Not Quite Dead Yet

Publication Date: July 2025| Thanks NetGalley for an ARC

Overall Verdict: An adult novel that still reads like YA.  There is some potential and suspense, but between an awkward writing style and a lack of a genuine main character, this falls flat.

2/5 Stars

Book Summary: 27-year-old Jet has returned home after attempting college, deciding that she would figure out how else to make her mark on the world.  On Halloween night however, she is attacked and sustains a severe head injury.  Doctors inform Jet that she has only seven days left to live, before succumbing to an aneurysm.  Determined to piece together who attempted to murder her and why, she teams up with a childhood friend to track down evidence and suspects.  As her condition deteriorates with each passing day, Jet realizes her family and friends have more secrets than she could have imagined.

My Analysis:  Jackson is attempting to break into adult novels with Not Quite Dead Yet, but this still reads very much like her YA works.  Other than it being a character in her twenties and the fact that there is a bit more profanity scattered throughout, there really isn’t much that would make it stand out as an adult title.  Which may work for some crossover YA readers who could be interested.  Overall, I was disappointed with her writing.  The sentence structure was very abrupt and disjointed and it took away from the narrative.  There is potential with this title and the idea of a woman solving her attempted murder under a time crunch.  I think the best part of the entire novel was Jet’s relationship and reconnection with her childhood friend.  I did find Jet’s character to be very unlikeable.  Which may have partly been intentional, but it made it challenging for me to even be on her side to want to know what happened to her.  I do also think that she was far too glib about the concept of her dying.  She would continually make unnecessary jokes or put off people who wanted to see her when she knew she had a limited window left.  I found that to be a bit disingenuous and it actually bothered me on a personal level.  There were some moments of suspense throughout which were mildly intriguing, but I will admit I did see the “big twists” coming.  If you are a YA reader and a fan of her other novels, you may also enjoy this one.  If you are an adult mystery thriller reader, I’d skip this one.