Goodbye Days by Jeff Zentner
For the most part, you don’t hold the people you love in your heart because they rescued you from drowning or pulled you from a burning house. Mostly you hold them in your heart because they save you, in a million quiet and perfect ways, from being alone.
From Jeff Zentner, who writes about grief as if it were his own, Goodbye Days is a beautiful book, fraught with emotion.
A liquid rose-gold warmth – whatever color is on the opposite end of the spectrum from the color of aloneness – fills me briefly.
I wish there had been more insight into the individual personalities. I didn’t feel as though I really knew Mars, Eli and Blake.
Life is everywhere. Pulsing, humming. A great wheel turning.
In particular, I would like to have had the chance to understand Adair’s perspective, to get to know her and her relationship with her brother.
A movement evading my notice. The sun crossing the sky. It crept into my heart like vines overgrowing a stone wall. It caught me like a river rising and swelling.
In essence, this is a book that should be on the shelf in all high school libraries and brought to the attention of healthcare providers offering grief counseling.
Title: Goodbye Days
Author: Jeff Zentner
Publication Date: 7 March 2017
Publisher: Crown Books
Source: Purchased
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Carver Briggs never thought a simple text would cause a fatal crash, killing his three best friends, Mars, Eli, and Blake. Now Carver can’t stop blaming himself for the accident and even worse, there could be a criminal investigation into the deaths.
Then Blake’s grandmother asks Carver to remember her grandson with a ‘goodbye day’ together. Carver has his misgivings, but he starts to help the families of his lost friends grieve with their own memorial days, along with Eli’s bereaved girlfriend Jesmyn. But not everyone is willing to forgive. Carver’s own despair and guilt threatens to pull him under into panic and anxiety as he faces punishment for his terrible mistake. Can the goodbye days really help? — Abstract from Goodreads.com
The fact that I received a free advanced copy of this book does not influence my policy to write an honest review.
Disclaimer: The quotes appear in my advanced review copy and may not appear in the final version.
ShootingStarsMag
I still haven’t read The Serpent King, but I DO want to and I want to read this one too. Sorry you didn’t feel like you got to know the main characters enough, but it sounds like a good one overall!
-Lauren
crushingcinders
Hope you enjoy it. PS don’t miss out on The Serpent King – it’s really good.
Tanya @ Girl Plus Books
I just recently read Zentner’s The Serpent King and I’m interested in reading Goodbye Days soon. I’m so glad to see that overall it was a hit with you.
crushingcinders
Hope you like it. Happy reading
Cait @ Paper Fury
Ohhh I have this on my kindle and I’m SO NERVOUS TO READ IT. I loved The Serpent King but it also kind of broke me into a million little pieces. <3 Which is a good thing.? But also help. I'm so glad you liked this one, though!! It's great when books don't disappoint.?
crushingcinders
I know! I was so nervous to read it too. Hope you like it when you get to it.