Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead
A Novel
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
Named Most Anticipated by: Town & Country ・ Marie Claire ・ Goodreads・ Zibby Magazine・BookBub ・ and more
She has everything to live for―and everything to hide.
Nine years ago, with the world's eyes on her, Charlie Colbert fled. The press and the police called Charlie a "witness" to the nightmarish events at her elite graduate school on Christmas Eve―events known to the public as "Scarlet Christmas"―though Charlie knows she was much more than that.
Now, Charlie has meticulously rebuilt her life: She's the editor-in-chief of a major magazine, engaged to the golden child of the publishing industry, and hell-bent on never, ever letting her guard down again. But when a buzzy film made by one of Charlie's former classmates threatens to shatter everything she's worked for, Charlie realizes how much she's changed in nine years. Now, she's not going to let anything―not even the people she once loved most―get in her way.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Hollander treads familiar ground with her so-so debut thriller about the discovery of dark secrets pertaining to a campus tragedy. Nine years ago, a mysterious event dubbed "Scarlet Christmas" by the press left six journalism graduate students in New York City "in serious or critical condition." Three died at the hospital, including Cate Anderson, whose twin, Stephanie, was the first to discover the victims. In the present day, Stephanie, now a popular TV news anchor, plans to make a feature film about the tragedy timed to its 10-year anniversary. The announcement of her plans alarms narrator Charlotte Colbert, a Manhattan magazine editor who was present for the violence but doesn't remember exactly what happened. All she knows is that she was not a victim on that fatal night, and that she's fearful of what renewed focus on the case might turn up. Hollander doles out details about the central incident gradually, misdirecting even savvy readers as the truth about Scarlet Christmas comes to light. Unfortunately, the characterizations are thin and the reveals don't land with the force they're meant to. There's not enough here to set this apart from the pack.