4.5****
What a journey this book took me on! For a mystery/suspense, the character development was incredible. I was so invested in everyone and everything, I never saw the twists coming. This is the first novel I have ever read by Marshall Karp and I am excited to read others.
Thank you to Blackstone Publishing and NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

In a Nutshell: An interesting and twisty domestic suspense about a woman on a mission before her time runs out. Marketed as a thriller, but not a thriller for the most way. I did enjoy the regular twists and surprises, but hated the deliberate misleading. I would still recommended this, but not as a must-read. Be ready to suspend disbelief. This is an outlier review.

Plot Preview:
Forty-three-year-old Maggie Dunn has it all: a handsome husband who loves her and is also a successful surgeon, twin teens who have a great rapport with each other and their parents, loving extended family (father, grandfather, and younger sister Libby), and a high-profile job as the mayor of their town. Now, something she has dreaded since the last twenty-five years has finally been confirmed: Maggie is going to die soon. And of the same illness that killed her mother at the same age.
Cut to twenty-five years ago, when Maggie, just a high schooler, loses her mother to a rare disease. Before dying, her mother warns her that single women will swarm to their father and that Maggie and Libby should make sure that no one misuses him. Now, all these years later, Maggie feels like she too should ensure that she finds a suitable replacement for herself to take over after her death.
The story comes to us *mostly* in Maggie’s first-person perspective.

I don’t know what I expected from this book. I just jumped onto the hype-wagon, even though I am not a huge thriller fan, because almost all my friends gave this novel top stars. This story is not typical, I give you that. It offers a fairly enjoyable journey, but only if you don’t think too much about the deeper nuances. If you can leave your analytical caps aside, this can be a twisty entertainer. I find it to tough to part with my thinking cap, so...

Bookish Yays:
🔪 An excellent prologue with great promise.
🔪 The storyline of Maggie’s parents from a quarter century before – sweet. Not what I expected in a “thriller”, but it was a nice arc.
🔪 Many strong secondary characters. Lizzie is wonderful, and her bond with Maggie comes out strongly. I also liked Johnny Rollo’s character – probably among the few times I would count a shady druggie among my favourite characters of a book. Maggie’s twins, though in a relatively limited role, are impressive. I love how they actually act their age. Probably the only characters in the book to do so, other than Maggie’s dad and granddad, who are also amazing in their tertiary roles.
🔪 The timeline, with all events coming from time markers stating a period before/after "the funeral." Might be complicated to follow for those who don’t enjoy jumpy timelines, but I mostly enjoyed keeping up with the plot from across different timepoints.

Bookish Mixed Bags:
☠️ Is this really a thriller? The prologue shows signs of a mystery, but after that till about the final quarter, the book reads more like a normal domestic drama. (Not a thriller kind of domestic drama but the women's fiction kind.) Only the last section feels like a thriller. The cover and title seem to promise a much darker story.
☠️ Maggie is a man’s dream-come-true character in many ways, hence absolutely not convincing to me as a woman. Though I found some of her traits admirable, I don’t relate to women like her. So I couldn’t really root for her and found her behaviour unrealistic.
☠️ I thought this line from the blurb was exaggerated: “I have three months, and I plan to spend every waking minute searching for the perfect woman to take my place as Alex’s wife, and mother to Kevin and Katie.” It was not. While the plot handles this decently, it is still odd to read about a woman who wants to spend her final days searching for her substitute for her husband.
☠️ The story takes a long while to get going. It feels a bit episodic at times, with a distinct subplot tackled one at a time in sequence. Many times, I wondered where the heck the book was going. The subplots were mostly interesting, but too disconnected to feel like part of the same story.
☠️ There are quite a few twists and turns: some guessable, some unexpected, some good, some downright idiotic. All the twisty content is restricted to the second half, which further enhances the dramatic feels of the first half.
☠️ The ending, keeping aside shady morals and logical flaws, works excellently for the story. So the key question is: can you ignore shady morals and logical flaws? I can ignore the former but not the latter.

