I wanted to read this book as soon as I read the title, it is such an intriguing one. I was really engrossed in the early part of this book and thought it was going to be one I enjoyed. Unfortunately as the reveals start to come it all got a bit muddled for me. It didn't make sense to me why Charlie waited so long to try and recover her memories of that night, or why Steph behaved the way she did in the present day. I didn't understand why main characters from the early part of the book were non-existent throughout the middle. I also struggled to work out what happened during scarlet Christmas, I had to re-read sections to make sense of it. I would try another book by this author as I did love the premise of this but sadly I just didn't enjoy this particular novel.

This book will appeal to fans of books like The IT Girl, In My Dreams I Hold A Knife, and The Girls Are All So Nice Here. It is 10 years since Charlie survived a deadly attack at her university and now the sister of one of those involved is working to have a movie made of the events of that night. Charlie really doesn't want the movie to be made because the truth is that she lied about witnessing what happened that night when her mind has created a black hole that she worries means her role may have been more than an innocent bystander.

As far as books in this genre go, I think that this book did a fairly reasonable job. I don't think this is a particularly memorable story or what that I haven't done several times before. I did feel as though it leaned a little too heavily upon the angle it was trying to take around what Charlie believed happened but it was enjoyable to see her come completely unhinged in her desperation for the movie to not be made.

From a writing perspective, beyond my issues with Charlie's unreliable memories plot, I think it was fairly well-executed as the twists and turns weren't predictable but we also weren't getting whiplash. I generally found this book an enjoyable time and think it was just a fun, low-energy read.

Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead is the first novel by British editor and author, Jenny Hollander. Thirty-two-year-old London -born Charlotte Colbert loves living in New York City, loves her job as editor-in-chief of the Chronicle’s Sunday supplement, C, and is engaged, soon-to-be-married, to publishing heir, William Goodman West III, aka Tripp. She has good staff, and regular contact with her family and her best friend in England.

She also has regular sessions with her therapist, Dr Noor Nazari because, nine years earlier, as a student at the feted School of Journalism at Carroll University, she survived what the media soon dubbed Scarlet Christmas. Three students died, others were injured, and Charlie has only an incomplete memory of what happened. And as long as certain triggering topics are avoided, Charlie stays on an even keel.

But then KBC anchor, Stephanie Anderson reveals plans to make a movie about the ordeal her twin sister Cate faced during Scarlet Christmas, and Charlie fears that the lies she told about what happened will be exposed. Maybe she needs to remember what really happened?

As the story progresses, it becomes apparent that Charlie isn’t the only one who lied, that she is an unreliable narrator, and that the author is withholding significant facts to keep the reader guessing. This does cause the story to drag a little as intrigue morphs into frustration. It is cleverly plotted, there are several twists, some more predictable than others and, for a journalism student/editor, the protagonist (or is it the author?) does have a disappointing deficit in the command of personal pronouns. Nonetheless, an impressive debut.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK.

I really really enjoyed all of the twist and turns in the book and defo kept me guessing. This has made me want to read more from this author

I hoped I would enjoy this book from the synopsis but unfortunately I found the execution boring and could not get on with the lead character,

The story is very interesting. The characters are well developed but are unlikeable.
The ending felt rushed and everything was tied up too neatly for me.

Everyone Who Can Forgive Me is Dead focuses on Charlie, successful editor-in-chief of a major magazine, and her attempts to deal with the shocking incident that happened in her last year of studies.
Charlie, along with several other students, was caught up in a shocking situation where several students died. At the time, Charlie was regarded as a bit-player in events, but with the ten year anniversary fast approaching and the expected release of a high-profile movie there’s a suggestion that she might know more than she told people.
Charlie is in therapy and much of the story focuses on her attempts to remember what happened. This part of the book took up a disproportionate amount of time and felt like it dragged. It’s evident there’s more to the story, but when we finally get to the truth it all felt rather as if someone had wrapped a gift up for us and handed it over without doing anything to warn us that it was coming. It all felt rather detached from Charlie’s story, and just a little too convenient.
Thanks to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this before publication.

Another solid debut!

Charlie Colbert has reinvented herself after living though the tragic events of nine years ago when three of her friends died in what was dubbed “Scarlett Christmas”. She has no recollection of what happened and through the help of her psychiatrist she tries to piece together what transpired. Even more now that there is a movie coming out about that fateful night … something Charlie is attempting to stop.

This started off really strong, I loved the unreliable narrator and the duel POV. While it fell a little flat at the 3/4 mark, Hollander came home strong with a fantastic ending. Like with most thrillers, there is a little suspension of belief required, but overall it’s a compelling, entertaining story. I can’t wait to see what this author brings out next.

