Not Quite Dead Yet ★★★☆☆

Three stars feels right for this one: a solid premise that runs longer than it needed to.

Jet gets attacked in her own home and told she has a week to live. So she spends that week solving her own murder before it happens. That's a good hook, and Jackson keeps the small-town-secrets machinery running the way cozy mysteries do. Each chapter peels back one more layer of who in this town has something to hide.

The problem is Jet herself. This is billed as Jackson's first adult novel after the massive success of A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, but Jet reads like a recent college grad, not an adult with adult stakes. That undercuts the sympathy the book is asking for. Even her own voice leans young: "This is my first," she says at one point, "First time being murdered also. Newbie. But I'm a quick learner." Funny line, but it's also exactly the register that keeps her from feeling like a grown woman facing her own death.

And we get reminded of that death constantly. I understand the ticking clock is the whole premise, but the book restates it every few pages like I might have forgotten. At one point Jet muses, "Die now, or die in a week? Toast or cereal? Both?" Cute, but by the fourth or fifth version of this joke it stops landing and starts feeling like padding.

Because that's the other issue: length. The prose itself is fine, nothing wrong with the sentences, but the book could have lost fifty pages easily. I found myself skipping paragraphs, which I almost never do. That's not a good sign for a mystery, where pacing is half the job.

Worth reading if you like the setup enough to forgive the padding. Not worth it if you came in expecting the sharper plotting of the Pip books.

PS: The small-town secrets Jet uncovers are genuinely fun. I just wish it took her less time to get to them.

Edition Read

• Author: Holly Jackson
• Date Published: 2025-01-01
• Pages: 384

Description

"Jet is the daughter of one of the wealthiest families in Woodstock, Vermont. Twenty-seven years old and back home, she’s still waiting for her life to begin. I’ll do it later, she always says. She has time. Until Halloween night, when she is violently attacked by an unseen intruder, suffering a catastrophic head injury. Doctors are certain that within a week, the injury will trigger a fatal aneurysm. To her parents’ dismay, Jet rejects an extremely risky operation in order to guarantee herself at least a few more days. Jet never thought of herself as having enemies. But now, in the one week she has left, she looks at everyone in a new light: her family, her former best friend turned sister-in-law, her ex-boyfriend. As her condition deteriorates, she reconnects with her childhood friend Billy, the only one willing to help her. With Billy at her side, she’s absolutely determined to finally finish something: Jet is going to solve her own murder."-- Provided by Amazon

Source: Hardcover

Notable Highlights

What kind of choice was that? Jet couldn’t even decide what to have for breakfast most days. Die now, or die in a week? Toast or cereal? Both? [loc. 474]

“This is my first,” she said, hands up. “First time being murdered also. Newbie. But I’m a quick learner. Adaptable skill set. Almost got a law degree, by the way.” [loc. 823]

But I’m trying to keep an open mind.” She paused. “Well…someone bashed it open for me.” [loc. 1274]

“I think I’ve spent so long waiting for it all to begin, for life to really start, that I missed out on what it was really all about.”

“You can love something without needing it to love you back.”

“He’d had to do that twice. Hold the woman he loved in his arms as she lay dying.”

Highlights from Readwise, topped up with popular quotes from Goodreads.