Holly Jackson is one of my thriller auto-buy authors because I simply love her adrenaline-rush writing style. I was so excited to read her adult debut early, and it did not disappoint! Not Quite Dead Yet is an anxious, page-turning read as our protagonist, Jet, spends the last week of her life uncovering her murderer.

This book had a huge cast of characters, which played into the whodunnit aspect but also was a bit overwhelming at times. I also guessed the final twist at the end, but truly had a fun time along the way and couldn’t put it down!

I’m excited to see if HoJay continues in the adult realm and what she does next! Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine for the arc!

So heartbreakingly amazing! I loved the protagonist and I almost got too attached. I already recommended this book to my bookclub and my instagram (bookstagram) followers. Thank you so much for this ARC!

This is a classic Holly Jackson book. And by that I mean it is a fantastic thriller/mystery like only she can write.
I didn’t know it was her first adult novel, I just saw the author and requested an ARC immediately, and I don’t think I would have noticed if it wasn’t pointed out to me. If you liked her ya novels you will for sure love this one, it is in the exact same vein.
The characters are unforgettable, and I guess they feel a little more mature than Jackson’s previous protagonists, but that’s to be expected since they are in their late 20s. I’m starting to resonate a lot more with themes like death and loss of a loved one so every time the book reminded me what the ending we were walking towards was I kept shedding a few tears.
This was the first thriller I can recall that I didn’t clock the killer almost immediately, so congrats to the author for that, it made the experience a lot better.
We follow Jet after she is attacked one night and what seemed like a very long life turns into just a few days. She is dead set on using those days to figure out who might want to see her dead, and while doing that she discovers a few secrets about people close to her.
Not Quite Dead Yet is a great thriller, you will not be able to stop reading(I got through it in one day, and it was a work day so that’s impressive for me), with characters that jump off the page and an ending that you will not forget.

This was such an interesting take on the mystery genre and I really enjoyed it. Holly Jackson is an amazing mystery writer and this story only cements that statement. Would highly recommend if you enjoy mysteries that have interesting twists and turns.

A big thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. I love everything Holly Jackson writes and will read it no matter what. This story intrigued me right from the beginning and had me hooked after the first chapter. I had narrowed it down to three people at about 50% and was pretty confident who it was at about 85% and was right!

I loved reading this story and seeing it all unfold. Did not expect the way it played out at the end, and it was definitely insane. I would definitely recommend this thriller if you’re looking for a fast paced murder mystery.

My heart is shattered! I’m crying my eyes out! 😭💔
I knew it wasn’t wise to get attached to a protagonist with a literal ticking time bomb in her head—but I couldn’t help it! I got so deeply attached to Jet… and sweet, loyal Billy! How could I not?! This is, without a doubt, one of the smartest and most emotionally devastating concepts Holly Black has ever crafted. “Not Quite Dead Yet” is a thriller that hurts—and I mean that in the best way possible.

The final chapters completely wrecked me. I won’t spoil anything, but let’s just say my tears were flowing harder than during that soul-crushing Joel Miller episode of The Last of Us. Honestly, I need hugs, a Disney movie marathon, a strong drink, and about three pounds of chocolate to recover. 😭🍫🎥 Holly Black, what have you done to me?!

The premise alone is pure brilliance: Jet Mason is attacked—brutally—and miraculously survives three head blows, suffering a subdural hematoma and cardiac arrest. But her fractured skull has a grim expiration date: in just seven days, a bone fragment will rupture an artery in her brain. That gives her one terrifying, pressure-cooker week to solve her own attempted murder. The suspense! The stakes! The EMOTION!

Jet returns to her wealthy, dysfunctional family in Woodstock, Vermont—a family that, quite frankly, does not deserve her. Everyone’s caught up in their own drama while she’s walking around with a death sentence. Even the cops seem more interested in easy answers than actual justice. And because the Masons run a powerful construction empire that’s bulldozed lives for profit, Jet’s attack might be tied to one of the many enemies her family’s made.

Let’s talk about these unforgettable characters:

💔 Jet – 27, brilliant, sarcastic, a little messy, and completely relatable. A law school grad who gave up everything to come home and live in the shadow of her perfect, deceased sister. She’s been trying so hard to prove she’s not useless… and now all she wants is to uncover the truth before she runs out of time. Even as her body fails her—headaches, memory issues, cognitive fatigue—she never stops fighting. She’s fierce, crude (when necessary), and absolutely unforgettable.

🎸 Billy – Her estranged childhood friend turned roommate (after she flees her family home). He’s the one who found her after the attack, called 911, and now he’s her rock. A kind, selfless musician with a soft spot for Jet—he’s the only one who really sees her. And I just want to wrap them both in bubble wrap forever. Protect Billy at all costs!

👔 Luke – Jet’s older brother, corporate shark, all ambition and secrecy. Could he be hiding something darker?

😇 Sophie – Luke’s wife and Jet’s former best friend. Suspiciously angelic. Possibly sinister. Definitely shady.

