GOODBYE DAYS by Jeff Zentner (March 7, Crown) deals with grief,
loss, guilt, death and high school friendships. This title definitely falls
into the realistic fiction category as the main character, Carver, copes with his
friends’ deaths due to texting while driving. And, coincidentally, distracted driving was the cover story for last week’s Upfront Magazine which is written
for high school students.
Of course, Carver
is sad to have lost Sauce Crew, his 3 best friends (Blake, Eli and Mars), but I
did feel that at over 400 pages long the story dragged at points. Perhaps this
pacing was intentional in order to mirror Carver‘s feelings of loss and
depression as he experiences panic attacks and faces charges of criminal
negligence. The reading experience is emotionally intense at times.
The writing itself is stellar, even if
the internal monologues are a bit mature for a high school boy: “I wonder if
the actions we take and the words we speak are like throwing pebbles into a
pond; they send ripples that extend farther out from the center until finally
they break on the bank or disappear. I
wonder if somewhere in the universe, there’s still a ripple that’s Blake and I
sitting in this living room, laughing ourselves silly. Maybe it’ll break on
some bank somewhere in the vast sky beyond our sight. Maybe it’ll disappear. Or maybe it’ll keep
travelling on for eternity.” Truly, the best parts of this book are brief flashbacks
and humorous dialogue between the friends.
An online discussion guide is available and GOODBYE DAYS received
starred reviews from both Booklist and Publishers Weekly. Zentner also wrote The Serpent King which
was just nominated for 2018 Abe Lincoln Award.
