Not Quite Dead Yet

Kristy (00:00)
Welcome to Books I Make My Husband Read, a self-described, hilarious, and heartfelt podcast where I, Kristy, the devoted book lover, curate an unexpected reading list for my husband, Jon.

Jon (00:10)
And that's me. Each episode we'll dive into lively discussions, humorous debates, and surprising insights on the books Kristy just has to make me read.

Kristy (00:18)
We're here to explore everything from timeless classics to quirky hidden gems, challenging our perspectives and inviting you to join in on the fun.

Jon (00:26)
So settle in, grab your favorite beverage, and get ready for another literary adventure.

Kristy (00:46)
Hello listeners and welcome to season 3, episode 4 of Books I Make My Husband Read. I'm your host Kristy.

Jon (00:52)
And I'm your co-host Jon, the one that Kristy makes read all these fucking books.

Kristy (00:57)
This week we'll be discussing Not Quite Dead Yet by Holly Jackson, a story about seven borrowed days, one brutal attack, and a DIY whodunit led by the would-be corpse.

Jon (01:07)
I had mixed feelings about this book. I'm not sure if it's because I listened to it versus read it, but we'll get to that. We'll get to that in the questions.

Kristy (01:17)
Well, all righty. So why did I pick this book for Jon? Well, Jon and I both read Holly Jackson's other series, A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, and we both really enjoyed that. We were at the airport looking for a book to read on our way to Florida, and Jon wasn't sure what to pick, and I had suggested this one. I hadn't read it, but I heard it was good. And since we had read Holly Jackson's other series, and I had also read another book by her as well and enjoyed it,

I thought he would enjoy this one too, so.

Jon (01:48)
Yeah, I'm glad you picked this one up in the airport. I obviously had no idea what it was about, but we were perusing and you're like, here, grab that one. We might cover that one. So I'm glad we did. I remember really enjoying A Good Girl's Guide to Murder. Man, that's really hard to say.

Kristy (02:02)
I know. It wasn't nice. It didn't even sound right once I said it.

Jon (02:05)
I know, right? And ⁓ it was nice to read something else by her and kind of get a different flavor of her writing. So ⁓ anyway, before we get into our detailed convo, we wanted to let listeners know which other books Kristy is going to make me read next, which are The Other Side of Now by Paige Harbison, which I just started reading. I'm thoroughly enjoying so far. And The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood.

Kristy (02:35)
I think I mentioned this in our last episode, but I'm so excited to discuss The Other Side of Now with you and not gonna give anything away here, but I just think it's such a wonderful story and Paige, the author, is going to join us for that episode as well. So I'm very excited for that.

Jon (02:50)
Yeah, right on. So before we get into the book summary of this book, we wanted to remind you all that you can keep up with all the books that Kristy is making me read and ultimately talk about on this podcast by following us on Instagram or TikTok.

Kristy (03:06)
And finally, if you're joining the show, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you happen to be listening to this.

Jon (03:14)
Okay then, shall we do the spoiler free book summary?

Kristy (03:19)
We shall. In seven days, Jett Mason will be dead. Jett is a daughter of one of the wealthiest families in Woodstock, Vermont. 27 years old, she's still waiting for her life to begin. I'll do it later, she always says. She has time.

Jon (03:34)
That is until Halloween night when Jett is violently attacked by an unseen intruder. She suffers a catastrophic head injury. The doctor is certain that within a week, the injury will trigger a deadly aneurysm. Jett has never thought of herself as having enemies, but now she looks at everyone in a new light. Her family, her former best friend turned sister-in-law, her ex-boyfriend, et cetera, et cetera.

Kristy (03:58)
She has at most seven days and as her condition deteriorates, she has only her childhood friend, Billy, for help. But nevertheless, she's absolutely determined to finally finish something. Jett is going to solve her own murder.

Jon (04:12)
Or is she? Wahaha!

Kristy (04:15)
No spoilers here.

Jon (04:18)
That's true. Okay. So this is the point in the podcast where I say something pithy about a better exit now or someone's going to come bash your head in like the main character of this book, but that'd be really violent. So I'm just going to say this is, this is where we are going to start talking about spoilers. So if you don't want spoilers, skedaddle.

Kristy (04:42)
Let's talk about what we thought about this book. You're up.

