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Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

Not Quite Dead Yet by Holly Jackson

62 reviews

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

OH MY GOD HOLLY 
IM CRYING WHY WOULD YOU WRITE THIS BOOK

FIVE STARS ALL AROUND

…..
Wow. This… has to be the best book I’ve read so far in 2025. This exceeded my expectations which is really difficult because they were already so high. I think overall I prefer AGGGTM but this is a close second. Rachel Price is my least favourite so far, but I still liked that too.

So… the ending. Unfortunately I pieced the bits together as soon as the “Luke’s real dad” thing came into play so the reveal wasn’t groundbreaking or anything. It didn’t ruin the book for me by any means, but I was a little disappointed in myself that I saw it coming and ruined the reveal for myself. The way everything ended and we didn’t see any real justice or anybody else’s reaction was annoying, I have to admit. Even a couple of more pages of an update after everything went down.

And let’s be real… obviously Jet was going to die. I knew that, I didn’t hold out any hope that it was going to work out for her in the end. But my god, that ending absolutely took me out. Poor sweet Billy. He deserves the world. If the ending wasn’t bad enough, the updated song at the very end absolutely broke me. 

At times I thought Jet was unlikeable but ultimately I can understand her. From everything she went through, I can understand it. I think she should’ve treated Billy a little better but I guess when you have a week left to live and you’re trying to solve your own murder you’re not really thinking too hard about that kinda thing.

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I have never cried so hard over an ending. Holly when I catch you-

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I'm still a little in shock over quite literally everything that happened in this book. If you love a twisted thriller then this is definitely a book that you need to pick up immediately. 

It's one of those books where everyone is pretty awful and throughout the story, you're just finding out the extent of their awfulness... and there's a lot to unpack. 

I will say, the mystery aside, I loved our MCs. Jet wasn't perfect and that was kind of the entire point. She's a young woman who has spent her life relying on tomorrows and laters but when she finds out that the number of them she has left is limited she's faced with the reality of how short life is and how she wants to spend the time she does have left to finally start living. 

And together with her childhood best friend, she tries to finally "do something" to make herself and her family proud. And for an amateur detective, she did the damn thing. She never gave up and Billy was right there to help her as her body started to fail her, never giving up right alongside her until the very end.

I'm still so sad that she'll never know the ending of her story that she tried so hard for. However, our man Billy figured it out in the end and my heart is still completely broken for him.

The ending was absolutely insane. I'm still reeling over how many open ends we have!!!! There's so much that happened and so many consequences that need to be given but the book just ends. But that's also kind of perfect in the way that Jet's life just ended without all the answers so I guess it's fitting. 

This was Jackson's best work since AGGTM. Absolutely incredible. Would highly recommend. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
mysterious fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

fuck you holly jackson

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

If I could, I would give this book 6 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I haven’t read a book I enjoyed this much for over a year now. Everything in this book was simply fantastic! The characters, the story, the twists! I ate it all up, I just want to keep reading it. And let me tell you, I have never cried over a book. Sometimes I got teary eyed, but that’s all. But this book made me properly cry, especially
the letters
.  And Jet was so fucken funny I was laughing so much! I love love LOVE Holly Jackson. Again, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging mysterious sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Wow. Wow. Wow. WOW. This book was AMAZING. I loved every single second of this book. The first chapter was hard to get into but after that it NEVER STOPED, it was so hard for me to put the book down.
I never guessed what was coming next. When Billy’s dad was revealed to be the murderer my jaw was on the FLOOR. I would have never guessed.
This book was one of the best books I have read this year! 100% recommend. 
5/5 stars 

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