Not Quite Dead Yet by Holly Jackson

Holly Jackson’s first novel for adults, Not Quite Dead Yet, takes a terrifically audacious premise and runs with it: a young woman, grievously injured and given only days to live, resolves to solve her own attempted murder. It is a premise that could have been a gimmick, yet Jackson, already famed for the A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder novels, turns it into a tense, heart-rending exploration of family, privilege and the urgency of unfinished lives.

Jet Mason is a vividly drawn protagonist. The daughter of one of Woodstock, Vermont’s richest families, she has lived in the shadow of a more accomplished sister and has been waiting for her life to begin. On Halloween she is savagely attacked, suffering a catastrophic head injury that leaves surgeons certain an aneurysm will kill her within seven days. Instead of succumbing, Jet refuses to be passive. With the help of Billy, a childhood friend who becomes her anchor, she sets about unpicking the possible motives and enemies around her. Family members, old friends and an ex-relationship all come under suspicion, and the investigation reveals the small cruelties and big compromises that have shaped Jet’s life.

Jackson excels at atmosphere and emotional detail. The ticking-clock concept generates genuine suspense, but the novel’s power comes from its quieter moments: Jet’s wry internal voice, her faltering attempts to make peace with people who have wronged her, and the tender, sometimes painfully tentative bond with Billy. Their relationship provides the novel’s moral centre. Billy is compassionate without being sentimental; he is the steady presence Jet needs as her cognition falters and time shortens. Jackson resists over-the-top drama, preferring to show how ordinary gestures become profound when tomorrow is not guaranteed.

The book is not without flaws. Several reviewers have noted a mid-book flattening of momentum, and it is true that the narrative sometimes lingers on domestic detail when readers may expect the tempo to accelerate. A few plot conveniences strain credibility, particularly the ease with which key revelations surface late in the story, and the final unravelling can feel hurried. For readers seeking a strictly logical puzzle, elements of the solution may appear contrived.

Yet those quibbles sit beside considerable strengths. Jackson handles the themes of mortality and regret with surprising tenderness. The Mason family is drawn with delicious moral ambiguity; they are easy to dislike, yet understood as people whose choices were shaped by wealth and expectation. The courtroom procedural instincts that served Jackson well in her YA work are repurposed here into an intimate investigation of motive and complicity.

Ultimately, Not Quite Dead Yet is a compelling, emotionally charged thriller that confirms Jackson’s range. It is at once a page-turner and a meditation on what matters when time runs out. Readers who enjoy character-driven mysteries with high emotional stakes will find much to admire, and many will close the book feeling both shaken and moved.

Reviewer: Chris Reed

Penguin