Jon (04:45)
So as I was alluding to in the top of the episode, I feel like I have mixed feelings about this book, but I don't know if it's because it's the book or if it's because it's the narrator that I listened to on Audible of this book. It was, she was really hard to listen to because she just used like this really whiny voice for a lot of the characters. Very nasally, she like upticked a lot of, like her inflection just felt, yeah, her inflection just felt really awkward and out of place and I just.

Kristy (05:05)
very nasally.

Jon (05:15)
it grinded me, but I got like so far into it that I'm like, I'm not going to stop listening to it and like pick up the book instead. I also just didn't have time for that. So if I cut that part out of my thought process, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I love a who done it kind of thing. I felt pretty confident through most of the book that I knew who it was only to obviously not be totally confident by the end or not correct by the end of who it wound up being. But I thought she wove.

the story really well. thought the concept is also really interesting about like, I'm going to solve my own murder was just, it's just a cool concept. Jett as a character. I feel like if I would have narrated her own voice in my head, I would have liked her more than I did in the book. ⁓ I'm sorry by listening to it. I also think that way about Billy and some of the other characters anyways. Yeah, it was a really fun read. I love those. I love who done it. So it's probably one of my favorite genres. So I'm glad you

threw this one in my lap and said, here, read this.

Kristy (06:15)
Yeah, I have enjoyed all the other Holly Jackson books that I have read, which made me really intrigued to read this one. And knowing that I have enjoyed the other ones, I didn't even read the summary or the synopsis. So I went in completely cold of what was going on. And I'm actually so glad I did because what you're saying, the premise is so intriguing. Like this person is dying because of an injury and an assault they were subject to.

Subject of assaulting. So this person is dying from an assault and they're going to solve their own murder. mean, I just feel like that's very unique and something I hadn't heard before.

Jon (06:45)
Assaulted or assaulted?

Yeah, also very you. I feel like if that happened to you, you would absolutely want to be the person to solve your own murder.

Kristy (07:02)
That's true, I really hope it never comes to that.

Jon (07:05)
I really hope it never comes to that too, for reals. But if.

Kristy (07:08)
I the idea of knowing like, I'm going to die in the next seven days or whatever, I think that's terrifying. It reminded me a lot of the measure which we read in season one and knowing when the end of your life is gonna be, whether that's in seven days or seven years, like that, I just think that's wild and fascinating to have to live with that. But I felt some of the same things that you did as well, as far as the narrator goes.

I did not enjoy her voice and I love an audio book. I mean, you know me, I'm constantly with AirPods in my ears and yeah, I did not care for her voice. And you're right, it was very whiny. In waves though, it also underscored for me how immature Jett is. So I kind of looked at it through that lens. I can see that. Like there's this, I have not grown up yet. I have not started my life. She's 27 years old and we're even gonna talk about like her immaturity level.

But I don't know, it kind of exacerbated that, guess, for me, and that's how I was able to get through it, because I'm like, yeah, this person is like a kid in a lot of ways.

Jon (08:15)
Yeah, that's fair. That's a good point. I hadn't looked at it through that lens, but I don't know if that would have made it more palatable or not, but I think it would have maybe changed the way I looked at her character or something.

Kristy (08:26)
Yeah. So besides the voice of the narrator, the person reading the book, when we think of Jett as a narrator of this story, did you feel connected with her or did you feel like her choices really frustrated you?

Jon (08:41)
It was a healthy mix of both. For me, I felt like I could relate to this innate desire in her to like, not necessarily wait for what's next, though I have sort of done that a lot in my life too. It's like, well, I'm gonna wait to do that until this thing happens. I'm gonna wait to do that until this thing happens, which we've talked about in our personal life before. But just like that idea that I need to be successful. I need to like be this,

version or like this narrative of myself that I had when I was, you know, a ye lad. And it's just like, why do I feel like I have to keep living up to that? Or why do I have to feel like I have to keep not meeting that expectation, which could have been a totally erroneous expectation set up anyway. like that part for character, felt like I could relate to, but

Kristy (09:18)
A ye lad.

Jon (09:37)
I actually thought her humor was pretty funny. I think she was pretty dry. think she was funny. And so, yeah, mean, I guess now, like hearing myself talk about it, I feel like maybe I connected with her more than I found her things frustrating. She had frustrating moments in the book for sure. Like going into, not leaving the burning building, like when they went into the office to go find that paperwork and then they realized it started burning. Like she didn't leave with Billy.

Kristy (09:41)
think she was hilarious.

