Everyone Who Can Forgive Me is Dead

 Book 6 of my 2025 Reading Challenge

read from January 10 - 11

Everyone Who Can Forgive Me is Dead by Jenny Hollander

published 2024

Summary (via the book jacket)

Nine years ago, with the world's eyes on her, Charlie Colbert fled. The press and the police called her a "witness" to the terrible events that took place at her elite graduate school. But Charlie knew there was more to her story - if only she could make sense of how it all unfolded.

Now Charlie has meticulously rebuilt her life. She's the editor of chief of a major magazine, the fiancee of the heir to a publishing dynasty, and hell-bent on never letting her guard down again. But when a film adaptation of what became known as "Scarlet Christmas" - the bloody scene that transpired on that fateful Christmas Eve - threatens to shatter Charlie's world, her haunting memories surge back with unprecedented clarity. No truth has ever been more dangerous that the one that hides in her own mind.

With everything at stake, Charlie must decide how far she will go to prevent her past from colliding with her seemingly perfect present.

My Opinion

3 stars

I chose this based on title alone.  It's tough to rate because I didn't necessarily enjoy it but I also kept picking it up and reading it quickly because I wanted to find out what happened.  I decided on 3 stars to balance it out.

The setting of journalism school and the access of money made situations less coincidental that they may have been otherwise but there were still contrived moments.  The mix of Charlie not remembering yet also knowing she had something to hide was difficult to reconcile.

There were also one character's death that I'm still unclear on and it's unsatisfying.