Bookish Nays:
💣 My BIGGEST issue with the book: The unreliable narrator trope of the annoying kind, where the narrator doesn’t tell you stuff until they decide to tell you stuff. Imagine a character narrating an incident, and many chapters later, taking you back to that very incident and giving you the complete picture of what happened. Never a fan of such deliberate misleading and needless secret-keeping! All the more irritating as the story is written in first person so we should have received all the deets on time.
💣 Sorry for this misandrist feedback, but there are many examples of “man-writing-woman.” This isn't an umbrella statement, and there are a couple of good women characters in the book. (Mainly Kate, Lizzie and Beth who have their share of positives though they are not perfect.) But the others – yikes! Many scenes reek of generalised misogyny. And I don’t know about other readers, but I found the man-writing-teen-girl content very awkward to read. It was more like wishful thinking than reality.
💣 Speaking of Beth, where is she afterwards? Why do we get to hear only about Maggie’s dad and granddad?
💣 Thanks to the episodic structure, the pacing feels very dragged. This might especially bother those who expect a pacey thriller from a book with such a title and cover.
💣 Too much casual drug usage for my liking.
💣 Vague spoiler: Wouldn't an experienced con artist change their name for each new con, especially if they've already been to prison for a similar crime earlier?


All in all, the book did have some positives, but
a. it is not at all a thriller as promised;
b. it is too slow and episodic to be gripping; and
c. the man-writing-woman content is quite offensive.
The first half was still quite strong for me, perhaps around 3.75 stars if I rated it for its storytelling than for its merits as a thriller. But the second half, which had more of the promised twisty thriller, let me down with the deliberately deceptive revelations by Maggie.
Recommended to those who read thrillers without overthinking and without asking hows or whys. Oh, and better if you expect a suspense-drama rather than a thriller.

2.6 stars. (3.75 stars for the first half. 1.5 stars for the second half. Averaged.)

My thanks to Blackstone Publishing for providing the DRC of “Don't Tell Me How To Die” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

I didn’t like this book at all! I went into thinking it would be a heart pounding thriller but it was not. There was a twist at the end but I’m not going to read a book that I don’t enjoy just to get to a good ending. It felt more like a family drama to me mixed with YA, and a lot of grief. I don’t understand why this has so many good ratings.

Stop your scrolling and take some notes, people!! This book will be one of your favorite thrillers of the year! I am so thankful to my friend Marisha for putting this one on my radar and I am now a proud card-carrying member of the Marshall Karp fan club.

My short synopsis:
Maggie finds out she has the same deadly blood disease that killed her mother. She and her sister had to deal with the “casserole ladies” trying to win over her grieving (and newly single) father and she’s determined to keep that from happening to her own children. Yep, she’s going to find her replacement before she dies. And that’s when the twists start twisting. What ends up happening will have you screaming from the rooftop, telling all who will listen to READ THIS BOOK.

This was a fun listen/read, thank you! New to this author but will check out more in the future. The story was engaging and overall enjoyed it!

Title: Don't Tell Me How To Die
Author: Marshall Karp
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Release Date: March 4th 2025
Rating: 4 stars
This book definitely kept me intrigued! I managed to finish in one sitting. I loved the back and forth throughout the story. Thinking you're getting the full story, but then a chapter or two later new information comes to light that changes or alters your perceptions and theories. Such a great read. Definitely recommend!

The cover and premise of this book grabbed my attention, but I didn’t fully know what I was getting myself into. I suppose I was expecting some rom-com with some dark humor and maybe some sad moments.

Wow, was I wrong. This books was non-stop twists and turns from beginning to end. The short chapters had me constantly telling myself “I’ll just read one more”. Every time I picked the book up, it was difficult to put it back down.

I don’t want to give too much of the plot away, but this book has a little bit of everything. Tear jerking moments, dark humor, thrills, mystery. Regardless of what you typically read, I think this one is worth checking out.

The first half didn’t quite feel like a thriller, but once it took off—wow, did it take off! I love stories with unexpected turns, and this one delivered. The tension builds slowly before flipping the script, and the ending wrapped up perfectly.

This book lives up to the Bookstagram hype! The characters are complex, the emotions raw, and the stakes high. It kept me thinking long after the final page.

Thank you, NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing, for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest review. If you love thrillers that sneak up on you, don’t miss this one!