Jon (10:04)
and she like wanted to make sure she had the laptop or she wanted to try to make sure she had some like proof or whatever. Yeah, I don't know. I guess the way I'm talking about it, yeah, I probably connected with her more than I found things frustrating. What about you?

Kristy (10:15)
I mean, I hear all the things that you're saying and I don't necessarily disagree with them, but I also kept asking myself, well, I mean, like for instance, like staying, risking and staying in the burning building, it's like, well, she's gonna die anyway. No, horrible. That's fucking horrible. You're right. But for her, the risk was worth it because

Jon (10:30)
Do you really wanna die being- That sounds fucking awful.

Kristy (10:42)
this isn't end she's going to meet. It's not like you and I, we need to get out of a burning building, because life is happening. For her, she needed this proof. She needed to know. She was driven by this sense of solving this murder. So I get it. I think for me, what I thought was just stone cold is the way she treated her family.

And basically she has one week to live and she's like, I'm going to hang out with my old best friend, Billy.

Jon (11:13)
Yeah, that's true. That's a great point.

Kristy (11:16)
and just not hang around at her family at all. And so I was like, that's cold because I think she had a really awkward childhood growing up with her sister dying and some of the dynamics there. But she had this opportunity to really connect and maybe make the most of that last week, which it sounded like her mom wanted to do, although her mom was very annoying. But she just chooses like, nope, I'm doing this thing.

It felt heartbreaking if you you think from her family's perspective, but I'm gonna kind of get it too. I mean with how it sounds like she was treated a lot.

Jon (11:57)
Yeah, I was just, that's exactly what I was just gonna say. Like how it was portrayed that she was treated growing up and blamed for her younger sister's death and living in her shadow. I just couldn't imagine like the weight and emotional weight and like, you know, a whole nother tier and dynamic of not living up to expectations kind of thing. Yeah. Yeah. Not yet. What else? Oh, also funny fact.

Kristy (12:07)
I living in her shadow.

Jon (12:26)
The whole time I was like listening to this book and the name Jett, I couldn't not picture the character Jett from Law & Order: Organized Crime, the computer girl, the like tiny little like, she's just who I pictured in my head. And so it was just like this weird mismatch of visuals in my head of that character, voice in that character, the narrator's voice. was weird. Anyways, that's.

Kristy (12:40)
Oh my god!

Jon (12:54)
That's who I had in my head just because her name on the show is Jett.

Kristy (12:57)
Even if I was yet. Yeah, that's funny. I don't know that I even thought that.

Jon (13:03)
It just popped in there.

Kristy (13:05)
All so imagine that you were in the same position as Jett with only a few days left to live. What parts of your life would you want answers to? Would you also take advantage of the fact that you had no consequences in quotation marks?

Jon (13:18)
Yeah, right. Okay, I'll answer the second part of that first. I don't think that I would go balls to the wall, no consequences. And I think my mind was changed by that. Maybe not changed, but I got a new perspective in our last episode when we talked to the author, Jessica Guerrero, and she was talking about, ⁓ and you can go listen to that episode, episode three of this season, is she was telling a story about her sponsor and how her sponsor was diagnosed with terminal, like a terminal disease, and how

like ultimately she now had this like concept of no consequences, but she told the story of like dying with grace that she didn't just like start trying all these things that maybe she never tried or like fell back into the addictive past or yeah. Like there was still like that grace about it. I'm like, that just really like that just stuck with me. And so I don't think that I would do like the whole no consequences thing. I, what parts of my life would I want answers to?

Kristy (14:19)
Are you wanting to know who the second gunman on the grassy knoll was or something like that?

Jon (14:25)
No,

Kristy (14:27)
You

really want to like, you want to go into town and see if we can get the Epstein files?

Jon (14:35)
Okay, that I might try. Like I might risk going to prison. That might be worth it, sure. I would probably do that. That sounds good to me.

Kristy (14:41)
That's what I mean. It doesn't have to be like risky behavior, but it could be something that like could, know, cause you jailed, I guess. Yeah. And what I mean, risky behavior, like experimenting with drugs or something.

Jon (14:52)
Sure, sure, Yeah, I don't know what, like, I don't feel like I have big gaping holes in my past that I'd be like, that are like these giant mysteries that I'd be like, man, I wonder.

Kristy (15:02)
You're not really estranged from someone or...

Jon (15:05)
Yeah, right. I don't have a lot of those kind of dynamics in my life. In that way, I've kind of led a pretty boring life from that point of view. It's not a personal point.

