I loved this book telling the story of a tragic incident in a prestigious grad school. The story is told in the then and now by one of the students involved, who has lied about something or done something wrong. The reader is kept in suspense as she tries to move on with her life, but her old classmates are still in her thoughts.
It has a great feel to it, the characters are likeable and their emotio s are very real.
Lots of twists to keep you guessing.

Couldn't put this one down. The story is told in then and now and both go together in parallel. The lead is an unreliable narrator with the story packed with red herrings.

I love thrillers set in academia and twists, something this book did really well. Recommend!

Thank you NetGalley and Little Brown Book Group UK for this e-arc in exchange of my unbiased review.

Up now on Goodreads and live on the blog on 5 February:

Here is what we know: in her early twenties, Charlie moved from London to New York City to attend an elite graduate school for journalism. A while later, something happened. People died. These events went down in history as “Scarlet Christmas”. Now, nine years later, Charlie is pretty much unrecognisable, she’s built a career, rebuilt her life as well as her nose, and is engaged to be married to one of NYC’s most eligible men. She’s golden, until the whole thing gets dredged up again, in time for the ten-year anniversary of the events.

Here is what we don’t know: anything else! What the hell happened nine years ago? Alternating timelines, then and now, keep dangling the carrot in front of the reader but it takes forever to actually find out what happened, and while it was highly suspenseful at one point, it also got on my nerves a little bit. What we also don’t know is how reliable a narrator Charlie is, seeing as she herself doesn’t remember what happened and is trying to get her memories back.

As I said above, while at times the suspense was killing me, at times I felt like it was all a little too dragged out. To my mind, there are also a couple of things that don’t fully make sense, which I can’t discuss because spoilers.

From the blurb, I think I expected more of a ruthless main character. More along the lines of The Devil Wears Prada, with maybe even some minor Sweetpea or You’d Look Better As a Ghost vibes, instead of Charlie, who is a nervous wreck for most of the story. And I do get why she’s flipping out, and it’s not that she’s not interesting as a protagonist, she is. But, I don’t know, it just didn’t really work for me. Maybe because I’m the kind of person who would want to know ASAP what I can’t remember, and not nine years later? She’s been seeing a therapist for years, why is she only working on retrieving those memories now? Is it too painful? Maybe, but how is not knowing any better?!

One last niggle was the saccharine sweet ending. I like closure, I do not like endings wrapped up within an inch of their lives with a big pink bow on top. I thought I was supposed to be reading a thriller, not watching a Hallmark movie. I guess many other readers will love the ending, but it really wasn’t for me.

Overall, Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead was an okay read for me. It kept me entertained enough and I had a few wait, what moments (even if some of them led to a niggle or two), but unfortunately, it didn’t entirely work for me.

Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead is out in digital formats, audio and hardcover on 6 February.

Thanks to Little, Brown and Netgalley for the eARC. All opinions are my own.

A tense read where it feels that you share the anxiety of the main characters in knowing, wondering, believing what really happened on one fateful night and the lengths people will go to to protect that. Neatly resolved at the end in a way that doesn’t feel contrived.

Oh dear, I’m really sorry that I just didn’t enjoy this book very much at all. For a debut novel it was well written but I found it slow and, to be honest, a bit boring. I’m glad others seem to like it, and thank NetGalley and the publishers for the arc.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. This was a fast paced thriller and had me hooked from the beginning. Great storyline and characters.

A really good story with lots of different angles to look at, plus a lot of mystery around what happened leading you up to the ending!

There are certain points in life when most people have the opportunity to reinvent themselves to some degree. Some common milestones in this regard involve moving between cities or countries in order to attend a new school or university, or a new workplace.

After a massacre dubbed "Scarlet Christmas" at her well-known graduate school, Charlie Colbert was the witness and sole survivor who had the opportunity to start over. But was that all that she was?

That incident left several people dead, and many questions unanswered - especially if you knew the right questions to ask.