Huge thanks to @littlebrown @macmillan.audio and @netgalley for both ALC and e-Arc 💌

A mesmerizing and suspenseful journey into the darkest corners of peoples secrets. This domestic thriller is sure to keep you up all night, not to be missed

I love the title of Everyone Who Can Forgive Me is Dead and the excellent pre publication reviews drew me to this debut thriller.
It’s tells the story of Charlie, whose graduate school was the site of an attack 9 years ago where some of her classmates died. There is still a huge public interest in what really happened that night and a film adaptation is planned. Charlie has reinvented herself, she is editor in chief of a magazine and engaged to a wealthy man. The novel moves well between past and present, it’s well plotted and a compelling read. For me it lacked originality, I felt that I had read too many novels like this recently. However if you enjoy this genre it’s an enjoyable and well paced thriller.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this digital ARC.

This was a really enjoyable twisty thriller where I knew something wasn't adding up but I really didn't see that ending coming!
The characters were vibrant and the storytelling was engaging, this was a very easy to read book and when I did have to put it down to do other things, I was wondering where this was all going!
The story is told in a then and now timeline where we see how Charlie's life has become and also work with her to fill in the blanks about what happened then. It was interesting seeing her make the discoveries especially those twisty ones that started coming as what really happened that night was finally revealed!

3.5 of 5 stars
https://lynns-books.com/2024/02/22/everyone-who-can-forgive-me-is-dead-by-jenny-hollander/
My Five Word TL:DR Review : Liked not Loved This One

To be fair to this book it is a good read, it captured my attention, the pacing was good and I enjoyed the writing. But, having just read another couple of dark academia style novels very recently I think my timing could have been better – which is absolutely on me of course, and, this story very much relies on a trope that I’ve become very tired of – memory loss.

Charlie Colbert has worked hard to achieve success. She is the editor-in-chief of a glossy magazine and is also engaged to the darling of the publishing world. On the face of it she leads an almost charmed life. Rich, powerful, beautiful. But Charlie has a bloody past. Nine years ago, whilst a student at an elite journalism school a brutal and shocking event that shook the country and became a media sensation took place. Scarlet Christmas, as it became known, captured the public’s attention, probably more so because the true facts remain hidden, even to this date. In fact, the only witness to that terrible event was Charlie but to this day she has not been able to relive the experience and is still in fact undertaking therapy to help her cope.

The story is told in dual timelines. We flip back and forth between the ‘then’ and ‘now’ and a picture gradually unfolds of friendship, excess, rivalry and obsession. That being said though, the author keeps a tight lid on events, she’s very careful in the way the story unfolds successfully keeping quite a few revelations firmly under wraps.

I thought the author did a very good job in ramping up the tension. She fashioned Charlie into this incredible success story but then slowly but surely started to dismantle the walls that she has put up. Unfortunately, the public’s desire to know more about Scarlet Christmas has never truly waned, the fires were stoked when a former pupil released a book about the killings and more fuel is being added to the fire when another former friend decides to adapt the film onto the big screen. Everything Charlie has worked for sits on the precipice of disaster.

Okay, to cut to the chase with this one, I enjoyed it. But, for me, the ending just didn’t make sense – I can’t really say too much because obviously I don’t want to give away spoilers but clearly the one thing that the author toys with a little (or a lot) is that you never know what happened that night – you don’t know because Charlie doesn’t know, but at the back of your mind is the seed of doubt ‘does Charlie know more than she’s saying and if she does – then why is she so afraid?’ Her mounting panic about the release of the film seems to point in the direction that she’s truly scared about what will eventually be revealed.

I will just hold up my hands and say that I’m a little bit tired of the ‘memory loss’ trope. There it is and there’s no denying it. However, I think the author did a very good job of maintaining tension and teasing you with little tidbits here and there. And, to be fair, I don’t think the whole memory loss was really a big issue for me as I was very intrigued regardless. I felt Charlie’s relationship was a little surplus to requirements. Like it was thrown in just to add to the fear factor – one more thing that she was going to lose. It didn’t come across as a real relationship at all to me, more like a distraction.

My main niggle was the ending. It’s actually a good ending in that the author comes up with twists, and even though we’re in Charlie’s head, and can feel her ever increasing stress, she doesn’t spoil the big reveal. And, the reveal, well I didn’t second guess it, which I applaud, but, on the back of that, it made me go back and question other events that had led up to this point. The animosity and secrecy of Charlie’s former friend who is now making the film and the reasons why she’s making it. This jarred for me.

All that being said, I did enjoy this one, my little niggles didn’t spoil that so much as just left me a little irritated. I just wanted to ask questions but the chance was lost and so I came away with certain things unanswered.

In spite of my little issues, I would recommend this. It’s an impressive debut and I will definitely look out for more by this author.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.

