlie fits into yet.

Thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the advanced audio copy of this book. Released on 6th February

This had all the elements of a great thriller, a woman who went through something horrible in college, lost memories and the whole story being pulled back up from the dead for a movie adaptation.

Unfortunately I felt it fell flat in a few ways. The lost memory trope seemed to be a crutch and a way to prolong the story rather than create tension, the ending didn’t have a “wow” moment and ended rather abruptly, and the characters needed some work to have a little bit of relatability.

It felt like it was going to be a dark academia, hidden secrets, dark motives kind of story and it just seemed more like a unhinged woman (women?) story. I also thought the representation of the therapist was a bit concerning, as a therapist would never push a client into revealing repressed memories so forcefully. There was a little pushback in the story but she still let our MC do it?

There were some elements I liked, the idea of making a movie and the way if affects everyone involved. I also enjoyed the “true crime” bit and wish it had been leaned into a bit more. Maybe have some chapters of true crime forums and people starting to theorize on Charlie’s secrets?