Don’t Tell Me How To Die is a super-twisty family drama by an author who is new to me. I requested an ARC of this because of the intriguing title, unusual premise and plethora of 5-star reviews. While I agree with others that it was slow to get going, and the main character is not exactly a wonderful role model, I enjoyed the unpredictability of the plot and the way it morphs into a thriller in the second half.

Maggie is the mayor of her small New York State town, happily married to a gorgeous surgeon, with two great kids, but her world is shattered when she is diagnosed with the same incurable blood disease that killed her mother when she was 17. Having witnessed her father become a magnet for gold-diggers, Maggie is determined to pick a suitable new wife for her own husband to help raise her twins. As she looks back on a life that very nearly went off the rails completely, Maggie reveals just how far she was and still is willing to go for her family.

This was a fun ride and I liked the way our scheming anti-heroine protagonist tells her story. Yes it’s completely implausible, but so are most domestic suspense novels and the payoff is worth the suspension of disbelief. I liked the cast of support characters and the witty dialogue especially between Maggie and her loyal sister Lizzie.

Thanks to Blackstone publishing for the ARC. Don’t Tell Me How To Die is available now.

This was a decent thriller! I went through all of the emotions reading this. It was an emotional rollercoaster with loss but then there was also humor. There was love and also family drama. There's murder, secrets, and twists. I wouldn't say this was fast paced, but the pace was pretty consistent. I was intrigued with the plot. A young mother of 2 children finds out she has a fatal blood disease, the same one that killed her mother. In hopes of leaving her family with a good after she's gone, she goes in search of finding the perfect woman for her husband and replacement mother to her children. The story line is very unique and I think that's what kept me captivated the most. I loved Maggie's character in the beginning but I feel like by the end, she was a completely different person. The dialogue didn't flow that well to me also. Some things just seemed, off... but overall it was still an enjoyable story.

Read Completed 2/15/25 | 4.25 stars | Book #16 of 2025

This was a really fun read! Truthfully, I actually did not think I would like it, and in another state of mind, I would have DNFed it for not getting to the "thriller part" sooner, but I was in the proper mood to enjoy the characters as the book was unfolding and wait for the payoff. I only picked this up because of some glowing BookTok reviews, and it's always so hit-or-miss. I'm really happy that I enjoyed this one, and the audiobook narration by January LaVoy also helped for sure.

While it ends like a thriller, I'd struggle to recommend it as such on a broad scale. That would probably be the best place to put it, but all of the twists, reveals, and thrilling moments are all at the end. The story is one long tale to the unraveled, but you have to want it to get it. It's also a very, very character-driven thriller which requires you to be heavily invested in these characters because the plot is much slower, working up to a deliberate and shocking reveal. It's hard when I see people hype it up to be absolutely nuts because then I have *expectations* of it being the best and usually I'm let down, so while this still wasn't a 5 star book for me, I absolutely enjoyed the whole ride! There were also parts in the end that really required me to suspend a little disbelief that I couldn't quite let go of. There was one big jump that I just didn't *quite* accept. If I did, it maybe would have been 4.5 stars, but I just didn't quite accept the BIG twist of it all.

I really appreciate the author's ability to write interesting characters. If I hadn't liked them, I would have easily been bored and anxious waiting for "things to get good", but I actually wanted to know what happened to them, and there were very small bits woven in plot-wise to keep my attention. I really liked the relationships here, especially seeing relationships change, evolve, and grow over time as the characters grow. I thought it was an excellent insight to show how some relationships change and grow, and some just always stay the same no matter how old you get or how much you change. Truly, without me having a personal investment in the characters, this would have been a boring book, by my usual preferences, so that made a big difference for me!

When everything finally started to come out in the end, there were punches left and right that I just didn't see coming. I kept wondering what exactly would be the surprise because I just couldn't figure it out. I really appreciated how everything happened in the end! This will definitely be a book that sticks with me. I can't say it'll be a favorite -- and maybe it will as time passes and I keep thinking about it -- but I'm definitely glad I read it. It was a nice change of pace from some of the popcorn thrillers (which I have zero issues with. Those are fun and twisty in their own ways!) and I'm having fun this year reading things that are just a little bit different.

I like bed this book. I feel like I have whiplash with all of the twist and turns. I loved the characters. The ending was such a surprise that I didn’t see coming.

