Released July 22 this year, “Not Quite Dead Yet” is a murder mystery where the victim doesn’t die right away, and in her time left, she is solving her own murder. Jackson H. (2025) Not Quite Dead Yet. Common Sense Media.

If a doctor told you that you were going to be dead in a week, what would you do? Author Holly Jackson explores this question about life in her newest novel “Not Quite Dead Yet.”

Having always wanted to do something great, Jet Mason is attacked on the night of Halloween and her head injury promises an aneurysm in seven days. Jet doesn’t see surgery as an option when her chances of dying on the table is 90 percent. She would rather take and spend the seven days she is guaranteed than to gamble the rest of her time away.

In fact, she’s not only going to survive for a spare seven days, she is going to do something phenomenal: Jet wants to hunt down her own killer.

The authors previous works

Jackson is known for her popular book “A Good Girls Guide to Murder” a young adult (YA) series as well as her other YA stand alones: “Five Survive” and “The Reappearance of Rachel Price.” Notably, this is her first adult novel published.

Jackson has kept comfortably within her genre of mysteries, each one having layers of secrets way beyond what you might predict. However, this step away from her younger audience was not the best idea in my opinion.

For example, Jackson wrote about an interaction between Jet and her father after he made her a sandwich, “Jet matched his smile. ‘Won’t be my kidneys that kill me after all.’ She took another bite. He’d been liberal with the mayonnaise too. ‘I bet that’s good.’ [Her dad said] He was right. Jet already on the second half.”

This style of writing is less comprehensible because the subject is lost in the beginning of the sentence. Omitting the subject in Jet’s dialogue could be perceived as her mind already rushing her to use every second of her last week to accomplish something memorable. However, that paired with the missing ‘was’ in the narration, it feels like Jackson is trying too hard to write in a shorthand.

As the main character is 27, Jackson seemingly tried to target a more adult audience. However, I believe that if Jackson had stuck with her previous and successful writing style for teens, with the same plot line, it would have made those cringe-worthy moments less embarrassing.

This story line would have also resonated more with a younger audience because of Jet’s angsty and sarcastic nature, and the parent child relationship throughout the book. That being said, I do think the theme of appreciating the time you have is a good lesson for teenagers AND adults.

Understanding the plot setup

We all think we have a lot of time ahead of us until it can be counted on our hands. Jet knew she had to do something to live up to her parents expectations and to make up for her sister who passed away when they were kids.

“Later is a great word,” Jackson wrote as Jet’s response to her parents’ comments about her procrastination. “‘Means I never have to be useful. See you at home.’”

Jackson establishes the foundation of the theme and mystery incredibly well in all of her books, and this one especially. This metaphor, or “catchphrase,” reappears throughout the book to reinforce the familiarity of the belief that there is plenty of time.

This argument helps the reader get a sense of the tense mother daughter relationship. The way Jackson builds this back and forth is extremely immersive for the reader because you can feel the frustration from both sides. This is because what seems like Jet choosing to live the last bit of life she can, looks like a childish act of rebellion to her mom.

The irony here is what motivates Jet is the pressure to do or become something great is her family, mainly her mom. There are a lot of characters, plot lines, and secrets to balance, but the slow revealing of clues truly sends the reader chasing different suspects with Jet and her childhood best friend Billy.

Character change and lesson

In the last few days she has Jackson wrote, “Jet looked up again, beyond the leaves, to the dark sky above. Not really all that dark, actually, little silver pinpricks of stars winking down at her.”

Jackson uses a lot of descriptive language in this chapter to show how much Jet is now looking at the world and soaking it up. She’s gazing at the stars and letting the need to accomplish something take a backseat to the present moment.

“Jet had never bothered really to look up before, to try counting them, just because. ‘I was thinking,’ Billy said, ‘Nina said it was a secret that Dianne knew but her family doesn’t, so maybe it wasn’t your parents Emily overheard but-’ ‘-We don’t have to talk about it,’ Jet spoke across him,” Jackson writes.

For the first time in this whole journey, Jet doesn’t want to go over the mysteries that used to be her top priority. As a reader this slows down the pacing. She would spend hours combing through her doorbell footage from the day of the attack, even when she wouldn’t find anything new. Everything she did was with the hope of accomplishing something before she died.

Now, Jet wants to lay down and stare at the stars with Billy. This part is meant to be a pause in the chaos, even though she literally does not have much time left to live, she isn’t rushing to live it. Jackson captures this calmness incredibly well, it was like I myself was on the grass beside her.

In this rare peace between her life and her imminent death, Jet writes a letter to her mom. It’s contents, I think, are really a message to all of us on what she has learned in her time of living knowing when she will be dead.

At this final acceptance that there is no tomorrow and no more later, Jet Mason ultimately realizes that she should have released every expectation that was holding her back and simply lived doing what made her happy and herself.

I give this book a 6/10 for its extremely complex plot and profound theme.