Kristy (15:16)
You meant before the last 14 years, right? The last 14 years have been wild.

Jon (15:24)
Wild. Yes, of course. Of course that's what I meant. So yeah, I don't know. What about you? I feel like my guess would be like, you don't have big gaping holes in your past that you'd want answers to either, but I don't know. How would you answer that question? What would you want answers to?

Kristy (15:43)
think I have anything I would want to answer. I'm not looking for answers. I'm not waiting, you know, for, I don't know, reconciliation on like something or with someone or anything like that. But actually that's not even true. But nothing that I'm, I don't know, I have guilt over, I should say. It would be nice if something's resolved, but I don't have guilt over it. However, my thought when I was reading this about Jett, I was like,

can she travel? I mean, I don't know with like the possible brain aneurysm portion and like just literally waiting for that to happen if travel was an option, but I'd be like wanting to like, I don't know, jet set for the seven days that I had and like see, you know, a couple of things that I haven't seen. I think that's what I would wanna do. I don't even think about that.

Jon (16:35)
Jett set, nice pun.

Yeah, that's probably what I would want to do too. I would want to go see and experience things that I would be disappointed that I'm not going to get to do this thing, you know? Yeah, that's probably, yeah, I'd probably do something like that.

Kristy (16:51)
All right, discuss the work that the police do in the book. What do their moments of inadequacy or refusal to listen to Jett convey? How does this relate to the current discourse surrounding police? Ask him the tough questions here.

Jon (17:03)
Yeah, you are. I mean, you have a 27 year old with no experience or expertise in crime solving and she's putting the pieces together. She's finding the murder weapon. She's understanding like what to look at with her phone and that there was like fresh cement poured and going, know, making the effort to go pound that out. It was kind of all over the place.

the inadequacies, I think they were just waiting. Honestly, I don't even know what the police was.

Kristy (17:42)
I think it was like confirmation bias. I mean with her boy with JJ

Jon (17:47)
Yeah,

yeah, yeah, because there was like circumstantial evidence they couldn't locate him. He had sort of disappeared after Halloween night.

Kristy (17:55)
He sent a weird text to her.

Jon (17:57)
Right, right. And so that just immediately made him the prime suspect. And then they have like usual like have tunnel vision and can't really like look at anything else. How does it relate to current discourse? I mean, do we want to touch that subject right now?

Kristy (18:14)
No, you don't have to. ⁓

Jon (18:18)
⁓ What are your thoughts on the inadequacies of the detective in the text of this book?

Kristy (18:28)
Well, I was very frustrated with him and actually, technically it was a chief, I actually think, but Jett at no point doesn't just say to him, he, JJ didn't do it. Here's what JJ meant when he sent that. Here's why he didn't do it. Like all these things, like I felt she could have, not that this is her job, don't get me wrong. This is not Jett's job to convince a police that it's not JJ, but she had information, I felt that.

pointed to his innocence that she chose not to share at certain points. But you're right, like they did a shoddy job of finding evidence that Jett ends up uncovering herself now. She also goes through means that the police aren't able to because there's laws that they have to follow. So it's a little unfair. So it definitely speaks to the police honing it on a suspect that

has the limited resources and them just going after that person.

Jon (19:28)
Yeah, and then throw in the mix that she's a woman too doesn't help that you've got an office full of men who will like, we got this, we're men, we know better. can do more pushups than you. I can do more pushups than you.

Kristy (19:45)
You can actually grow a baby inside you and develop organs and things like that, but I can do more pushups, so I'm clearly...

Jon (19:52)
The stronger species. Clearly. ⁓ But we're not bitter about that. ⁓

Kristy (20:00)
Alright, so who did you suspect first and what made you doubt or trust that person?

Jon (20:08)
Okay, so I definitely thought it was her brother. I thought her brother was shady from the beginning. I thought his attitude was weird. right. I thought he like, he was clearly had a single source of truth in his life. And that was that he was gonna do whatever it took to become the next owner of Mason Construction. But I could never piece together the why. And even as she started to uncover some of the

paper trail and what he was doing at Mason construction. I just didn't understand what getting rid of Jett really would benefit him. Like I know there was the point about how her dad wasn't gonna give the business to either of them because it wasn't fair to either of them or something like that. So like it was plausible that, okay, if I remove this obstacle, then I will definitely get the business. But even that felt extreme for him.

But he was like my prime suspect through most of the book.

Kristy (21:09)
and then we find out how sussy seems, sorry. Then we find out how sussy seems in relation to the death of the older sister.

