There are four Jerry Kuznik books, and the good news is that none of them require the others. No series. No cliffhangers. No sixteen-book commitment before the payoff.
The bad news – if you can call it that – is that this makes “where do I start?” a genuinely open question. So here’s the full bibliography, the publication order, and three different ways to sequence them depending on what you actually want out of the next few hours.
At a Glance
# Title Form Read Time Best For
1 Favorite Dead Girl Novel — biographical thriller Full-length The definitive starting point
2 Refund Flash fiction short story ~15 minutes Sampling the voice tonight
3 Untrustworthy Novel — biographical thriller Full-length Readers who want the darkest one
— Seeing Creatively Nonfiction creativity guide Practical Writers, not just readers
Publication Order
1. Favorite Dead Girl – the international bestselling debut
The one that made his name. Favorite Dead Girl is rooted in real events and follows the aftermath of a canyon tragedy in North Orange County — a haunting, deeply human novel about childhood, survival, and what people choose to carry.
For a debut to reach international bestseller status is a meaningful signal, and this one earned it the hard way: not through shock value but through specificity. The sun-drenched suburban setting isn’t a backdrop. It’s the tension itself — the gap between how a place looks and what actually happens inside it.
Read it first if: you want to understand why anyone is talking about this author at all.
Start with Favorite Dead Girl →
2. Refund – the fifteen-minute gut-punch
A flash fiction short story about a life spent planning a journey without knowing its destination, ending in a twist that reframes everything you thought you understood.
It’s been written in the tradition of C.S. Lewis and Shirley Jackson and compared to a *Twilight Zone* episode. Fifteen minutes, start to finish.
That Jerry works fluently in both forms — multi-generational sagas and sub-1,000-word gut-punches — is the tell. The underlying skill, knowing exactly which detail carries the emotional weight of a scene, doesn’t change with word count.
Read it first if: you want to know whether this author is for you before committing a weekend.
3. Untrustworthy – the family saga
His newest biographical thriller, released April 2026. A multi-generational family saga about betrayal, forgiveness, and a death that raises more questions than it answers, set across the pastoral suburbs of North Orange County.
Belinda finds her husband Rob dying at the edge of his bed. By the time help arrives, it’s too late. What follows isn’t a conventional whodunit — it’s an excavation of a family’s accumulated secrets, with supernatural undertones that push it toward dark folklore.
Where *Favorite Dead Girl* looks backward at a single tragedy, *Untrustworthy* widens the lens across generations.
Read it first if: you already like dark domestic fiction and don’t need easing in.
And separately: Seeing Creatively
Seeing Creatively: How to Unlock Your Imagination Now! is a practical creativity guide from an IB Literature teacher and international bestselling author. Not a theory book – a tool. Direct, structured, and built to unlock the stories you’ve been carrying.
It sits outside the fiction sequence entirely. Read it whenever the urge to write your own thing gets loud enough.
Three Ways to Sequence Them
The Standard Path (recommended)
Refund → Favorite Dead Girl → Untrustworthy
Fifteen minutes to meet the voice. Then the bestseller that defined it. Then the biggest, most ambitious execution of it. This order lets each book widen the lens: one twist, one tragedy, one family across generations.
The Straight-In Path
Favorite Dead Girl → Untrustworthy → Refund
Publication order for the fiction, with *Refund* saved as a palate cleanser. Best if you trust bestseller status as a signal and want the flagship first.
The Fifteen-Minute Test
Refund. Just Refund.
Read it tonight. If the ending does what it does to most people, you’ll know exactly which book to buy next – and you’ll have lost fifteen minutes finding out.
Do You Need to Read Them in Order?
No. This is not a series.
Favorite Dead Girl and Untrustworthy are standalone novels with no shared characters or plot. What they share is a place – North Orange County — and a preoccupation: what families bury, and what refuses to stay buried.
Reading both does something interesting, though. You start seeing the throughline. The same suburban streets, the same interest in grief as a structural force rather than a mood. The recurring symbolic undertone. Two books in, the catalog stops looking like separate stories and starts looking like an argument.
How the two novels compare →
What’s Next
Jerry is a working author with an active catalog, and Untrustworthy is the most recent addition. For new releases and what’s coming, the books page stays current.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many books has Jerry Kuznik written? Three works of fiction – the novels Favorite Dead Girl and Untrustworthy, and the flash fiction short story Refund – plus the nonfiction creativity guide Seeing Creatively.
What is Jerry Kuznik’s first book?
Favorite Dead Girl, his international bestselling debut novel.
What is Jerry Kuznik’s newest book?
Untrustworthy, a multi-generational biographical thriller released in April 2026.
Do Jerry Kuznik’s books need to be read in order? No.
Favorite Dead Girl and Untrustworthy are standalone novels with no shared characters or continuing plot. Any order works.
Which Jerry Kuznik book is the shortest?
Refund, a flash fiction short story readable in about fifteen minutes.
Where can I buy Jerry Kuznik’s books?
All titles are available in paperback and digital formats, with direct buying links on the books page.
Pick your entry point
Fifteen minutes or a full weekend — both doors lead to the same canyon.
Explore Jerry Kuznik’s books →