This was not for me. I didn’t relate to any characters and the only reason I finished was because I needed to see how it ended. Plus I didn’t want my time to feel waisted. Just okay.

3+ stars
Nine years ago, Charlie was involved in a tragedy as a graduate student at Carroll University that left three people dead. She blacked out a lot of it, but told the police a story that her memory can’t verify. She’s been in therapy for years, but only now, with a movie version of the events about to come out for the tenth anniversary, does she scramble to find out what really happened that night.

She’s dealt with the aftermath of that horrible night by becoming incredibly successful. She’s the editor-in-chief of a magazine and she’s engaged to an incredibly wealthy heir in the publishing industry.

I thought the beginning of this novel was promising, in the middle Charlie was sort of whiny about her guilt and confusion with her memory, so that got irritating. I’m not sure what I think about the ending.

NetGalley provided an advance copy of this book, which RELEASES FEBRUARY 6, 2024.

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.
Expected publication date: Feb. 6, 2024
Nine years ago, the events that took place on Christmas Eve at an elite journalism school had everyone talking. But only Charlie and her friends knew the truth and they all had their own reasons for keeping certain events a secret, Charlie more than most. Now, Charlie is engaged to the heir of a business fortune and the editor-in-chief of a major magazine, trying to put the past behind her and live the life of her dreams. But, as these things do, her past comes back to her when a former classmate plans to turn the events of “Scarlet Christmas” into a movie. Charlie knows that she must do whatever she can to keep the truth from coming out, even if she takes her entire life down in the process.
Jenny Hollander’s debut novel, “Everyone Who Can Forgive Me is Dead”, is both gripping and entertaining. Told through Charlie’s eyes, as she experiences the whole gamut of PTSD, survivor’s guilt and debilitating loss, all while trying to plan a wedding and keep the job she loves, I was instantly pulled in.
The story is told in the present day, although we do get snippets of past events through Charlie’s recently-recalled memories. The reader experiences glimpses of the events and is forced to make assumptions, as Charlie does, until the truth is revealed. The details of what really happened remain a mystery until the final pages and the tension slowly builds until Charlie remembers what took place and, finally, the reader is caught up as well.
The ending was slightly unrealistic and a bit unbelievable, but it was a satisfying conclusion, with all the expected resolutions. Overall, I found Hollander’s debut to be a page-turner, full of appropriately intriguing twists and turns. This is my preferred genre and I’m always happy to welcome a new author into the fold. As Hollander’s writing experience grows, I can see her easily rising to the top.

Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead is a great thriller/suspense debut.

The MC Charlie is dealing with the tenth anniversary of a deadly incident at her elite journalism school where she was one of the only ones not injured and two of her friends were killed.

This is a heavy topic and it’s done well here. I pretty much figured out the twist - big still enjoyed it and def sympathized with Charlie.

It’s best to go in somewhat blind here so no spoilers.

If you like a slow burn with emotion, this one is for you.

I will definitely be following this author. Thanks to Jenny Hollander and NetGalley for my ecopy. I also happily received a print arc so this one can live on my shelf. It’s a good read for sure.

This novel follows the story of Charlie, who survived a tragedy at her journalism school. Between past and present, more details are provided as you go along and the author did a great job of grabbing your attention to find out what happened and to who. While I enjoyed the concept and was easily able to decipher who was who, I found some of the story lines a little confusing and had to re-read to try and understand. I find the whole “selective memory loss” plot to be a bit played out: Although not one of my favorites, this was a decent read.

Thank you to the author, Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Solid 3.5 for this debut novel!

Imagine going to school and making friends, people who you gravitate toward, who you think will be there for you throughout this journey, but in a strange turn of events, multiple students end up dying and you think that you are to blame.

This book started off a bit slow, then picked up for sure. It’s giving dark academia mixed with a bit of a whodunnit. The story takes place with dual POVs of past and present as Charlie navigates the trauma she experienced back in school after the deaths of her classmates. A movie is being made 10 years after the event and Charlie is afraid for the truth to come out. The more work she does in therapy to find out the truth, the more she learns that her account of events may be different from what she remembers.

