A review by mikathereviewer
Not Quite Dead Yet by Holly Jackson

dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I was considering giving this book a 4 star rating 'cause overall it wasn't really bad, but then the end reveal came and my dread that it's the obvious suspect was confirmed, leaving me disappointed.

Despite the plot feeling sometimes like it's progressing a bit too slow, it was still a nice read about Margaret ‘Jet’ who was trying to solve her own murder. The protagonist of this story feels like she has to proof something, has to act and achieve the same things her sister Emily did. While I never done anything like this to impress anyone, not even my parents I could still somewhat understand that if one wasn't the favourite child and just searching for confirmation, wanting to make them proud. I think that Margaret can be a relatable character for some. Just like the author of this book said: ‘I still find myself feeling sad for Jet (and I made her up) so I’m sorry for inflicting that trauma on you too.’ Her life was truly tragic and I think everyone had at least some bit of tragedy in their life so I think it's quite easy to connect with her emotionally. Since I did that too, I was also able to enjoy the story to the fullest, truly rooting for her to achieve something big in life for the first time without self-sabotaging and actually finishing something she started without saying 'later'.

We've spend our whole lives trying to fill Emily's shoes, feeling crushed by her shadow, trying to prove to Mom and Dad that we are good enough too.

This book explored a lot of family dynamics, mostly Margaret's but also Billy's family. While it did take some time to get to know all the characters — their secrets and possible motives for killing Margaret, it also was about their relationships to eachother. How they liked or not liked eachother. And why. While I did mention above that I found the end reveal to be a bit too predictable, there were actually three major ones. Two were pretty obvious since they were connected to eachother and I think that the murderer was a prime suspect, but the family dynamic also had a secret which I did not expect as it was so cruel and heartless, I wouldn't have even imagined that someone would do something like this. It took me by surprise since I didn't expect it at all. I also wanted to mention that this book is quite tragic and just generally sad since it's about grief, loss and how relationships changed over the years by abandonment and hate. They all had their tragic story in some way.

I'm sorry that I'm not Emily. But I was never supposed to be. Took me a while to learn that, and I hope you can see it too. I spent my whole life waiting because I was trying to live a future that was never mine. And I did it because I wanted you to be proud of me. To just once say “Good Job, Jet.” I needed it, lived for it, and I don't think that was healthy, for either of us.

Despite the sad backstories and plot about a woman dying soon due to head trauma, it also had a sweet tone, like romance and showing strength when one faces a difficult time in life. Margaret had a major development at the end, acknowledging that the way she lived her life so far was wrong and made it up for the remaining days she had left to live. 

As I mentioned above, the plot twist who the murderer was, was too predictable to me and made the ending disappointing. I expected something greater and I know that Holly Jackson is good in writing about a mystery/thriller, but this time it just wasn't as great as I initially hoped for it to be.

Since everything else wasn't really lacking anything I would still recommend this book to anyone who already read a Holly Jackson book in the past. 
In case you haven't, don't worry, it's still worth reading despite the ending as I had fun exploring each character and their past.

My murder isn’t going to solve itself.
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