Jon (21:18)
Yeah, definitely. And his wife, Sophie too, was all kinds of sus. I actually thought she could be the one because you're thinking about the murder, it's with a blunt object. It was from behind, taken by surprise. Like that could very well have been done by a woman ⁓ without like the "weaker species." I wasn't gonna say it.

Kristy (21:45)
I just had to add that.

Jon (21:47)
I know you did. So I was like, it could have been, it could have been a woman. It could have been, and she clearly was like the, he deserves, and this was also the narrator, like, he deserves it. He's worked so hard. I'm like, ⁓ God, so obnoxious. I'm sorry, narrator, but that was not your best work. And then like, there was like a ⁓ millisecond.

that it could have been Billy early on. And I only say that because I'm like, ⁓ here's a guy inserting himself into the investigation and like staying close to the victim. But like I said, that was a male. Right. I really never, sadly, I never, don't think I ever really picked up on the dad. If it did, it was fleeting as a concept of Billy's dad, Jack, who winds up, you know, ultimately being

Kristy (22:25)
watching cop dramas. ⁓

Jon (22:42)
the one who did commit it, he was just so generous and caring, but he was like a family friend. He lived across the street. He was Billy's dad. And so I don't think I ever really like gave him an honest thought. those are mine. didn't think it was, obviously it wasn't the parents. never thought it was JJ. I didn't think it was the alcoholic at the bar. So yeah, what about you?

Kristy (23:08)
So I thought a lot of the same things you thought, except I did suspect Jack and kind of just process of elimination, to be honest. So, because it's gotta be someone we know. It's not just gonna be this random person. It's gotta be someone in the story that we've heard about. I didn't really suspect either of her parents. They were not in my mind probable suspects.

Both, you're right, both her brother and the wife, Luke and Sophie, are both suspicious for other reasons. And at both times, I thought it could be either one of them. I didn't really think it would be Billy, although like you said, it kind of pointed to him a part in the book, but that just didn't really fit to me. I never suspected JJ or the guy at the bar, which were other like suspects as well. And what really kind of made me think about it was,

how often they kept bringing up Billy's missing mother who just leaves. And these two have been like next door neighbors. So these families are next door neighbors for like a long time. And like, okay, there's gotta be something here that relates because this has been brought up enough that's going to relate to the other part of the story. So I kind of thought there was something there. I wasn't a hundred percent sure, but that was just like where my mind went, I guess.

Jon (24:35)
Yeah, that checks. That's a good point. I forgot about the the mom dynamic in that.

Kristy (24:42)
And then when they mentioned that, wait, my mom didn't vote for your dad for chief, even though they've been friends and neighbors for 20 years or whatever. I'm like, okay, there's something there. Like his dad is involved in something.

Jon (24:55)
Yeah.

Yeah, okay, see that's just you being a good book reader. I remember that comment happening, but it was very just like, it just flew over my head.

Kristy (25:09)
And also, mean, as unbiased as I imagine you wanna be as a police officer, detective, Billy's dad is in this part of the investigation. He knows his family for 20 years. He knows Jett. I just feel like he would be giving her more information and trying to help her out and listen to her too. And he just like wasn't doing that in the book. So I was like, okay, why isn't he doing that?

Jon (25:40)
Well, there were moments where he was giving information that he shouldn't have given to to jet where, you know, the investigator was getting upset with him and Jett was like, "Sorry!"

Kristy (25:49)
Yeah, I guess I thought it out other moments and I was like, okay, I don't know, I just think something was going on there. So what eventually made you trust Luke? Because I think he's probably the number one suspect as you're reading it.

Jon (26:03)
Yeah, I think it was after Mason Construction burned down, he just stood there at the gate longing for what was no longer really ever gonna be for him. If he'd been the one to try to kill her first and then he was the one who had set fire to the building and tried to kill her second time, I just don't think he would just go there to stand there and reminisce of like what could have been. I think that's the point where I finally was just like, it's not.

Kristy (26:35)
I felt he was standing there because of, so we learned that he is paying people under the table to like avoid taxes. And I thought he had like canceled the insurance on the building. And so when it burned, he was like, fuck, I'm screwed because I also.

have no insurance on this building, because her dad says, that's what, her dad's not concerned by it. It's like, that's why we have insurance. Like, that's just a place. It's not like the business, it's just a place. But that never came up. There was always like loose ends, I feel like, small things like that that came up that I thought, and maybe that wasn't the case, but I thought it was. I thought that's why he hangs around the site.

