What would you do with the last week of your life? If you knew your death was caused by murder? Jett Mason decides to use her remaining days to solve her own murder, and go out on her own terms in Holly Jackoson’s hauntingly brutal, bittersweet and thrilling adult debut, Not Quite Dead Yet.
In a blood bumping twist, Jackson’s newest protagonist Jett isn’t solving a cold case, committing murder or getting justice for someone else’s death, she’s out for herself.
After a horrifically violent attack on Halloween, Jett wakes up to discover she is just seven days away from a fatal aneurysm. She decides to take her life in her own hands for once, and truly live, by solving her own murder. Will she discover her killer in time? What about the dark sister secrets surrounding her own family? Does she rekindle a friendship and feelings for her childhood Billy who agrees to help her solve her murder?
I absolutely devoured this week long thriller mystery as Jett and Billy set out to solve her own murder, her days are literally numbered and her murder Dee is still on the loose.
Each day of Jett’s final week sees us delve into the dark and stark rollercoaster of twists and emotions of Jackson’s writing. She delivers a large cast of suspects in a fast paced, deep plot rooted and suspension character twist fuelled thriller.
Jett is complex protagonist, who goes against convention. She is perceived as directionless, reckless and unlikeable by people around her, she makes mistakes and isn’t afraid if the dark gritty side of life but she has also a closed off heart that truly loves like no one else in her own way that’s all Jett. She begins the last week of her life in a rut. Jett is in the existential crisis phase of her twenties, she not sure who she is, who she wants to be and who or what she loves and whether the people around her are as easy to read or truly good as she thought.
She goes through significant character development whilst staying remaking herself to the very end. She is the embodiment of how we only get one life, and it’s more enjoyable me if you take the leaps and live and laugh and learn, even if you scared and fall down.
Jett’s relationship with Billy also plays a vital role in her story, as she enlists him as her partner in crime and roommate for the last week of her life. She unknowingly helps him too by helping a good hearted guy to feel worthy of his music dreams and of love and life in the world. She doesn’t want him to reach ages she never will and never have truly lived or live out a future he wants.
The last chapter where Billy lives out the aftermath of Jett’s death and outs the final puzzle pieces together of the murder of the girl he loved stabs you in the heart, shocking and breaking even the best of amateur detective with the final reveals of the seeds and stones of destruction in the Mason (Jetts) family whilst leading you to one final jaw dropping twist.
This chapter is made even more profound, breaking the floodgates of tension and tears, as it is preceded by the final letters Jett wrote for her parents, dog, brother, ex friend and sister in law and of course Billy. Jett’s letters are unique, representing the life lessons, trauma, memories and relationship she had with each person in her life.
The letters sum up all the life wisdom and experiences she had in her last week, a brutally honest yet tear inducing statement in braking, thing and finding peace and closure in relationships, the ones worth saving and the ones worth destroying. These letters also show Jett telling loved ones like Billy to never give up and chase the dreams and loves of the future you want.
Not Quite Dead Yet is more than a girl solving her own murder, it’s a modern brutally honest commentary on what it means to truly live, from discovering yourself, taking chances and dealing with toxicity around us.
So, if you loved the one night shocking tension fuelled timeline of Five Survive, you’ll be hooked by the one week timeline of Not Quite Dead Yet. A new adult thriller that comes with a complex female protagonist Jett, as she learns to truly live whilst progressively dying as she gets closer to solving her own murder, and uncovering dark family lore admits violent gritty tension and attacks in her final week, as the murder victim becomes the detective.
For a murder mystery thriller that’ll keep your blood pumping, pages turning and heartstrings breaking, meet Jett and Billy in a dark violent take on the ‘season of the sticks’ Vermont for the week of a lifetime.
the girl and the city of books 
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