Not Quite Dead Yet: A GMA Book Club Pick: A Novel
The author of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder—now a hit Netflix series—returns with her first novel for adults: an “irresistible” (The Washington Post) thriller about a young woman trying to solve her own murder, “full of the writer’s signature twists and turns” (People).
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Readers say *Not Quite Dead Yet* hooks with its clever premise—solve your own murder before time runs out—and keeps tension high. Reviewers agree Holl...
I liked this one a lot! Spoilers ahead because there is absolutely no way to talk about this book without them.
The setup alone was clever and immediately hooked me: solve your own murder before you die. Is it a little ridiculous? Sure. But I’m willing to suspend disbelief for a good premise, and this one delivered enough tension and momentum that I didn’t care.
I loved the structure of Jet investigating while racing against her own countdown. She is reevaluating every relationship in her life when suddenly time becomes very, very limited.
I did figure out some of the twists before the reveal. Once they pointed out that Luke had a different father than Jet, I pretty quickly guessed where that was heading. They successfully got me to suspect Luke for a while, but honestly that theory annoyed me because it didn’t fit his character or Sophia’s to me at all. The pill situation though? That absolutely felt like something Sophia would do because she consistently made questionable decisions.
I was rooting for Jet to survive. I know the premise tells you from page one where this is going, but I still wanted some last-minute impossible save. I think most readers probably did. One thing that did feel odd to me was how exact the medical timeline was. Knowing almost to the day when the aneurysm would happen felt a little too neat. I think giving the timeline more uncertainty or dragging it an extra day over the deadline would have felt more believable.
Poor Sweet Billy absolutely broke my heart. I wanted him to get his happy ending. There was one point where I thought the book was going to name him the killer which would have felt like a cheap ending, and thankfully it didn’t. But that was also the moment I became completely sure about Billy’s dad...
The one thing that still doesn’t totally work for me is Billy’s mom. It feels strange that she would just disappear and never contact him again. The one thing that still doesn’t totally work for me is Billy’s mom’s storyline. It felt strange that she would disappear and never contact Billy again. Based on what she seemed to believe... that Billy’s father was capable of statutory rape and murder—it became difficult for me to accept that she would knowingly leave her son behind and never have tried to take him with her or reconnect in later years.
Part of me almost thinks it would have made more narrative sense if she had been killed when she started to suspect her husband. Not that I want that outcome, but it feels harder to believe she would willingly leave Billy with someone she viewed as dangerous.
Overall though, I had a really good time with this.
The setup alone was clever and immediately hooked me: solve your own murder before you die. Is it a little ridiculous? Sure. But I’m willing to suspend disbelief for a good premise, and this one delivered enough tension and momentum that I didn’t care.
I loved the structure of Jet investigating while racing against her own countdown. She is reevaluating every relationship in her life when suddenly time becomes very, very limited.
I did figure out some of the twists before the reveal. Once they pointed out that Luke had a different father than Jet, I pretty quickly guessed where that was heading. They successfully got me to suspect Luke for a while, but honestly that theory annoyed me because it didn’t fit his character or Sophia’s to me at all. The pill situation though? That absolutely felt like something Sophia would do because she consistently made questionable decisions.
I was rooting for Jet to survive. I know the premise tells you from page one where this is going, but I still wanted some last-minute impossible save. I think most readers probably did. One thing that did feel odd to me was how exact the medical timeline was. Knowing almost to the day when the aneurysm would happen felt a little too neat. I think giving the timeline more uncertainty or dragging it an extra day over the deadline would have felt more believable.
Poor Sweet Billy absolutely broke my heart. I wanted him to get his happy ending. There was one point where I thought the book was going to name him the killer which would have felt like a cheap ending, and thankfully it didn’t. But that was also the moment I became completely sure about Billy’s dad...
The one thing that still doesn’t totally work for me is Billy’s mom. It feels strange that she would just disappear and never contact him again. The one thing that still doesn’t totally work for me is Billy’s mom’s storyline. It felt strange that she would disappear and never contact Billy again. Based on what she seemed to believe... that Billy’s father was capable of statutory rape and murder—it became difficult for me to accept that she would knowingly leave her son behind and never have tried to take him with her or reconnect in later years.
Part of me almost thinks it would have made more narrative sense if she had been killed when she started to suspect her husband. Not that I want that outcome, but it feels harder to believe she would willingly leave Billy with someone she viewed as dangerous.
Overall though, I had a really good time with this.