By Opal Frazier Johnson ‘28

Not Quite Dead Yet

By Holly Jackson

Thursday, September 26 – Wednesday, January 7  

Rating: 4/5⭐

Images courtesy of Barnes & Noble and Penguin Random House Publishing

How did I find this book?

Not Quite Dead Yet was the first IA book club pick of the 2025-2026 school year, so I read this book over the course of the semester using the book club schedule. In book club, we meet every week to discuss the book, and then collectively decide how many chapters or pages that we would like to read for the next meeting. The chapters in this book are quite short, so it was really difficult for me to stick to that schedule when we were only reading 1-3 chapters a week with how good this book is. 

Summary & Overall Thoughts (Spoiler-Free!)

I am a huge fan of Holly Jackson’s books like A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder and The Reappearance of Rachael Price. I went into Not Quite Dead Yet with high expectations, and it did not disappoint. This book is about Jet Mason, a spunky 27-year old girl who is trying to find her path in life while she’s still living with her parents. On Halloween night, Jet is attacked, and nearly dies. The doctors give her a choice: have a surgery that she probably won’t survive, or live one more week and die at the end of it. Jet chooses to live, and she must find her killer before the week runs out. 

Holly Jackson excels in creating an interesting story over a short period of time. One of her other books that I love, Five Survive, takes place in one night. I loved the time limit aspect of both of these books, and Jackson uses suspense and helplessness to make the deadline more stressful for the reader and the characters. 

Characters:

Holly Jackson’s execution of the protagonist Jet Mason’s character arc is extremely satisfying to watch play out throughout the book.  Jet starts the book being cocky and mildly annoying, but by the end of the story, she learns to love others and let herself be loved. Jet is a character that I found enjoyable to read about and listen to dialogue of, but a lot of people both in book club and in online reviews found her annoying. However, for me, the writing style of the book and the way that Jet is portrayed makes her a very lovable character.

Setting:

The setting of Not Quite Dead Yet is the town that Jet grew up in and has lived in for her entire life. I really like this choice of setting because it allows for Jet to interact with her family members and people around town that she has lifelong relationships with. In many parts of the book, Jet draws upon these long relationships to help her along in her search for the killer, which results in a lot of really interesting character interactions. I also enjoyed this setting because Jet is forced to revisit points in her past, including the death of her sister Emily. These moments make for some of the most emotional points in the book, and I enjoyed them immensely.

Content Warnings:

• Murder 
• Gore 
• Sadness
• Swearing (Heavy)
• Family Alienation
• Arson, Fire, & Burns
• More Sadness

Spice Rating: 0/5