Goodbye Days
What would you do if you could spend one last day with someone you lost? From the award winning author of The Serpent King comes an acclaimed story of grief, guilt and the chance to say goodbye. And don't miss the author's highly anticipated new book, In the Wild Light!
“Gorgeous, heartbreaking, and ultimately life-affirming.” —Nicola Yoon, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Everything, Everything.
Where are you guys? Text me back. That's the last message Carver Briggs will ever send his three best friends, Mars, Eli, and Blake. He never thought that it would lead to their death.
Now Carver can’t stop blaming himself for the accident and even worse, a powerful judge is pressuring the district attorney to open up a criminal investigation.
Luckily, Carver has some unexpected allies: Eli’s girlfriend, the only person to stand by him at school; Dr. Mendez, his new therapist; and Blake’s grandmother, who asks Carver to spend a “goodbye day” together to share their memories and say a proper farewell.
Soon the other families are asking for their own goodbye day with Carver—but he’s unsure of their motives. Will they all be able to make peace with their losses, or will these goodbye days bring Carver one step closer to a complete breakdown or—even worse—prison?
“Hold on to your heart: this book will wreck you, fix you, and most definitely change you.” —Becky Albertalli, Morris Award-winning author of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda
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Community Reviews
This book broke my heart. And healed it at the same time. The writing is beautiful. And after living through the loss of my own best friend, many of the quotes and things said resonated with me in a very big way. If you've ever lost a best friend, read this. If you ever lost anyone, read this. If you are lucky enough to have never experienced true loss and grief, read this. I cried, smiled and felt many emotions throughout this book. I loved Carver and all of the characters, really. Don't hesitate, just read this.
So this was an emotionally hard read for me. Three best friends, Mars, Eli, and Blake are killed in a car accident due to distracted driving-- texting their fourth best friend, Carver. Of course, Carver is racked with guilt for being the cause of the accident and embarks on his senior year of high school alone. With the possibility of being charged with his friends murders hanging over his head as well as some of the families blaming him for the accident, Blake starts to have panic attacks. At the request of one of the families and suggestion of his therapist, Blake does a "goodbye day" for each of the families where Carver takes the place of deceased member and spends the day with them doing what they would want to do with their family member if they had one last day with them. They share stories and things about the person that no one else knew. This has varying degrees of success with each of the families but it gives insight into grief and the preciousness of life. There were some great quotes in this book but overall I thought the plot and the sequence of events made me stumble when reading this book. I wanted to love this book because I loved the Serpent King but I had a hard time getting into the book and relating to the characters at times. Maybe if the book began before the accident so the reader could get to know the characters before they died and therefore be more emotionally connected and invested in them, it may have read better. And for whatever reason, I could not buy into the possibility of Carver facing murder charges for texting his friend. For this reason, I give this book 3.5 out of 5 stars.
I received an advanced readers copy of this book from Netgalley for review consideration.
My reviews are posted on https://tiggertheturtle.wordpress.com
I received an advanced readers copy of this book from Netgalley for review consideration.
My reviews are posted on https://tiggertheturtle.wordpress.com
To be fair, I couldn’t finish this book so I’m not going to rate it. All I can do is give the reasons why I chose not to finish. One, the dialogue wasn’t hitting right for me. I’m not a teenage male nor have I ever been, but I’m not entirely certain they talk like that. It seemed over-exaggerated. Like it came from the voice of someone older. Two, once I came to the portion of the book where there was a question of legal action being taken against the main character (Carver) for sending a text? No. I’m not sure how much of that encompasses the rest of the book, but I didn’t want to take a chance. Carver allegedly sent the text that one of his friends answered (while driving) which led to the accident that killed them. I get feeling guilty (Carver) and some feeling angry, but put the responsibility on the right person. The driver didn’t have to answer the text while behind the wheel. So, yeah, this one is not for me!
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