Jon (27:21)
That's great. I never, yeah, that's a great thought. I never would have put that together, but very plausible based on the behavior, his behavior throughout the story. So.

Kristy (27:29)
Yeah.

Alright, so beyond Jett, which other characters are neither wholly good nor wholly evil within the story? Let's talk about their motivations and complexities and whether or not you sympathized with them.

Jon (27:43)
I think most of them are neither holy good or holy bad. Evil. Evil. I think they all had dark secrets that they were withholding from.

Kristy (27:58)
Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated!

Jon (28:01)
Nice. I love that show. think, I mean, really, I think the only one who was probably wholesome was Billy. And he was probably the only one that was like really straight and narrow. Everyone else was fucked up to every certain degree. What do you think?

Kristy (28:19)
Yeah, not like, I guess not just fucked up, but hiding big dark secrets. mean, there's the mother's affair, there's how the older sister died, there's tax evasion, there's a bunch of shit with the business. so there's just, ⁓ in the stuff with JJ, like he did take out a loan in her name to like pay for his brother. I mean, he had...

good intentions, he was trying to pay for his brother. Yeah, medical bills, which was Jett's brother's fault, but like her brother has anger issues. So there's like a lot of stuff going on. And I was just like thinking about my own family and friends or our own family and friends. like, do all our own family and friends have like all these dark secrets or do we just like have a really boring circle?

Jon (28:50)
for it.

Sadly, I think we just have a really boring circle. I wish it was more exciting.

Kristy (29:21)
Because I feel like you hear about this stuff a lot though, that like I found this out and it's just like crazy thing. And it's like, what? mean, we've said this many times even on this podcast, like everyone has secrets, but the ones revealed in this book were wild.

Jon (29:37)
and it was all from one family and all covered in like less than a week.

Kristy (29:41)
Right, I know. Yeah. So how satisfied were you with the final chapters and the emotional fallout? What resolution or lack of a resolution stuck with you?

Jon (29:52)
Okay, I, throughout the whole book, I was like, please don't let her like miraculously live or she solves it while she's still alive. I just felt like that would have been.

Kristy (30:06)
You didn't want her to solve it? ⁓

Jon (30:08)
No,

I don't not to be cruel, I'm just like trying to not that this is not I mean, it's obviously it's a fictional story. So I realize it's not real, but I'm like, okay, she's been given this. She's been given this news. She has like this very severe diagnosis from this doctor multiple times over. you know, she goes back in and, and I'm just like, don't let it just magically click. And then like right before she dies, like I guess I didn't want that to happen. I didn't.

Maybe it wasn't, it was less that like, want her to over. And then crack. Yeah. then cover, yeah. So I didn't want that to happen. So as far as the ending goes, like I thought that felt realistic for lack of a better word. I was obviously sad. The way that that whole scene unfolded was very, very emotional. Sad. I think I probably would have been more emotional if like the narrator wasn't so shitty, but

Kristy (30:40)
and then like keel over?

Super emotional.

Jon (31:07)
It was, it was very tragic and heartbreaking. And I just couldn't imagine being in that situation. Also poor Billy, he's been like witnessed to so many deaths in like his life there now, like Jett twice practically. Emily, the younger daughter. So traumatized.

Kristy (31:25)
Billy is traumatized.

Billy needs therapy.

Jon (31:31)
He's

gonna need some serious therapy. So what do I think about the actual ending ending though? That felt incomplete, I guess I'll say. But I would love to hear your thoughts on the ending though first, like how that all, like the whole, all of it unfolded before we go to your next question about that particular instance.

Kristy (31:51)
So I wanted her to solve the murder, but I didn't even think about what you said. Like she solves it and then like dead in one scene. Like I wasn't even thinking that was a possibility, but I did want her to solve the murder. I also kind of wanted her to live, but I think I'd been mad if she did live because really it's not a possibility. Like she is going to die. This thing is going to happen. It's science.

Jon (32:20)
Yeah.

Kristy (32:21)
But I got to, I liked that a lot.

Jon (32:25)
Wait, did you like Jett pre-injury or Jett post-injury as she was like going through the self discovery and realization?

Kristy (32:35)
Jett is a product of her circumstance and when that was removed from her and she didn't have to worry about that and live in that, she became a different person in those seven days. She became the person I think she like wanted to be. She was like free from the expectations of her family. She was free from, need to be this because my dead sister was supposed to be this and that's what my family like wants of me or I think that's what they want of me.

