© 2026 ABC News

Read along with us and join the conversation all month on our Instagram account, @GMABookClub, and with #GMABookClub.

***************************

Jet walked across The Green, onto the street beyond. It was dark, but not yet late enough to worry about it.

The town was still thrumming and shrieking, with departing cars and the undead.

A gaggle of teenagers outside the little church, too loud and giggly for just sugar. Found Mom and Dad's liquor cabinet, she'd bet.

Past the houses beyond, Jack-o'-lanterns still glowing outside, mean triangle eyes glaring back at her.

Someone hadn't bothered carving theirs; just a bunch of naked pumpkins and gourds, lining the steps up to their front door.

Jet turned up College Hill Road, saluting the skeleton hanging outside the Romanos' at number 1, its limbs creaking and flailing in the fall breeze. Up the hill to number 10.

Home.

This big obnoxious house that Dad had renovated and extended, and extended again.

It stuck out against the normal houses on the street, against the Finneys' directly opposite at number 7.

Jet might just hate the Masons too, you know.

She jogged up the large, ringed driveway, past her truck, giving it an affectionate pat on the cargo bed.

A Ford F-150 in powder-blue. Mom thought Jet had bought it just to piss her off.

Mom wasn't totally wrong.

Just one Jack-o'-lantern outside their red front door, but its eyes had blown out, gone dark.

A bucket on the front step with a sign: Please help yourself. One candy per person. What world did her mom live in? Damn, the bucket was empty. F--kers.

Jet searched her jacket pocket for her house keys, the Ring doorbell camera eyeing her, so she eyed it back, stuck out her tongue.

She unlocked the front door, and Reggie was at her feet in a rush of red fur and a helicopter tail, the happy squeaks he only made for her. He jumped up and pawed her knees.

\"Hello, hello, handsome. Who's a good boy, huh?\"

Jet bent to tickle him behind the ears. Those silly, long, English cocker spaniel ears.

The dog ran off, skittering around the corner and back two seconds later.

\"Oh, did you bring me some dirty socks?\" Jet said, thumbing his muzzle, the proud wiggle of his little body at the sacred offering. \"Thank you so much, my absolute favorite.\"

Jet closed the front door and moved through the hall, crisp white walls and Moroccan rugs, too neat, too styled, like a show home, and -- man -- was Jet in trouble every time she dared to treat it like a home, dropping crumbs or leaving her boots out.

Through to the kitchen at the back of the house, Reggie trotting in behind her.

There was a plate of cookies on the kitchen island. Sophia had baked them, dropped them around earlier, black-iced bats and orange pumpkins.

Sophia did things like that. Baked.

Jet picked up a bat, bit off its head. Damn, they were actually good.

She finished it off, wiping her sticky fingers on one of the dishtowels by the stove, a matching set of three: little marching lemons, and oranges and avocados, because everything had to match in this house.

Jet turned and passed the cookies again. F--k it, actually; she took one of the pumpkins too, wandering through the wide, corniced archway into the living room.

Cookie in mouth, she reached into her pocket for her phone. Unlocked.

Thumb finding Instagram before her eyes did. She bit off half the pumpkin, the sweet orange icing cloying against her tongue.

Girls from school or college who were now married, having anniversaries and babies. Or no weddings and babies, but fancy dinners and sipping glasses of champagne to celebrate new jobs.

That could have been Jet too, a humble-brag post about a big promotion at a firm with an acronym everyone pretended to recognize. If she hadn't quit and left Boston overnight.

Jet finished off the cookie, sticky fingers against the screen. It didn't matter. Jet had time to find the right thing; she had all the time in the world, remember?

And then life would really begin, and when it did, you better believe she'd be shoving it down all of their throats in return. Just you wait.

Reggie stood in front of her, started to whine.

\"Sorry bud. Human cookies.\"

The whine lowered, sinking into a growl.

\"Wh–\"

A rush of feet behind.

A fast crack to the back of her head, the wet of splitting skin, crunch of skull.

The phone slips from her hands. No growl anymore but a scream. Jet should scream too but another explosion, harder.

The feel of blood, the sound of things breaking inside her head.

Someone's killing her.

Jet can still think that, but she blinks and the light doesn't come back and....

***************************

Audio excerpted courtesy of Penguin Random House Audio from \"Not Quite Dead Yet\" by Holly Jackson, read by Alex McKenna. © 2025 Holly Jackson, ℗ 2025 Penguin Random House, LLC. All rights reserved.

From \"NOT QUITE DEAD YET\" published by arrangement with Bantam, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC. Copyright © 2025 by Holly Jackson.