A decade later, Charlie has everything that you might think she could want, including a kickass job and a highly desirable boyfriend. So when she finds herself facing a threat from an unexpected quarter, she is not about to give up all that she has achieved so easily...

This is a high octane psychological thriller with a narrator who struggles with an unreliable memory, the lies she has told to cover that up, and twists aplenty along the way. The first part of the book is more gripping than the last segment, which was a little disappointing, but pacing issues aside this was an interesting read.

This was a pretty good mystery book! I enjoyed the multiple timelines and the overall storyline was really interesting to follow.

I really enjoyed the build up but the ending was a little underwhelming. It was all wrapped up too easily for me.

I absolutely loves Charlie’s unreliable narration and seeing her guilt over the night that changed her life. Her story and drive to find the truth was very gripping to follow

Overall this was a 3.5 star for me - better than your average thriller with a lot to love but I wanted slightly more from it!

Everyone Who Can Forgive Me is Dead captured my attention from the very start. With its multiple timelines, ambiguous characters and constant foreboding, it kept me guessing right until the end, and I loved how everything unravelled. It’s a well-written, assured debut, and I’m sure it’ll be popular with readers who like mysteries and academic settings.

Although I was completely enthralled by Charlie’s past and what really happened at her school, the ending and final reveal fell a little flat for me. After all the build-up, I was expecting a more shocking revelation, and I didn’t quite get that. I was still surprised at the plot twists, though (I never guess anything!), and my slight disappointment didn’t detract from my overall enjoyment at all.

Each character in this book is morally questionable, and all are worthy of a degree of skepticism when it comes to their recollections of that fateful night. Jenny Hollander does a really good job of never giving the reader too much information, and instead keeps everyone in the shade where they’re all capable of lying and being involved in the school murders. Even Charlie herself is never strictly good or bad, always walking a tightrope of what’s right and what’s wrong. It’s fascinating.

Everyone Who Can Forgive Me is Dead is a dark book about many things, and it’ll definitely make you think. Everyone has secrets, everyone has the ability to lie, and no-one can ever truly be trusted — these are all themes explored here, and they make for a memorable reading experience. I look forward to more from this author, and I hope future books are as thought-provoking as this!

What a fabulous debut!!

Nine years ago, Charlotte (Charlie) Colbert's life changed forever when on Christmas Eve three of her classmates were killed in a brutal attack at her elite school. Charlie survived but cut ties with the classmates that did survive to try and put that awful night behind her. She is an editor-in-chief of a magazine and engaged to a wealthy man. But now one of the victim's twin sisters plans on making a movie about that night and Charlie will have a prominent role. It includes details of a cover up and she wants the real facts to come to light, details that Charlie needs to keep buried. 

This one was so suspenseful and there were parts where I just could not put this down. There were multiple timelines and lots of characters in this one, so you do need to pay attention but it was so enjoyable and I can't wait to read more by this author. 4.5*

Thanks to NetGalley and Little Brown Book Group UK for this gifted review copy.

Nine years earlier - Charlotte Colbert arrived to take her place at Carroll University School of Journalism, she was there four months. The newspapers called it Scarlet Christmas and Charlie was one of the survivors at least she thinks she was, in truth she can't remember.

Current day - Successful editor in chief of a best selling newspapers Sunday supplement, Charlie is poised, professional and at the top of her game. But behind the facade the traumas still there, being unable to recall that night haunts her, she knows she was involved but she doesn't know to what extent and when a forthcoming docu-drama about the night promises to reveal previously unknown information she's terrified about what its going to reveal.

Hard to believe that this is the authors first novel, it flows really well, the slow drip of information keeping me guessing right til the end. Charlies torment and guilt is really well written as is her fear of the truth and strong characterisation both past and present added depth. It was a good read and I'll certainly look out for future novels by the author.

My thanks to Little, Brown Book Group and NetGalley for the advance copy for review. I was under no obligation and all opinions expressed are my own.

