Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead
Jenny Hollander
February 6, 2024
St. Martin’s Press
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I really liked the premise of this book: a young woman, Charlotte (Charlie) from England, while in graduate school in the U.S., witnessed a horrific event that ended in death or injury for several classmates. The circumstances were so traumatic that Charlie blocked them out. She became an editor at a magazine and is very successful. But now that Charlie has rebuilt her life, one of the other “survivors” of the incident decides to make a movie about it, and threatens to expose what really happened. Charlie, having blocked out much of what happened, is convinced that she may have been responsible and that her whole life will come apart. I liked some of the characters, including the protagonist, her boyfriend and the differences between them (his family was basically a bunch of stuffed shirts who were just as worried about what might come out as Charlie, since they were going to get married and they were wealthy).
The novel was a bit slow to start; it took awhile to become invested in the “thriller-ness” of it and the pace is a little problematic for a book of this type. It really picked up the pace about a third of the way into the book.
The story was also a bit confusing; Charlie’s sister in England was affected by the notoriety of the event, but I wonder why this would have been such big news in England, nor are we told what other things contribute to her condition (she was presented as fragile). After the first third of the book, lots of things were happening but it got a bit confusing at times. I was engaged though. However, the ending is probably what reduced it for me from 3.5 to 3 stars because it did not really make sense to me.
Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
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