I don't think that's totally true. I think she was felt that way as a youth and continued to perpetuate that own reality for herself. But whether that's true or untrue, like I think she really became this version of herself in the end that she could have continued on living that way. There were some things that we talked about, I just didn't feel like were wrapped up. Specifically the part with like,

Jon (33:23)
Yeah, I agree with that.

Kristy (33:33)
What is going on, like Luke and the business, like, yeah, he shoots someone, he's gonna go to prison anyway, but like, I wanna know what else happened with the business. Like, where's that closeout chapter? like, are those people that he's kinda screwed out of payroll compensation, are like, they going to be given money? Are they gonna pay for JJ Brothers, Henry Lim's like medical bills that Jett left, you know, her savings to? What's going on with...

Billy's missing mother who just like left after she found out or she thought that actually her husband was having an affair. She thought it was with the sister, which is why she like took off and left because she thought something was gonna bat. But I really thought that the mother was gonna somehow come back into the picture or we were gonna learn more about like the stuff she wrote in her journals. I thought there's just gonna be like more.

like super sleuthing investigation on that part. So I felt a little unfulfilled in that, but I didn't hate the ending, but I just didn't get the wrap up I wanted, I guess. So what is, so you already talked a little bit about this, but what was your reaction to Luke's decision to shoot his biological father, Jack? Does this act of justice truly offer redemption or does it perpetuate the cycle of violence?

Jon (34:38)
Yeah, I agree with that.

absolutely perpetuates the cycle of violence. I knew it was gonna happen and I was equally as upset when it actually did happen. As soon as Billy said, Luke has been listening to this entire conversation, I was like, this is a terrible fucking idea. Bad idea. they just said like, he set the gun down. He had kind of given up. To show his father he wasn't gonna actually do anything to him. I'm like, Billy, you clearly don't know Luke that well.

Kristy (35:08)
idea.

Do

you think Billy did know?

Jon (35:22)
No, because of the way he reacted and how just like, he was screaming at him to stop and screaming, like trying to stop. He actually tackled him, you know, for the first shot in the house before he picked the gun back up and then chased after Jack. It didn't surprise me. That was Luke's reaction. Like his reaction when Jett told him in the car that their dad wasn't gonna sell the business or give the business to him. He was gonna sell it to his.

His overreaction, yeah, thanks. Just in a car to that news. And now he's learning this. I'm like, yeah, that escalation was definitely primed to happen. So, didn't surprise me. It annoyed me. It was not justice. do not think, I think Jack got the easier way out. I think he should have like...

Kristy (36:12)
What about Luke? Because remember Luke's the one who killed Emily. It was an accident, he was a kid, but he's the one who killed Emily. He's the one who has been doing all the shady shit with the business and screwing people over.

Jon (36:27)
⁓ Maybe he'll finally have to face all of that truth and look himself in the mirror and go to some anger management classes. I don't know. But everything I was talking about before was about Jack because he's no longer there to have a say or have anything else happen to him. He's dead.

Kristy (36:48)
Yeah, I just think that Billy, I mean, again, Billy, think is the good character in this novel who doesn't have some secrets, but he really sets these two characters up for an ending that I don't think either of them really deserve.

Jon (37:06)
Yes, I would agree. Deserved. Sure.

Kristy (37:09)
I mean, yeah, maybe that's not, and I don't mean deserved in a positive sense. You know, I mean, just like both of them having to reckon with their own decisions and choices. All right, so this is Holly Jackson's first adult novel, but in my opinion, it still had a lot of like YA energy in it. How did the tone voice work for you and like, what are your thoughts there?

Jon (37:14)
Yeah.

Right.

I don't know that I would really know any difference. It didn't feel like a YA novel, maybe just that she was in her 20s? I don't know if that's what constitutes a YA novel or not. I don't know that I would know as far as like tone and voice. Give me your expert point of view on... You've obviously, yeah. You obviously have more diverse knowledge in this kind of topic. I would love to just better understand.

Kristy (38:00)
So for me, it did feel like it's still read YA, even though we're dealing with characters who are older. But think about Jett and think about Billy, who are the people who get the most time on our pages. Jett doesn't have a job, Jett is not married, Jett is not in a serious relationship of any kind, she doesn't have children. And same goes for Billy. He's working at a restaurant.