Charlotte Colbert has everything people imagine she might want – she is beautiful, young and has a successful career as a magazine editor and a planned marriage to the heir of a profitable and well-known publishing company. Her fiancé, Tripp, comes from an old New York family, while Charlotte (or Charlie) arrived in the US from London to attend a prestigious journalism school, Carroll. Charlie tended to do things on a whim, but that was before ‘Scarlet Christmas.’ This event, which left several students dead and has been a true crime story throughout Charlie’s life. Unconscious for part of the attack and unable to recall events correctly, Charlie has spent her adulthood trying to control every aspect of her life, relying on therapist, Noor, to help her regain her memories and walking up stairs as she cannot cope with lifts.

With the ten-year anniversary of Scarlet Christmas’ approaching, Charlie’s life is thrown into free-fall with the news that a movie is planned on the events of that day. Terrified of what she might have done, Charlie attempts to get the movie stopped and contact those involved. Most notably, Stephanie, the sister of Charlie’s best friend, Cate, while she was at Carroll. Stephanie has remade herself as successfully as Charlie, now the presenter on a famous talk show and keen to, ‘set the record straight.’ As the novel progresses, events veer between past and present, as Charlie loses control of events and relates what she recalls to her therapist.

I really enjoyed this. It is a really promising debut with believable characters. Charlie does try to protect herself, but mainly because she worries about her family back in England and because she is still struggling to come to terms with what happened and her possible part in what happened. I will definitely be looking for more by this author in future and received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

Charlie has her life together, good job and engaged to an amazing man, but it’s not all as it seems and neither is Charlie. Ten years ago a student went crazy and killed people and Charlie was there, she survived. Now Steph, a fellow student, is wanting to make a film about it and if she does the truth will come out and the world will know Charlie lied.

I was intrigued to know what Charlie was lying about, was she more involved than she has led everyone to think! However, while the plot is interesting, it’s very slow and there’s nothing much else happening, the characters are dull and I couldn’t form any opinions about Charlie as she’s just so bland.

There where a few shocks near the end that where interesting and I’m ok with how it ended. I skimmed over most of the last quarter as I was just bored and wanted it finished.
Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the ARC in return for an honest review.

I found Jenny Hollander’s debut novel, Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead, exceptional. The protagonist, Charlie, is trying to rebuild her life while dealing with a traumatic event that happened almost a decade ago. As her world crumbles around her, Charlie struggles to hold on to her sanity. The story was gripping, and I couldn’t wait to see how it would end. Although the ending was a bit underwhelming, I thoroughly enjoyed the journey, and I’m excited to read more from Hollander in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK, for allowing me to read and review this book.

This book definitely drew me in straight away. The tension built up at a good pace and it kept me gripped.

This was a gripping debut novel from Jenny Hollander. She successfully leaves you wanting more in this book following Charlie’s life dealing with the trauma of the Scarlet Christmas tragedy and the raveling of events that went down that night. The pacing made for a suspenseful read and made it super easy to devour in one sitting. The bombshell in the middle had me thrown. The ending was a little predictable but still a bang ending.

Thank you Little, Brown Book Group for the E-Arc!

Is this really the authors 1st book because it is just sheer perfection! I'm so surprised (and disappointed) there isn't a lengthy back catalogue for me to get lost in. This was just amazing! It's so well written and well paced. It's written over multiple timelines and sometimes it just feels like chaos but then it all just falls perfectly into place. I dont want to give spoilers but I'd highly recommend just giving it a go!

Strong and impressive, Everyone who can forgive me is dead grabs you by the throat and does not let go! I read this book in one go on an intercontinental flight and I could not put it down!

Outstanding..
What really happened during the shocking events on the night now known as ‘Scarlet Christmas’ at an exclusive school on Christmas Eve? Does Charlie know? Charlie Colbert is now an exclusive herself. Editor in chief of a major magazine publication, she is at the very pinnacle of her game. When a film, made by a former student, threatens her very existence, how far will Charlie go to preserve everything that she holds dear? Unexpected, gripping, disturbing, tense, whip smart and utterly compelling this holds the reader rapt from the beginning to the very end. Outstanding.