First thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for a free e-ARC in exchange for my honest opinion of this book.

What a roller coaster of a ride. I never read anything quite like this - I know the premise of the story (and I am not going to repeat in my review) but I kept saying to myself - "Is there a point to this story" and then I found myself saying "I really don't care if there is a point to this story" because I was so engaged in this author's storytelling. It's very hard to explain unless you read it.

There are alot of characters and they all have some connection to the "main" character but its bizarre, haunting, curious, sad and sometimes a bit humorous - truly worth a read. ( )

Certainly not a thriller & not really a mystery since the murder is resolved from the beginning. I was waiting for some sort of twist in the story but there was none. Even so, it is a well-written study of the effects of a murder on the people involved with both the victim and the murderer. It raises questions about the nature of justice and forgiveness. An engaging, quick read. ( )

It’s a story of murder…its impact… and the aftermath…told in a series of vignettes. How does a tragedy… particularly a senseless and violent one, affect those on the periphery of it and how it changes every aspect of their very lives?. The writing was good but the vignettes would have been better if they had made the characters connect in some way other than they had all been murdered. It was like reading 5 different books with the same scenario and no real ending because there was no pulling it together. Even though I found the book a bit disappointing it was still very worthy the 3 stars. ( )

This book has been called a deconstructed psychological thriller and a social commentary. I would tend towards the latter description because this is certainly not a thriller in the typical sense. It lacks mystery and suspense and focuses on the impact of a crime.

Blake Campbell confesses to killing his girlfriend, Sara Morgan. He is acquitted on the grounds of temporary insanity. Each of the twelve chapters is narrated from the perspective of a different person who is affected by Sara’s death. We meet people connected to Blake (his sister and his best friend from college), and we meet people connected to Sara (her stepmother, her half-sister, her college roommate, and a girl Sara babysat). Some of the characters (like a journalist covering the case and a young woman who meets Blake in rehab) are more on the fringes of events.

The book examines how a murder affects family members, friends, and the community at large. Each of the characters is unique; once they are introduced, it is not difficult to keep them differentiated. For me, the creepiest chapter is the one featuring Jessica whom Sara babysat. Jessica begins a correspondence with a serial killer arrested at the same time as Blake. The last chapter allows us to meet Sara after an evening spent babysitting Jessica.

In terms of structure, this book reminded me of Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2020/01/review-of-disappearing-earth-by-julia.html) which has 12 stories examining the impact of an abduction on the lives of women in a community. In both novels, there are connections among the characters. Sometimes a character is the protagonist in one chapter but is mentioned in another character’s story. There’s a missing person in the first chapter of Nothing Can Hurt You and her fate is revealed in a simple reference in the third chapter. The difference is that the twelve chapters in Disappearing Earth are all set within a year of the abduction whereas Nothing Can Hurt You covers different time periods, all but one after Sara’s death. For example, Sara’s half-sister Luna was two years old when Sara was murdered; we encounter her just after she graduates college.

My mother died very recently and I’ve heard stories from many people about how her life intersected and influenced theirs. Everyone had different recollections and memories, many of which I was unaware. Some knew her well for much of her life and some had come to know her only recently, but all had an impression to convey. Reading Nothing Can Hurt You is a similar experience because the reader meets a variety of people who had different connections with Sara and Blake and so had contrasting impressions and opinions of them.

Because of the subject matter, this is not an easy, light-hearted read, but it is thought-provoking. It certainly had me thinking about fairness and justice. Is the sentence given to Blake a fair one? Do Sara and her family receive justice? One character describes justice as an impossibility: “’There is no such thing as justice. It’s an idea that makes people feel better, that’s all. There is only revenge, or mercy. And you can’t have both.’”

Pick up this book, though you should be warned that the title is not a guarantee.

Note: Please check out my reader's blog (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/) and follow me on Twitter (@DCYakabuski). ( )

Nothing Can Hurt You by Nicola Maye Goldberg is a novel written in a most original fashion. At the center of the story is the brutal murder of NY college student Sara Morgan at the hands of her boyfriend Blake Campbell. Blake will be proven to have been temporarily insane at the time of the crime and therefore he was not sentenced to prison time. Each chapter is written in the voice of someone who knew the deceased victim. Each person had been influenced by Sara, before or after her murder. This novel’s many voices give the reader a different point of view and each character looks at Sara in terms of their relationship with her or knowledge of her. The novel is based on a true story and serves as a cautionary tale about violence against women, which occurs much too frequently. If you are looking for a different kind of mystery, I highly recommend Nothing Can Hurt You. Thank you to Bloomsbury USA and NetGalley for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review, ( )