👩‍👧 Elaine – Jet’s hypercritical mother. Emotionally cold. So much tension. Meanwhile, Jet’s father fades into the background, suffering from kidney disease—the same condition that may be contributing to Jet’s fatal prognosis.

💔 JJ – Jet’s ex who proposed, got rejected, and then vanished after the attack. Guilty conscience, or something worse?

Some of the action scenes push the boundaries of realism—yes, a cardiac-arrested, brain-trauma survivor solving her own attempted murder in a week is a stretch—but I didn’t care. I stopped questioning it and fully surrendered to the ride. The plot is twisty, sharp, and so well-executed that I was hooked from page one.

I adored the emotional family dynamics, the slow-burn tenderness between Jet and Billy, and the themes of mortality, regret, and resilience. The ending? Heartbreaking but inevitable. I didn’t want to let Jet go.

⭐ 4.5 stars rounded up to 5 because Jet Mason deserves to live forever in my heart.
📢 This is the kind of book that makes you want to scream about it from rooftops.

THANK YOU to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine – Bantam for the digital ARC of one of the most anticipated thrillers of the year in exchange for my honest thoughts. I’ll be thinking about this one for a long time. 🖤

I snagged this book because it really sounded interesting and boy was it fantastic! Your main character is Jet, a girl just waiting for her life to start, always putting everything off, thinking she has all the time in the world. Until on Halloween evening, she is horribly attacked. When she wakes up in the hospital, it’s to bad news. The doctor believes that she will die within a week. So this is the story of Jet, deciding to finish something by solving her own murder. This book has all the twists and turns, all the emotion and suspense you could want. I loved it! I definitely recommend it. I want to thank Net Galley and Random House Publishing for providing the advanced reader copy for me to read and leave a honest review.

I'm gonna need 3 business days to recover from this because WHAT. WAS. THAT? I am officially ruined beyond repair. There is no coming back from this.

"𝑰'𝒎 𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒃𝒆𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒊𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒇𝒂𝒍𝒍."
"𝑰'𝒍𝒍 𝒄𝒓𝒖𝒔𝒉 𝒚𝒐𝒖."
"𝑰'𝒍𝒍 𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒄𝒉 𝒚𝒐𝒖."

(She actually meant it guys😭😭😭)

All of Holly Jackson's books have had open endings but believe me when I say this one is the MOST BRUTAL one of them all. Never in my 18 years of life have I sobbed over a literal THRILLER this way. The ending was simply unacceptable, even though you see it coming. It broke me, crushed me, ripped me into a million pieces and idk if I will ever be okay again. I am literally rethinking all my life choices and priorities rn.

You will need tissues. A lot of them. Especially towards the end. This is basically all that I'm gonna say because I desperately do need to yap but I also don't wanna spoil it for others. I'm picky with 5 stars and this is literally only the second ARC I've given a 5 star to, from so many of the other ARCs I've received so I think I've made my point.

Three and a half stars. Holly Jackson's foray into Adult fiction is a fresh take on the Mystery genre. Solving your own murder on a truncated timeline with a brain aneurysm just waiting to burst? My god. Add deadly family secrets; the only person you can trust is your childhood best friend, and you have a wild plot. This book is a thrill ride that will leave the reader breathless until the end.
That said, I would have rated this a bit higher, but I found Jet, the main character, unlikable. I had great hopes for a truly redemptive character arc, and it comes close, but just not quite. Had she been a bit ...more, the ending and the pages that follow would have destroyed me as a reader. As it was, it was just a sad ending to a sad life.
I would recommend this title to readers of Jackson's earlier work, fans of Freida McFadden, and Colleen Hoover.
Thank you to Bantam and NetGalley for access to this ARC in return for my honest review.

I was excited to read this! Huge fan of Hollys! The character Jet is so sarcastic and funny. It was a weird concept but some how it worked!

Holly Jackson knows what she’s doing. She really truly does.

I'll confess to a little bit of a bias because I love her work so much, but this truly did not disappoint. I was invested from the jump, just from the plot alone, because solving your own murder? Cool as hell. It managed to exceed expectations.

Holly just knows how to unravel a mystery, it boggles my mind every time. She knows how to take all these pieces and connect them and make things click in a way that destroys me. And speaking of being destroyed - oh man. I tried to brace myself for anything to happen and I still wasn't prepared. I'm still in a daze about it.

Jet was such a delightful narrator, I'd for anything she asked me to. The family dynamics at play in this book were delicious and fucked up, and the entire Jet and Billy story was just so beautiful and bittersweet, and the development with both of them individually - yeah. Five stars.

Fast paced and twisty and emotional. Holly Jackson doesn't miss.

HOLLY ARE YOU KIDDING ME??

Phew, okay.

I might be a little biased because Holly is my favorite and is always an automatic five stars for me. Her stories are always so twisty and fun and devastating. I swear bestie likes to make me cry in every single book, which unforgivable!!

Jet. My funny little Jet. She only has a week to solve her own murder and she's not going to die without getting her answers - no matter what it takes. I LOVED Jet. She made her way to my number two spot in fmc created by Holly. She's funny, sarcastic and maybe a little mean.