Jon (38:26)
And then doing like music gigs and stuff on the side. Yeah

Kristy (38:30)
And there's nothing wrong with that. Don't misunderstand me. But I feel like they're both living in this world like they're still 21 or they're still 20. And so some of the decisions and things that they do still feel very YA to me. Like Jett's really never had to grow up. She doesn't have true responsibilities. And I think that's probably very character specific. ⁓

And don't get me wrong, I love YA, so it's not that.

Jon (39:02)
Yeah, it's not a good or bad thing. It's just a...

Kristy (39:04)
Right, I'm not faulting this book for being YA, but I do think it almost could have been, I mean, I guess maybe you really can't, but I still felt like it had that YA leaning to me.

Jon (39:15)
I got it. Okay, that makes sense to me.

Kristy (39:18)
So, any final thoughts? Would you recommend this book to our listeners?

Jon (39:24)
Remember when I never used to have final thoughts and you'd get really mad at me?

Kristy (39:28)
You have some or you just like totally? you do.

Jon (39:30)
Well, that was, I'm just, I do, I have some. Yeah,

I do. No idea.

Kristy (39:35)
No, I still, I don't know if you're joking or not yet. So go ahead, give me your final thoughts.

Jon (39:40)
I thought it was a really fun, who'd done it read the characters. Some of them are maddening. like Jett was really funny. I thought she was a great main character. Billy's loyalty and support was sweet. And yeah, it kept me guessing. And it's my favorite genre in that way. And I thought I did think for a little while that it was like maybe gonna be too predictable, but I'm glad that it wasn't. And...

I would, I would recommend, I would not recommend someone listen to this book. I would definitely recommend someone pick up the hard paperback version of this book and read it. ⁓ Even though there's, even though I realize there's no difference between the consumption of the story between those two. In this case, I do think there is.

Kristy (40:28)
Well, there's no difference to saying, read this book, but you listen to this book or however you want to phrase it. Your mind does not care how you get the information to it, but how you experience it is what you're saying. Yes.

Jon (40:46)
The experience of this story I think would have been very different if I had read it and like created the character voices in my own way and not a funky inflection. Billy!

Kristy (40:55)
That's totally fair.

That's literally how it is.

Jon (41:03)
I know, it's so annoying. Anyway, what about you? What are your final thoughts?

Kristy (41:10)
I'd definitely would recommend this book. I am really glad that I kind of went in not knowing what it was about because I thought that made the experience for me very fun going, ooh, this is really interesting. We mentioned this at the beginning. We really enjoyed the A Good Girl's Guide to Murder. So if you have or haven't read this book, recommend it. But if you've read this book and you're interested in other Holly Jackson books, definitely recommend that series.

Personally, I think you can skip the third one. It kind of ruined it for me, but I still think they're worth reading. And I really also enjoyed The Disappearance of Rachel Price, which was her last, Holly Jackson's last novel. thought that was really fun. It honestly kept me guessing, I think, until the very end. I think he would like that one too, actually. But yeah, I recommend this. I concur. mean, the audio did not...

Jon (42:01)
Right on.

Kristy (42:06)
bother me as much as I've bothered you, but I understand why it bothers you. I totally understand. And maybe honestly, why it felt like it had this young adult vibes even more because the narrator sounds like a teenager.

Jon (42:11)
You

Yeah, I would agree with that. Yep, that's a great point.

Kristy (42:27)
Well, we wanted to remind everyone that the next two books in our lineup are The Other Side of Now by Paige Harbison and The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood. And as always, don't forget that a free way to support our show is by leaving us a review and rating us on Apple Podcasts. Also, if you don't want to us, but you have a question or feedback on the show, you can email us at booksimakemyhusbandread @ gmail.com. We would love to hear from you and we will always give you a shout out on the show.

Jon (42:55)
Yeah, we will. And don't forget to tell another book lover about the show. That's always a great way to.

Kristy (43:00)
Yes, and that's very much appreciated. Well, I guess that's it.

Jon (43:04)
That's another one in the books, baby cakes.

Kristy (43:07)
Well, who knows? Maybe this will be the one your husband reads.

Jon (43:12)
WREEK! WREEK WREEK!

We can say peace out Billy, because there's a real Billy character!

Kristy (43:20)
Peace out, Billy. If you don't know what peace out Billy means, send us a DM on Instagram or TikTok and we will tell you and then we will send you some swag.

Jon (43:34)
I like that. Hey!

Kristy (43:35)
Where's Perry?

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