Charlie is in her thirties and a successful editor and chief for a magazine. She’s engaged to the wealthy Tripp and everything looks good from afar. Unfortunately, Charlie was a survivor of a tragedy nicknamed “The Scarlet Christmas.” One of the victim’s family is shooting a movie about the event and it will reopen old wounds. Especially because Charlie lied the night police questioned her.

This is a solid debut in my opinion. The plot is well done and the twists are good. The narration by Marisa Calvin is also good. I do read a lot of these types of books, so I think it would be better enjoyed by someone who only reads thrillers occasionally. If you read too many of them, it’s hard to find one that really stands out. My only criticism here is that the story lost its momentum in the final chapters. I would definitely read the author’s next book.

Thank you Netgalley for the advance reader and audiobook copy of Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead by Jenny Hollander in exchange for an honest review. This book sure took some right angles. Everytime I thought I knew where it was headed it changed. I even said "What!?" a few times. I really enjoyed it and read it in a day.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the free audiobook in exchange for my honest review. This is narrated by Narrated by Marisa Calin who does a good job.

Charlie is a successful magazine editor who has it all...a great job and a super-wealthy, handsome fiancé. However, Charlie is also a survivor of what has been called the "Scarlet Christmas", a tragic event where 9 students in Charlie's elite journalism grad school class were killed by another student.

Charlie has worked extremely hard to put the past behind her and build a successful career. But the 10 year anniversary of the Scarlet Christmas is coming soon and another survivor announces plans to make a movie. Will Charlie's carefully curated life fall apart? Will her secrets about that night be revealed? Can she stop the movie from coming out?

The story alternates with a dual timeline of "then" and "now". I was immediately pulled into the book, and Charlie's character is very well developed. Her therapy sessions added a lot of background to Charlie's PTSD.

I was compelled to finish the book to find out what really happened that night. I was a bit disappointed by the 'big reveal', but if you like character driven novels that are slow burns, this is definitely worth the read. The suspenseful build up was anxious and well done!

3.5 stars rounded up.

I hesitate to talk negatively about an author's debut novel as it takes courage and a lot of hard work to write a novel. That said, I promise to be honest, so I will give this a solid 3 stars.

It was certainly an interesting premise and I was intrigued to find out what happened, but there were definitely parts that I was skimming, feeling it was a bit off when it came to pacing. I felt it could have been maybe 50 pages shorter? The ending was probably where it fell the most flat where I just kinda wondered how we got here? Like it wasn't a plot twist that I felt was realistic after everything I had read up until that point. I felt like it could have benefitted from multiple POV's and perhaps more character development as the characters were pretty one dimensional.

The narrator did a fine job of narrating and it didn't affect my review of this book.

That said, its the author's debut novel, and I personally give authors multiple chances (at least two) before deciding whether or not I will continue reading works by a given author.

Thank you Macmillian, the author and netgalley for the audiobook arc in exchange for a fair and honest review.

3 stars

This is a promising debut, and I will read more from Hollander.

Transparently, while I think the premise is super interesting, I did struggle a bit with the ending and the relatively limited character development. It's gripping and disturbing to consider a lost time scenario, especially when that missing piece may have included the questioning party being involved in a major crime. The central impetus for the main character's actions - beating the clock on an impending film that may expose these potentially horrible buried truths - is also compelling. But things fizzle toward the end, and unfortunately, so did my investment in specific outcomes. Also, I was distracted the whole time by the branding "Scarlet Christmas." Too soon.

There's a lot to like here in theory and a little to be desired in practice. Fortunately, there's enough of the former to come back for more from this author.

Such a fun time! Fans of Girl on the Train and Gone Girl will love the messiness of this.

Premise - a woman survives a bloody massacre at her graduate program and, years later, begins to unravel as a former classmate turns the story into a movie.

Overall this was a well-paced, fun story with tons of larger than life personalities… but I wish we’d seen the protagonist spiral. We’re told she’s a high performer, a successful editor who’s engaged to an old money man with whom she has zero romantic chemistry. How’d she pull that off? I wanted to see her start as highly competent and put together and then spiral into an anxious mess. Instead, she starts the story as a hot mess express and we just have to take her word for it that she wasn’t always that way. Sigh.

That said, I never wanted to put this down and I had a lot of fun reading it. I’d definitely read more from this author, so it’s a 4!

Thanks, NetGalley and Minotaur, for the gifted ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The press dubbed it Scarlet Christmas, the night that Charlie “witnessed “ a massacre at her boarding school. Charlie did her best to put that night behind her and has become editor of a popular women’s magazine. On the surface, her life is perfect, but then she hears one of her school friends is making a movie about what happened that night, and if the truth comes out, she’s going to lose a lot more than her good reputation

What a fantastic book! Here is my full review giving five reasons to pick it up.

https://www.novellives.com/2023/08/31/five-reasons-to-read-everyone-who-can-forgive-me-is-dead-by-jenny-hollander/