It was a fast paced (holly's stories always are!) thriller that kept me turning page after page, needing to know the ending. But above all else, it was character driven story about fighting for your life and realizing the small things DO matter.

Honestly, I don't even know what else to say. It was perfect.

Thank you to Holly, the publisher and to netgalley for the arc!

In a packed genre, the premise of Not Quite Dead Yet really stands out. The tight timeline and the unusual mystery are such a great combination. Plus, I love Holly Jackson's previous books, so I was extra excited to read this one.

I can't put my finger on exactly why, but I had trouble getting into the story. I think it was a mixture of how the characters were introduced, their chemistry, and the way the dialogue was written. Whatever the reason, I kept having to reread sentences and paragraphs over and over.

I'm bummed this book wasn't for me, but I'm confident it's just that — not for me, particularly. I'm sure other readers will continue to love it, and I'll be watching for Jackson's next book.

I devoured Not Quite Dead Yet in one sitting! From the very first chapter, I was hooked—and that feeling never let up. Holly Jackson has this incredible way of making every page feel urgent, and this book was no exception. I immediately connected with the main character and found myself second-guessing everything and everyone right alongside her. The stakes felt high, the pacing was lightning-fast, and just when I thought I had something figured out, the story would flip on me—in the best possible way, of course!

What impressed me most was how tightly everything was plotted. Every clue, every interaction, felt intentional. And somehow, even amid all the twists and suspense, there was still room for emotional depth and moments that made me pause.

This book gave me exactly what I want in a thriller: a smart, gutsy main character, a plot that kept me guessing, and an ending that felt both satisfying and earned. If you're looking for a thriller that will keep you on your toes, this one absolutely delivers. Thank you, NetGalley!

That was the most heartbreaking ending to a Holly Jackson book yet. I really didn’t think it could get any worse but somehow it did. Jet was such a funny main character. Her attitude made me love her so much. And Billy was just the sweetest sidekick to her give-no-shits personality. The mystery was SO well thought out, as they tend to be in Jackson’s books. She had me guessing until the very last page and then I was sobbing. I think I was crying for about the last 50 pages of this book to be completely honest. I think this is my new favorite of hers.

Well, this definitely broke my heart a little bit. So many lies and misunderstandings that all added up to a life lost way too soon. The story of Jet and Billy working together to solve her murder was fun, but as they uncovered more and more secrets that people had hidden over the months and years, it just made me really sad that these two innocent characters were going to pay for the sins of those around them.

I thought this was a nice change after Jackson's last book as Rachel Price got to be a bit too long in places.

Thank you Random House Publishing Group, Ballantine, for providing the copy of Not Quite Dead Yet by Holly Jackson. This was a slow starter and I didn’t get engaged for a long time. The characters didn’t really grab me or make me care about them, even Jet, who was supposed to be the main character. She was supposed to be 27 but came off as much younger so I couldn’t help but think this would have been better as a young or new adult book. Well except for the over usage of the “F” word. Eventually the story started to get exciting and interesting. I ended up loving this book, I just wish the beginning hadn’t been so slow. 4 stars

3.75 ✨ this book was such a fresh twist on the classic murder mystery genre. I can’t lie, I was hooked from the first page and read it in one sitting because I wanted to know how it ended.

However there were a bit of misses for me with this one. I thought that the ending was a bit unfulfilling and left me with some unanswered questions. If you love a twist of ambiguity with your stories, then this could have been your cup of tea but I was not a fan. Also I felt like legit every character was unlikable and it gave me the ick.

Also side note, these didn’t read that different from her other work despite the marketing as her “dip into the adult genre”. It felt like YA with a bit more swears (which I wasn’t mad at as I love her other stuff but I felt like it’s worth noting)

----My ARC copy of the book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair, unbiased review.----

Currently bawling my eyes out 😀👍🏼 what the heck!! This was so so good! Holly Jackson just writes these amazing stories with these in depth characters and great twists.
The way I connected to these characters in just one book?! I was crying so many times throughout this and the ending? The dynamic between the characters was so good as well. I loved the fmc Jet so much! Her humor and the way she handled her situation was so funny and heartbreaking at the same time! I did guess a few twists but that didn’t stop me from enjoying this story at all!
If you‘re looking for a fast paced mystery that will get to your heart please pick this up!
The BIGGEST thanks to netgalley and the publisher for this arc!!! Im so incredibly grateful

One of my favorite things about Holly Jackson's books is that she not only has the ability to throw in jaw dropping plot twists, but she also pulls you into the story with the way she writes her characters. This book was no different. I loved Jet from the first page, her attitude throughout the whole book made me giggle but I also fully admired her and the growth she made throughout the story. And I loved her and Billy's dynamic so much, dare I say they're one of my fav HJ couples... The setting of this book, Vermont in the late fall, was perfect and captured the eerie, twisty vibes of the plot. All the little twists leading up to the big one also really pulled me in. At no point in the story did I know what was going to happen and it had me on the edge of my seat. I've never read any book like this and I had such a fun time reading it. Holly Jackson will never disappoint.