Goodbye Days | 
bailedHe sent a text to his three best friends (who were in a car together), and because the driver replied, they crashed. And people blame him for it. That‘s what this book is about. Really. No thank you!
pickAnother winner by Jeff Zentner. This is the story of Carver Briggs, a high school senior whose three best friends die in a car accident for which he feels responsible. He also struggles with massive guilt as he becomes closer to the girlfriend of one of those friends. A beautiful, heart-breaking book. My first 5⭐️ of 2025.
pickCarver Briggs sent a text message to his friend Mars while he was driving. When Mars tries to respond, all 3 of Carver‘s pals perish in a horrifying car crash. The guilt and despair is relentless, but magnifies when a judge/father of Mars wants to open a negligence case to indict Carver. Very well written
#Spookoween
#ReadAway2024
#Bookspinbingo
@TheSpineView @DieAReader @Andrew65 @GHABI4ROSES @TheAromaofBooks
Two books I finished this week that were outstanding⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
#whatsnewwednesday on late Thursday night
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @Read4life @TieDyeDude
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I did enjoy this novel and it does a good job of showing guilt and how others may deal with grief differently. In Carver‘s instance, he has severe anxiety and panic attacks over feeling responsible for his friend‘s death. You see carver grow and make progress to heal and move on.
TWs - death, grief, guilt, imitating suicide
pickThis book is ALL the stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ @jeffzentner is a master at his craft. This YA about a boy who just lost three of his best friends and it might be his fault is amazing. The vocabulary in this book makes it an absolute gem. Couldn‘t have been happier that a friend chose this for our #bookclub this month and that brought it to the top of my TBR. LOVE. Let me say it again - LOVE ❤️
pickJeff Zentner's Goodbye Days was really moving. While I had a few issues with the premise (I didn't always find the reaction to Blade's decision to text his friends believable), the execution is excellent. Blade's struggle to recover from the deaths of his three best friends in a single, tragic car accident is developed with great realism and honesty. The structure of the "goodbye days" that Blade has with each of his friend's (cont in comments)
"Funny how people move through this world leaving little pieces of their story with the people they meet, for them to carry. Makes you wind what'd happen if all those people put their puzzle pieces together."
#SeptemberDanes #TheDayAfterTomorrow my two" big" kids will be back in NY???#SadMommy #GoodbyesSuck
"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."
"Dignity is overrated. People can live without it. I know because I did. But people can‘t live without laughter. I‘ll gladly trade dignity for laughter, because dignity is cheap and laughter is worth everything." --Blake Lloyd
pickI would be lying if I said I didn‘t cry all the way through this book. Sad, but also redeeming and reflective. I loved it more than I expected to.
I had a lovely weekend just talking about books and I even had the opportunity to meet this (cute) author!
#goodbyedays #jeffzetner
pickA book about friendship, grief, guilt, and forgiveness following a tragic accident that takes the life of Carver's three best friends-- and according to a lot of people may be his fault. It's set in one of my favorite cities and is the second Jeff Zetner book to make me cry like a baby, so there's that. 4.5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
A horrible morning turned into a great day. Full of sushi, driving out of town, coming back and exploring downtown, book browsing and more food ♡
This is the first time in years that I haven‘t been able to attend the Festival of Faith and Writing in Michigan. I‘m not gonna lie, I cried a little.
My husband, who presented and manned the exhibition table for his quarterly book review, took on my dork mantle and got a bunch of books signed (which I‘d pre-purchased when I thought I would be attending.) PLUS, he bought me surprises!!
#book1
#ffw18 #awesomehusband #makingthebestofit
“The universe—fate—is cruel and random. Things happen for many reasons. Things happen for no reason. To shoulder the burden of the universe‘s caprice is too much for anyone.”
5 ⭐️ read
pickOK, so I may or may not have leaked a few tears toward the end. Sue me.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
pickEmotional story about what happens to one teen after his friends die in a pointless accident. I‘d also mention that in addition to writing books that pull the heartstrings, Jeff Zentner is a wonderfully engaging speaker. I loved getting to meet him at the Tattered Cover‘s second annual teen litcon in November. #tatteredcover #jeffzentner
*Starts five books*
*Finishes one*
*Celebrates by starting three new books and considers a trip to the bookstore*
😜#litsypartyofone
"Maybe the grieving don't need a reason to cry. It's open season on crying. A cry-all-you-want buffet."
#boutofbooks #grief #grieving #cry
I'm sitting on my back deck, enjoying the summer evening and the poetic and poignant prose of Jeff Zentner.
"Now, silences feel like absences. Absences feel like a loss. Loss feels like grief. Grief triggers guilt. Guilt is a scarlet anguish."
#boutofbooks #poeticprose
#HumpDayPost @MinDea
1. Last Vacation was a quick weekend getaway to a music festival.
2. Comfort food is meatloaf with roasted potatoes.
3. Bucket list travel spot is London, England.
4. Current read I'd Goodbye Days by Jeff Zentner.
5. I prefer physical books to all other formats but don't shun the others.
#boutofbooks
"We settle into a comfortable silence and watch the sky darken, the sun setting. The breeze is soft, as though the day's breathing is slowing before it sleeps"
I love the description, the palpable and vivid imagery. YA readers deserve this kind of writing. Jeff Zentner FTW! #boutofbooks #ftw #YA
Sometimes what feels more like an ending can turn into thr beginning of something beautiful. #goodbyedays #newbeginnings
"We hang out that way in the relative cool of the tree-formed shadows splayed across the grass, the sunset a purple fire in the leaves. The cicadas hum in our ears like the Earth vibrating.
There's that feeling that you'll never be lonely again.
That every time you speak, someone you love and who loves you back will be listening.
Even then I knew what I had."
I love the imagery and the feelings that this moment conjures!
Small win today: I thought I had packed this (we're moving to a new house at the end of August) but I didn't. 😁So I'm starting it.
pickI finished Goodbye Days last week and I loved it! This book contained so much grief, regret and emotion and I really empathised with Carver, whose three best friends died in a car accident as a result of texting. I loved the idea of the goodbye days, spent with each grieving family doing the things their son would love to do. And it was great to see Carver slowly start to heal, along with the help of Jesmyn. I highly recommend checking it out! 💗
Thirty-two pages in and I've already cried twice. This is going to break my heart.
