57 pages • 1 hour read
Not Quite Dead Yet
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Character Analysis
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of child death, graphic violence, illness, and death.
Margaret “Jet” Mason
Jet is the primary protagonist in Not Quite Dead Yet. She is Scott and Dianne Mason’s daughter. Luke is her older brother, while her sister, Emily, died when Jet was 10 years old. Jet is 27 at the start of the novel; she dropped out of law school the year prior, then moved back in with her parents in Woodstock, Vermont. On Halloween night, she is attacked in their home, leaving her with a traumatic brain injury and only one week left to live. The mystery of her attack is central to the narrative, as she strives to solve her own murder before she succumbs to a brain aneurysm.
Throughout the novel, Jet uses dark humor to grapple with her impending death. She repeatedly makes jokes about her own death, shocking the other characters with her bluntness. She also does not hesitate to commit crimes or mistreat others in her pursuit of the truth, even going so far as to unnecessarily berate a teenager to get pictures from the Halloween Fair. These characteristics emphasize Jet’s desire for closure before she dies: She stops at nothing to uncover the truth, feeling the need for redemption for her unfulfilling life.