This book has potential. I do feel like the writing style took a while for me to adjust to, but once I got further in to the book I was able to follow better. There were definitely high and low points where I felt like things were drawn out a bit more than I would have liked. For a thriller I am all about a page turner and there were moments where I had to know more, but as the story progressed, the ending fell a bit flat for me. I wanted a bit more from it. I am thankful that I was given this advanced readers copy by Minotaur books in return for my honest review. Thanks so much again.

This book had a good premise. It is a slow burn and it was hard for me to stay focused as I so desperately wanted to know what the heck happened on campus and you really don’t find out until the end of the book. I didn’t like the neat little wrap un ending and how they handled mental health issues.

I tried reading this. I did, but I just couldn't! I don't think this book is for me. Just a chapter in and it was an immediate DNF although the writing was engaging. I just couldn't feel the character as much as I liked or the plot...

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this eARC. All opinions are my own.

While this is a well written psychological thriller, and a decent debut novel, the characters weren't particularly well crafted or sympathetic.

The author drew me in to the point where I wanted to get to the climax. The ending was disappointingly prosaic.

This author shows promise and I will happily read her future works

Intriguing mystery with all the moving parts: thrills, frights, blackouts, memory loss and slow return.
Charlie Colbert has rebuilt her life in the nine years since she witnessed and survived an attack on Christmas Eve, that saw 3 friends killed and other injured. but leaving her with little memory of the events of that horrific night. It became known as the infamous Scarlet Christmas event.
She lives in NYC now, engaged to the scion of a wealthy family and editor in chief of a renowned magazine.
Life is good again except not every day.
She sees a phycologist.to help with the blackout period and suffers recurring panic attacks.
And now a new movie based on a new expose is going to be made of that night and even though she does not know why, she does know she needs to stop the move if she possibly can.
A great story that moves along at a rapid pace, sliding back and forth between then and now, very seamlessly, at times,
The characters are well defined and the story is intriguing and quite intense as Charlie's memories flit in and out as she struggles to try to unwind the events of that night.
Good read that pulls you in and keeps you rooting for her memory return.

Many thanks to @minotaur_books, @stmartinspress, and @netgalley for my #gifted copies. Pub date 2/6/24.

Charlotte Colbert has worked so hard to get her life back together after a tragedy happened 9 years ago at her graduate school on Christmas Eve. She is an editor-in-chief of a popular magazine, and she is engaged to a wealthy man. Things are going well until she gets an email from an old classmate. They want to make a movie of what happened 9 years ago at the school. Can Charlotte relive that horrible tragedy again?

This book sounded so good, and I really wanted to love it, but I thought it was all over the place. It was hard to follow at times. It just didn't flow right for me. The storyline was good, and I will definitely read the authors next book. This book already has some great reviews, so maybe it was just me? I'm excited to see more reviews.

This was a solid debut from Jenny Hollander. It was well written and had some good twists. It was more of a slow burn than a fast-paced thriller. My biggest issue was that I felt like it should have taken place during the character's college years rather than during grad school. They seemed too old and would have been spending too much money at a prestigious school to be living their lives the way they were. But I did enjoy the book and would read another by Jenny Hollander. Thanks to NetGalley for the digital ARC.

Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead is Charlie’s story - what happened to her one night at graduate school when she witnessed a horrific bloodbath.

Now it’s years later. Charlie seemingly has moved on with her life. However, she is haunted by the events in her past, and this is forced to the surface when another survivor decides to make a film about the “true” events of that fateful night. Charlie thinks she may have been more than a bystander, but she can’t remember. However, she is determined not to let her classmate and this film ruin the successful life she has built for herself. Yet she still has this lingering question….almost everybody from that night is dead - how did Charlie manage to survive?

Thrilling, fast paced, and full of interesting characters, Everyone Who Can Forgive Me is Dead is perfect for mystery and thriller readers. Like Charlie, the reader doesn’t know exactly what happened that night, but we feel for Charlie who senses the rug is about to be yanked out from under her successful life, so to speak. Each turn, we learn more about what Charlie remembers and what actually happened that night, and also have more questions.

