So I feel like there was a lot going on in this book! Wow! I don’t really know what to say about it. It was moving at an ok pace for me. Maybe a little bit on the slower side but I didn’t hate it. But when it got to the last 20% I was SO LOST. I was like… WHO? Where? What? I mean I like a good plot twist but there was too much going on. Otherwise I say it was a really engaging book!

Unfortunately I was unable to finish this book as the story simply didn't engage me. I found the main character uninteresting and difficult to connect to, although the narration was lovely.

This book ended up just being okay to me. I get a little frustrated with the mystery/thriller trope of the MC has memory loss and her memory slowly returns at the most opportune moments as the story progresses. There are times when I can really get behind books that have these overused tropes, like if I really connect to the characters, but in this book I didn't really care about the MC or the side characters. I found myself getting really frustrated with all of the MC's decisions. Some reveals I did not see coming and found interesting, but by the time I got to them, I was already not really enjoying the journey, The first half was too slow and made me lose interest. I think this will work for a lot of people, it just ended up not being my favorite story.

Thanks to Minotaur Books, MacMillan Audio, Jenny Hollander, and NetGalley for my advanced copies of this book. All opinions are my own!

I'm not really sure how to rate this. I was having a really great time throughout the beginning but I started getting noticeably lost during the last quarter of the book. We follow Charlie (Charlotte) Colbert as she is living her high life after experiencing the traumatic and awful night referred to as "Scarlet Christmas" while in the United States for college.

I think the mystery in this book was really captivating, and I think it had a really great start. Things started getting muddled a little when Charlie was forcing (?) her therapist to see her through the events leading up to and on Scarlet Christmas, which I'm still not sure I really understand the dynamics of, but I'm not a psychologist so maybe it's something that could be done in real life.

As far as the audio goes, while it was well produced, I just don't think this book works very well for an audio. There are so many interviews, emails, time jumps, etc that it's hard to follow without seeing, but I did still ultimately enjoy the story.

The romance between Charlie and Tripp was hard to digest or believe because Charlie was never present with him and they did not know a single significant thing about each other other than their names, titles, and social statuses. I wasn't really sure how it fit in to the story other than the connection with the friend, and I'm glad it resolved the way it did with them. I loved that Charlie ended up getting a dog, and I enjoyed how everything wrapped.

This book just wasn’t for me. I couldn’t get into the story line or the characters. It was too slow for me.

I had some mixed feelings on this one but one of my favorite things about Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead was the dynamic characters. Charlie was such an interesting and complex character. Her mental health really drove the story at some points. This was a very unique slow burn psychological thriller. The plot started to lose my interest halfway through but the wonderful writing helped push me through. Overall this was a gripping psychological thriller and I definitely suggest giving it a try.

Thank you to the publishers and netgalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

I can’t give and will not give this book a full review at this time as I did not finish it. I tried to listen to it but could not make it after about 15 pages. I may try again reading it in the future, but for now it was best for me to not finish it.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this ARC!

Ok so to start off, the beginning half of this book was great and kept me hooked but then it kinda fizzled for me. Charlie’s character is unhinged in a great way in the beginning but then it just gets old. I didn’t expect the twists in this book but just felt like the ending just wrapped up too nicely and had me saying to myself “why didn’t she just shut up!” because it just felt a bit pointless and rushed. I also think this book had a lot of potential to be a great thriller because the idea behind it is great.

*3.5 Stars*

Everyone Who Can Forgive Me is Dead is a rollercoaster of a mystery on what truly happened the night known as "Scarlet Christmas". Charlie is a survivor of the horrible night at Carroll University that left several dead and has spent the last ten years running from the publicity of that event. Charlie finds out that a new movie is coming out "based on true events" and there are rumors that a possible cover up occurred during the investigation. Charlie believes that she may be involved in the tragic event and is afraid that her lies may be revealed during the film. She must uncover what truly happened that night and figure out a way to stop the film that could possibly destroy her life.

This was a great debut for this author. I did enjoy the two timelines as we figure out what happened to the events that led up to Scarlet Christmas and I was surprised by the overall ending as we figure out what happened that night. My biggest issue with this book was the main character. It just seemed like I couldn't relate to her and didn't understand some of her actions throughout the book.
However, I did enjoy the mystery of Scarlet Christmas and the narrator did a great job in this audiobook.

Everyone Who Can Forgive Me is Dead is out now.

Thank you NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for the opportunity to review Everyone Who Can Forgive Me is Dead. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

There were aspects I really liked about this book, but overall it didn't really grip me or surprise me in a way I was hoping for. I will say I was pleasantly surprised by the ending, but I wish the rest of the book was full of little twists and turns as shocking as the ending. I had a hard time connecting with the characters and felt they were definitely missing some development. This had a lot of potential but just fell flat for me in some areas. The plot itself was interesting but not complex enough to really bring you into the story and feel apart of it. Overall, I enjoyed this but think it could have used some work to be truly great. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead
⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Author: Jenny Hollander

I requested a digital advanced readers copy from NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and Macmillan Audio and providing my opinion voluntarily and unbiased.

Synopsis: 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.

My Thoughts: This was a really intense, psychological thriller and well written for a debut novel. Almost a decade ago, Charlie Colbert escaped the most terrifying event of her life, known as “Scarlet Christmas.” She has risen above the odds and has become a successful editor-in-chief and engaged to another successful man. When one of Charlie’s classmates was to embody the Scalet Christmas into a film, it starts to bring up memories for Charlie, not all good. The continuum between then and now begins to cross and Charlie is forced to remember to not let anything in front of her happiness. Will this backfire on her? Or will she actually remember what happened that night? Will digging in her memories reveal that she may have had something to do with the tragic event?