","canonicalUrl":"https://abcnews.com/GMA/Culture/dead-holly-jackson-gma-book-club-pick-august/story?id=123915621","legacySlug":"/culture/story/dead-holly-jackson-gma-book-club-pick-august-123915621","noIndexNoFollow":false},"publishTime":"12:21","publishDate":"07-22-2025","updatedTime":"13:49","updatedDate":"07-22-2025","socialImage":{"alt":"'Not Quite Dead Yet' by Holly Jackson is the 'GMA' Book Club pick for August. ","credit":"Courtesy of Bantam, Adobe","ratio":"16x9","url":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/MainImage_AugBookClub_v01_sd_1753124220988_hpMain_16x9_1600.jpg","width":992,"height":558},"datePublished":"7/22/2025 12:21:00 GMT","video":{"live":false,"id":123915621,"headline":"'Not Quite Dead Yet' is our August Book Club pick","mediaAssetTitle":"GMA BOOK CLUB AUGUST 2025","description":"This twisty thriller follows a young woman trying to solve her own murder.","duration":"4:51","posterImg":{"url":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/default-img-undefined.png","width":608,"height":342},"video":{"feed":"https://service-pkgabcnews.akamaized.net/opp/hls/abcnews/2025/07/250722_gma_jackson_book_847_,500,800,1200,1800,2500,3200,4500,.mp4.csmil/playlist.m3u8"},"playlist":["81520726","123407122","122336098"]},"relatedItems":[{"contentType":"story","date":"May 26, 2026","headline":"Shop 'GMA' Book Club picks","section":"culture","slug":"/culture/story/shop-gma-book-club-picks-list--81520726","id":81520726,"image":{"alt":"Shop 'GMA' Book Club picks","url":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/MainImage_ShopGMABookClub_120925_v01_1765302913046_hpMain_4x3t_240.jpg","credit":"Bookshop.org, Adobe","ratio":"1x1"}},{"contentType":"video","date":"July 2, 2025","headline":"Kate and Charlie Gibson share top summer reading picks","section":"living","slug":"/video/123407122","id":123407122,"image":{"alt":"Kate and Charlie Gibson share top summer reading picks","url":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/250702_gma_gibson2_hpMain_1x1_240.jpg","credit":"ABCNews.com","ratio":"1x1"}},{"contentType":"story","date":"June 3, 2025","headline":"'Atmosphere' by Taylor Jenkins Reid is our 'GMA' Book Club pick for June","section":"culture","slug":"/culture/story/atmosphere-taylor-jenkins-reid-gma-book-club-pick-122336098","id":122336098,"image":{"alt":"'Atmosphere' by Taylor Jenkins Reid is our 'GMA' Book Club pick for June","url":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/MainImage_JuneBookClub_v01_sd_1748638496997_hpMain_4x3t_240.jpg","credit":" Courtesy Ballantine Book, Adobe","ratio":"1x1"}}],"relatedContentSection":"news","schemaContent":{"name":"'Not Quite Dead Yet' is our August Book Club pick","description":"This twisty thriller follows a young woman trying to solve her own murder.","duration":"4:51","uploadDate":"07-22-2025","publication":"07-22-2025","images":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/default-img-undefined.png","url":"https://service-pkgabcnews.akamaized.net/opp/hls/abcnews/2025/07/250722_gma_jackson_book_847_,500,800,1200,1800,2500,3200,4500,.mp4.csmil/playlist.m3u8","contentUrl":"https://service-pkgabcnews.akamaized.net/opp/hls/abcnews/2025/07/250722_gma_jackson_book_847_,500,800,1200,1800,2500,3200,4500,.mp4.csmil/playlist.m3u8","link":"https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/culture/story/dead-holly-jackson-gma-book-club-pick-august-123915621"}},"playlist":[{"id":"133482839","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"133390157","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"133415361","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"133414032","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"133380485","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"133358298","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"133350119","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"133307515","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"133307527","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"133282665","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"133220149","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"133179167","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"133144373","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"133144059","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"133143081","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"133075455","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"133063114","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"133063086","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"133015093","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"132998564","contentType":"story","section":"news"}],"kvps":{"pgtyp":"article","lang":"en","sp":"goodmorningamerica","programmatic":"true","bundleId":"com.abcnews"}},"analytics":{"accountID":"wdgnewwdgnewgmaweb","ns":"gma","pageName":"gma:culture:video","pageType":"video","globalSpecVersion":"v1.08","siteDifferentiator":"gma:site","tagID":"g_page01","userABCookie":"0","section":"culture","title":"'Not Quite Dead Yet' is our August Book Club pick","pubTime":"08:21","pubDate":"07-22-2025","modTime":"09:49","modDate":"07-22-2025","taxonomyTags":"none","id":123915621,"editorialOtherSubjects":"","wordCount":"none","columns":"none","authors":"","authorsUnit":"none","authorsBureau":"none","subBrand":"Good Morning America","provider":"Good Morning America","videoName":"'Not Quite Dead Yet' is our August Book Club pick","mediaAssetTitle":"GMA BOOK CLUB AUGUST 2025","videoId":123915621,"mediaOnPage":"video","legacySlug":"/culture/story/dead-holly-jackson-gma-book-club-pick-august-123915621"},"taboola":{}},"request":{"headers":{},"httpVersion":"1.1","method":"GET","url":"/video/123915621","vary":{"host":"www.goodmorningamerica.com","cached":true,"path":"/video/123915621","forwarded-proto":"https","device":"desktop","userab":"0"}},"viewport":{"width":1260,"height":0},"user":{}};