After surviving the night which left several students at her prestigious New York graduate school dead, Charlotte Colbert has spent the last nine years trying to outrun her past. Now the celebrated editor-in-chief of a glossy magazine and engaged to the heir to a publishing dynasty, she has everyone convinced that she has moved on, until one of her old classmates makes headlines with the announcement that she is planning to make a film about the so-called 'Scarlet Christmas'. With supressed memories of that night crashing back in, Charlotte will do whatever it takes to prevent the truth from being told.

First off, I must address the undeniable similarities the set up of this book shares with Jessica Knoll's Luckiest Girl Alive (2015). In both books, the protagonist has reinvented herself after a shocking event in her youth which she won't speak about. Both Knoll's Ani and Hollander's Charlotte have altered their appearance, adopted a more grown-up moniker, scored a glamorous job and a nice WASPy fiancé whom each fears wouldn't love her if he knew who she really was. The similarities were so consistent - down to the renewed interest in the key event in their past forcing their hand as a catalyst for the plot - that for the first third at least I felt I might as well have been reading the same book. As Charlotte begins to come to terms with the events leading up to that fateful night, the reader learns more about the specific setting of Carroll School of Journalism and Charlotte's classmates, and the plots diverge, but I was surprised that this hadn't been picked up, especially considering Knoll's novel was made into a film by Netflix.

This issue aside, Everyone Who Can Forgive Me is Dead is a pacy, engaging mystery with enough twists and red herrings to keep the reader on the hook. Although some of them feel very 'twist for the sake of a twist', or don't have as much of a pay-off as the reader might hope, as a first-time author, Hollander shows potential for tightening up the plot in her future work. Interspersed with excerpts from interviews, news reports and text exchanges, the narrative flows easily and it was a quick read for me. The therapy sessions which fill in the blanks from the earlier timeline are a useful plot device, and, while Charlotte is certainly an example of the unreliable narrator trope, it felt like the author had worked hard to make her unreliability seem plausible, which is not always the case.

The minor characters are fairly uninteresting - arguably they have to be in order for some of the book's misdirection to work - but Charlotte feels like a developed character with a thought out back story; I appreciated too the little hints the author drops to lead the reader's perception of her in one direction or another. Ironically, the character whom I felt least effort had been made to define was Dee, the Indian American PhD student who mentors Charlotte at Carroll; the author tries to do a bit about how media coverage of Scarlet Christmas almost ignored her in favour of beautiful, blonde Cate, but the character suffers the same fate in the book. Other characters are largely defined by their physical appearance, fashion choices and accents, but she feels even more vaguely drawn.

The epilogue made me understand why some people hate epilogues; it has a wildly different tone to the rest of the story and just felt pat and unnecessary.

Overall, this was an enjoyable read but it felt like a re-tread of a story that has been told more successfully before.

Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown Book UK for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of this book.

I enjoyed this book on the whole but there were some downsides. The pace was very slow, and there were a few bits that didnt seem to make sense or be explained at any point. How did that character die? I normally like an unreliable narrator but this book didnt pull it off well. Its not a bad debut by any means, and I don't regret reading it.

I found this to be a really good debut, the premise of the story was great and there was loads of mystery to it that kept me turning pages well past my bedtime. It did vaguely remind me of luckiest girl alive which is another book I enjoyed.
Some bits of this story got a little confusing at times but apart from that I very much enjoyed it and would love to read more from Jenny in the future.

Thanks to NetGalley for the chance to read this arc.

An intriguing and gripping story, I loved the characters and can't wait to read more by this author.

Charlie was the sole survivor in an incident known as Scarlet Christmas which occurred at her elite graduate school at, as the description suggests, Christmas time. She was a witness but her memories of what happened are spurious to say the least. Mostly blanks, as she blacked out during said incident. Now 10 years later she is a successful editor-in-chief of a major magazine and pipped for great things. Until that is, an old classmate makes a film of what happened and her past threatens to derail her present and kibosh her future. But she is not the girl she used to be. She has overcome much in her life and is stronger. But is she strong enough to survive this, and at what cost...?
Well... wasn't this a cracking debut book. Chock full of secrets, lies and dysfunctional behaviour as one of the victims relatives, a twin sister, starts to make a film that threatens Charlies "account" of the incident. How things start to not quite add up when questioned further and deeper and how Charlie tries to keep ahead of that narrative.
This book gripped me from the off. I connected with Charlie right from the start, although not all positively. Obviously she is unreliable (not a spoiler you find that out very early on) and they are always hard to get to grips with. But she and I rubbed along nicely.
Pacing was a bit slow in places and not cos the narrative dictated. But it did get going soon enough and not slow enough to really irk. Just a bit hit and miss along the way.
Storyline was cracking and contained everything you'd need from a book of this genre. Albeit a tad on the busy side on occasion. And the ending, when it came wasn't as shocking as it could have been and did kinda tie everything up a little too neatly.
But, all those niggles were relatively minor compared with the enjoyment I got from reading this book. It's a good solid read and a very worthy debut. I really can't wait to see how she handles that tricky second book! My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