Thank you to Netgalley and Blackstone Publishing for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest opinion. I loved this books so much. I did read it in one day. I loved the storyline and all the characters. I could not put this book down. I would definitely recommend this book.

What happens if a mother in her forties has a prognosis of an imminent death within months, and doesn’t want her children and husband subject to the vulturous aspirations of women who will flock to become the next wife? Marshall Karp addresses this in his new thriller which explores terminal illness, bereaved family and the devastating effect of the emergence of the wrong potential-step parent. Forty-something Margie Dunn lost her mother when she and her sister were in their teens. This left their grieving father open to unscrupulous gold diggers. When Margie is told she has the same fatal blood disease as her mother and will be dead in a few months, she vows to find her twins a new mother in advance of her own imminent death.
This novel certainly took me on some circuitous routes and twisty, tangly plot trails that I didn’t expect. And it didn’t play out in the way I expected from the publisher blurb. The result was actually better than expected. Recommended to readers fond of suspenseful winding family tales.

I can't say enough good things about Marshall Karp’s Don’t Tell Me How to Die. From start to finish, this book had me hooked, and the high praise it’s received is absolutely deserved.

The story follows Maggie, the mayor of Heartstone, a wife, and a mom of two. She’s recently learned that she’s dying from a rare blood disease—just like her mother did before her. After years of check-ups, Maggie is now facing the harsh reality that her time is running out. Before her mother passed, she warned Maggie and her sister to take care of their dad, especially since all the women in town would be out to swoop in on the grieving widower. And sure enough, that’s exactly what happens. With time running out, Maggie’s mission becomes clear: she has to find a new wife for her husband before she dies.

This book made me laugh, cry, and gasp out loud. The twists were so well done, and I was so wrapped up in the story that I almost forgot the surprises that were coming. Then BAM! Another twist hit me right when I least expected it. Marshall Karp’s writing keeps you on the edge of your seat, pulling you in emotionally while keeping you hooked with the unexpected.

I can’t recommend this book enough—it’s emotional, funny, and absolutely thrilling. If you’re looking for a book that will take you on a rollercoaster of emotions, Don’t Tell Me How to Die is the one!

Thank you to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for my ARC copy in exchange for my honest review!

I picked this book up on a whim and I am so glad I did. I appreciated the strong character development and realistic growth over the course of the story. This real life aspect roped me in and had me believing so deeply that I got whiplash in the best way as truths were revealed.

A fresh take on the thriller genre. This story is addictive and enthralling and the characters are perfectly flawed. This book is surprisingly emotional and well worth reading!

If anything I was hesitant to read Don’t Tell Me How to Die as I usually stay away from books about death where possible. Murders are acceptable. People dying of illnesses not so much. So when the book description starts with “I have one thing to do before I die. And time is running out” and goes on “my mother also died at forty three” I wasn’t sure this was the read for me. But this is not a sad book about death and in fact is so twisty and turny you don’t have a second to feel sad.
I at no point guessed any of the twists and at one point interrupted everyone on my bus by loudly exclaiming “WHAT!!!!!” when one of the twists was revealed!
Add to your TBR immediately.

This opening sets an intriguing and emotionally charged premise that immediately captures the reader's attention. The narrator's determination to secure a future for her family, even after facing such a devastating diagnosis, is both admirable and unsettling. The reference to her high school reputation adds a layer of dark humor and complexity to her character, suggesting that she is willing to go to extreme lengths to achieve her goals.

The stakes are compelling—finding a replacement for herself in such a short time frame—and the backstory involving her mother's death and the impact of a destructive woman in her father's life adds depth to her motivations. This creates an engaging conflict, as readers are left wondering how far she’s willing to go and what choices she will make.

However, while the setup is strong, the narrative could benefit from a little more nuance. The character's drive is fascinating, but it might be interesting to explore her fears and vulnerabilities as well. The emotional weight of her impending death coupled with the pressure to fill her role can lead to rich character development.

Overall, it’s a gripping start that promises tension, humor, and moral ambiguity, suggesting a potentially thrilling journey.

5/5 rating upgraded after completing the audio

Karp nailed it with this one! Great character development, great storytelling. Chapters were the right length and I was left wondering how it was going to end so I kept turning the pages! Loved it!