The story was narrated in past (Scarlet Christmas tense) and current, with little snippets of press announcements and therapy sessions. The characters were developed and not all of them were likable. The author did a great job with the twist reveals, some were unpredictable, although some you could see coming. The prose was on point. The plot evolved as it should, keeping the classic whodunit with reach, not going too far fetched. However, I felt like we needed more pieces earlier, it was a little slow paced. Towards the end, some of the passages were unclear and it was hard to determine what was Charlie’s fog and what was actually happening in the story. There were times that I had to reread passages to make sure I understood what was happening.

The narrator Marisa Calin was great. She had excellent voice variation and character distinction. The pitch and flow was smooth and I was able to listen at 2x speed and had no issue following along. Hollander has established herself as a solid psychological thriller author and I know we can expect amazing things from her in the future. The ending was not what I had expected, but was still satisfying. There were some plot holes towards the midpoint, most of them resolved, however, there were still somethings left unturned. Overall, I liked this story. It kept my interest, it was captivating, gripping, and twisty. I would recommend to other readers.

This book was very hard to get into, and seemed, slow, long, and drawn out. I could not connect to any character, which made it even harder to continue with the book. This lack of connection, and slowness lead to me struggling through the book. At first I thought the premise of the book was amazing, but the execution was not there.

The narrator, Marisa Calin, did an ok job of narrating this book. Her vocals for some characters sounded like cartoon characters. This made it hard to listen at times. I am not sure I would listen to another book narrated by Marisa.

I want to thank Netgalley and St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books for an ARC of this book and Macmillan Audio for an advanced listening copy of the audiobook.

I really liked the dark academia vibes of the flashbacks, and the plot was intriguing and kept me wanting to know what happened. For a debut, this was great. As a seasoned thriller reader, this was fine.

For a psychological thriller, this held many different emotions that I expected. Rather than suspense and intrigue, I was mostly filled with stress and anxiety. Every word was dripping with a nervous vibe. I'm not sure I ever experienced that kind of a feeling from a book before. Charlie is the epitome of an unreliable character. I started off the book thinking one thing and then was so confused when that wasn't true. The book jumped from current day to "then" when Charlie was in a graduate program and there were a number of murders on campus during christmas break. Charlie feels responsible for so much because she can't remember anything. The reader is just as much in the dark, perhaps even more. I'm still not entirely sure I know what really happened.

This book was one of my most anticipated reads of 2024, recommended to me by author Genevieve Wheeler who had a phenomenal debut last year, so I must be honest when I say I was a little disappointed. This book is marketed as a thriller and it’s not. The unraveling of a whodunit lent it most to the mystery genre if anything. The various accents were also too distracting and the breadcrumbs we got about the scarlet Christmas came out a little too slowly for me. That said, I did enjoy the dual timeline and think the author did a good job picking up and putting down each at the appropriate times. I did purchase the physical copy and look forward to this author’s future work.

Thank you NetGalley, MacMillan Audio, and Jenny Hollander for the audiobook arc of Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead. All opinions are my own.
This was a *good debut psychological thriller. Charlie, our main character, experienced a tragic event while in college. She does her best to manage PTSD, anxiety, and depression by seeking counseling in adulthood. Years later she is a successful magazine editor-in-chief, when a former classmate, Steph, announces she will be producing a film based on the true events of that "Scarlett Christmas" from college years ago.
The author wrote Charlie in a way that was emotional, full of anxiety, and sometimes hard to listen to (since I consumed the audiobook version read by Marisa Calin).
*A promising plot, dual timelines, an irritatingly unreliable narrator, and a few unlikeable characters knocked my rating to a 3.5.
I recommend this thriller to fans of the genre.

Some twists and turns and unexpected events kept me coming back for more.

One's perception is one's reality. This book is very evident of that. A skewed perception can wreak havoc in your life.

The characters in this book mesh well together and are believable. Jenny Holland does well portraying them and nudging in a direction of love or hate.

I received an advance review copy for free; this review is 100% honest and my own opinion, and I wrote it voluntarily.

This debut novel from impressive Jenny Hollander is amazing! I flew through this one right until the end. I was mesmerized with the fastpaced story with so much excitement of a tragic event. I literally thought I understood things but by the end, I had to go back and listen again with the knowledge of the fantastic finale!

Marisa Calin exquisitely narrates the audiobook, smoothly carrying voices of different accents.

This story centers around the interesting premise that Charlie is the only person who remembers a terrible event known as "Scarlet Christmas" but now, years later, she's wondering if maybe things didn't play out how she remembers them. The situation, which left many people dead, happened almost 10 years ago and now it's being looked at again for an anniversary movie. As people are digging into it, there's suggestions that Charlie may have played a bigger role. So of course she starts questioning herself.

The timelines jumped around really quickly, so it was easy to get lost if you weren't paying close enough attention. But in other ways, the story seemed to drag. Charlie spent a long time not knowing what was going on and while I know trauma can make you block things out, it just started to become very unbelievable. It was alright, but I would have liked more out of this.

I was really looking forward to this book but it did let me down a bit. I can’t figure out what it was but I just felt like it didn’t give enough originality. It feels like numerous books I’ve read and didn’t have that thrill factor for me!