I enjoyed it. I love an unreliable narrator. Set in New York and London and in dual timelines this is Charlotte ‘Charlie’ Colbert’s story. In the present she is editor in chief of C Magazine which is the Sunday supplement of The Chronicle, Americas 4th largest newspaper. Whilst English, she is a product of Carroll University School of Journalism. Her ideal life is shattered when the sister of one of those involved in an event in Charlie’s past, nine years ago at graduate school, states she has new evidence and will be producing a film when “the truth will finally come out”. A really well written thriller with plenty of suspense.

Briefly, Charlie is a survivor and a victim following an incident whilst at Carroll. Whilst she has remembered is that she was present but she cannot remember what happened. What she believes is that she lied to the police and was actually responsible for what took place. She is one disturbed lady to the point that she will walk up 20 flights of stairs just to avoid the elevator. She is undergoing therapy in the hope her recollections of the incident will come back.

I started off not really liking Charlie but she did grow on me a bit and I had some sympathy for her as slowly but surely her memories start coming back. It’s a very character driven story and very tense as you are completely in the dark about the truth until they are revealed, and there’s a shocking reveal! So did she tell the police the truth or not? You will have to read the book to find out! Very entertaining read.

I don't normally start a review with a focus on the negative but the overwhelming feeling I came away with after reading this book was ... that didn't make sense, did it?

Nine years ago, Charlie was a witness to a massacre at her graduate school. Even though she doesn't remember much about that night, that's why she is in therapy after all, she does know she lied about what she saw. Huh? Anyway, Charlie's life is now very different. Editor-in-chief of a magazine, engaged and living the life. Until one of her old classmates wants to make a film about the events from a decade ago. Charlie realises if the truth comes out, (you know, the one she doesn't remember), she will probably lose everything. That just can't happen.

The story alternates between events in the present and the past. With the help of a therapist, who should quite frankly be struck off for life, Charlie tries to remember what happened on that fateful night before someone else discovers her secrets. I honestly found it remarkably hard to muster up any kind of sympathy for Charlie. She annoyed me, I didn't like her, and that felt wrong considering her victim status.

Obviously, the reader has a long (loooooong) wait to discover what happened on the night that was dubbed Scarlet Christmas. When that moment finally came, it felt messy somehow. I can't quite explain it but it seemed to come from nowhere and my brain found it hard to compute what happened. It was almost as if someone told the author to think of a twist and boom, there it was but it came across somewhat disjointed. And by that time, I must admit I also just really didn't give two hoots anymore. That was before I reached the ending which, for various reasons I can't divulge, I absolutely hated.

'Everybody Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead" definitely had potential but the book description didn't quite match my expectations. I expected Charlie to be on the war path, so to speak, ruthless in defending her current life style. Instead, nearly a decade later she's only trying to learn about what happened that night. Surely you'd want to know sooner? The premise was intriguing but the execution left a little to be desired. Many a time the story dragged, there was very little (if any) character development, but mostly, I'm still stuck with that feeling that things didn't all make sense. Yet, I was entertained for a few hours and I did want to find out the truth. But as a whole, it didn't really work for me.

Everyone Who Can Forgive Me is Dead kept me hooked through the pages, staying up far too late into the night to uncover its secrets.

This is captivating writing - the type of all consuming, must read writing that forces you to keep turning the pages. It goes behind the headlines and the true crime industry into the real life people caught up in an infamous case that they have either used to define their life or tried to eskew entirely, or fallen somewhere between the two. Hollander asks probing questions about the impact of trauma upon every aspect of your life and how you can use it within your life, particularly in a true crime context. Some of these moves are manipulative and exploitative - all to do with controlling the narrative yourself before it is twisted by everyone else. Charlie is the pinnacle of this, who is trying to work out herself what really happened and to what extent she is complicit. To start with, you know so little and Hollander leaves these breadcrumbs that build up this staggering picture. It is all so character driven and complicated by the messiness of human relationships - it is just so human.

Hollander marries this with the use of unreliable narrators and flashbacks. You are as in the dark about what really happened as the rest of the world until the very end of the book. It just works to completely hook you in and keep you guessing. It is dark and delectable and completely compelling. At the same time, it makes you another one of the voyeurs picking apart this narrative and determined to discover the truth. Hollander has created something so interesting here with that innate contradiction.

Everyone Who Can Forgive Me is Dead is an explosive, exhilarating read that simmers away in your brain and consumes your every waking thought.