Book Review: Not Quite Dead Yet

For Day 3 of the 13 Books for Spooky Season countdown, I recommend Not Quite Dead Yet by Holly Jackson

The premise of the book is so intriguing! Jet is attacked on Halloween night and her childhood best friend Billy finds her. When Jet wakes up at the hospital, she finds out her injuries will cause a brain aneurysm and she has seven days or less to live. She decides to use her remaining time to solve her own murder.

The novel is part procedural (solving the mystery), part family dynamics story, and part subtle friends-to-lovers. Jet is now 27 and she and Billy had drifted apart, but during the book, there is a cute love story. There are several suspects who seem likely culprits for her murder, and Jet eliminates them one by one. Overall, it wasn’t easy to guess the ending and the pacing was satisfying.

Not Quite Dead Yet is the adult debut mystery/thriller by Holly Jackson, author of A Good Girls’ Guide to Murder (YA books and Netflix series).

The novel was relatively fast-paced and developed themes of regret vs. fully living your life for today, which I liked. It also had several twists I did not see coming.