Everyone Who Can Forgive Me is Dead will grab you from the beginning and keep you reading until the whirlwind conclusion! Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, Minotaur Books, and Jenny Hollander for the advance copy. I can’t wait to see what Hollander’s next thriller will be!

Nine years ago Charlie witnessed a horrific event known as "Scarlet Christmas"that left three people dead. Charlie is an unreliable narrator who tries to piece together the memories of the tragic event while working on reinventing her life. When one of her former classmates plans to make a film based on the real events, it threatens to unravel everything Charlie has worked hard to build. Charlie fears that she was involved in the killings and pushes herself to try to remember the details of the event.

I always love a story with an unreliable narrator. I do wish that the event was discussed in more detail at some point and there were a couple plot holes left. The ending wasn't as riveting as I was hoping for. Still as strong debut and I will look for more in the future by this author.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books for a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to St Martins Press and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

I will happily leave a review for this when the racist remarks by one of their employees is addressed. I want to support the author, but also want to know they don’t support this behavior.

This was a great psychological thriller! I loved the storyline of this book. I appreciated the dual timeline and how it was incorporated through therapy sessions. This book immediately had me intrigued and I couldn’t wait to read more. This was a great, suspenseful debut novel that I recommend picking up when it comes out in February.

Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead by Jenny Hollander grabbed me with the title and wouldn't let go. This book is one of the best ones I've read this year and I highly recommend it.
Hollander has penned and intense, emotional, non-stop tale that sweeps the reader away and doesn't let up. The main character Charlie Colbert is relatable in her pain and efforts to survive the repercussions of the most horrible day of her life, and as her memories of that day force their way to the surface, one cannot help but feel sympathy for her and hope that things finally turn around. The flashbacks to her memories build an artful aura of suspense the keeps you reading to the very last page.
While things come to a head because of a movie being made of the "Scarlet Christmas' events that sent Charlie into a tailspin of lost memories and guilt, I can only think that I would watch a movie made of this book!
I am so pleased to have received an ARC of #EveryoneWhoCanForgiveMeIsDead from #NetGalley.

An absolute banger of a title like this leads one to expect that same energy in the prose and I gotta say...we didn't quite get there. There was so much that I found really interesting about this, and it's for sure very readable, but the trouble is it's all good materials on a weak foundation.

Like not to sound like a blasé millennial with a true crime-soaked cerebral cortex, but I just don't think a crime with three murders on one night that all have a reasonable explanation would have everyone swept up like this. Making a movie about it? Sure, I guess, but like a Hulu deep cut for the nerds, not the enormous deal that's shown here. Paparazzi showing up to pester the survivors years later as much as they do here? Girl, no. Like who do we think is buying these photos? This would be 4th page news at best in a newspaper, there is no thriving market for this stuff in the gossip rags.

There were some interesting twists, and it was never boring, but this all rested on the believability of things that ultimately just did not feel realistic enough to prop up what was there.

My thanks to St. Martins Press and NetGalley for the ARC.

Charlie doesn’t remember all of what happened during the Scarlet Christmas, in fact, there’s a black hole where her memories are and she’s actively avoided prodding them and/or having anything to do with what happened the night she was left covered in her friends blood. She’s built a solid life for herself, she’s engaged, she has a career, she’s put the past behind her. However, with a movie coming out focusing on the events of that night, Charlie increasingly begins to unravel feeling that her carefully constructed world is under attack because Charlie has a secret—she lied to the police that night and now, more than ever, she needs to remember what happened.

Everyone Who Can Forgive Me is Dead feels like sitting in the passenger seat with someone navigating through unprocessed trauma. It has incredible mental health rep, and the further I got into it the more disjointed it became because Charlie is an unreliable narrator. The more the stress on her builds to remember, the more things snap and happen quickly in spurts. From the present to the past, bouncing between the two until they collide for an ending I did not expect.

I loved Everyone Who Can Forgive Me is Dead! I stayed up late to finish it because I couldn’t guess the plot twists and every time I thought I knew something it would come undone. A gripping and heartbreaking read that was difficult at times, but nonetheless—excellent. I thank Minotaur and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read early.

I loved this thriller so much! The suspense got me good and dealing with the dramatic moments had me nervous. I like how smoothly it flowed