There are no words in the history of ever to describe how I felt when reading Goodbye Days. I wasn’t expecting to be so moved by it, but I found it to be such a true and beautiful portrayal of grief and anxiety and friendship. I can’t imagine ever doing this justice.
“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.”

As I’ve said – before picking up this book, I had no real idea of what I was about to read. But it was clear from the very beginning that I had picked up something special, something that was really going to click with me. And it’s a brilliant feeling.

My heart swelled about three sizes every time I read about the Sauce Crew. The way I see it, there is something infinitely pure about a friendship between guys. There is no inhibition on being your true (disgusting) self. Sure, they talk less about their feelings, but there’s also a kind of un-restriction to completely be yourself. And I really found that to be true in their story, and I loved every single minute of it. These are my kind of guys, and at times I honestly forgot that this story involves three out of four guys dying, and when I remembered, it broke my heart all over again. Aside from these flashback scenes, their goodbye days and tributes were my favourite parts.

Zentner has a beautiful way of writing – this is my first book of his, but I was really impressed. It also really fit in with the narrator, Carver, who wants to be a writer. He used such beautiful words in a way that I never could.

I could probably gush about this for a while, but I think you’ll understand me better if you just pick up the book and read it.

Instant favourite.

Thank you NetGalley / Penguin Random House for providing me with a copy

I’m not sure how to go about reviewing this book, so I’ll try to keep it simple and on point, ok? First of, this was my first Zentner book, I still haven’t read The Serpent King, but Kat had loved it so much, that I ended up requesting this book from Netgalley, and I’m not sorry at all. I really liked Goodbye Days.

I actually loved the writing and Carver’s voice throughout the book. Carver is an amazing character, I loved this guy and the way the story was told. Even throughout all his pain, grief, guilt and fear, Carver was still a very funny and relatable character. That’s not to say that he didn’t have his bad moments, but he read like a 17 yo boy, and I loved him. Still, this book felt super slow for me for some reason, maybe I was just in the right mood for it, …

Either way, I really liked the premise and the plot. Grief and guilt are such complicated emotions, and I thought it was dealt with super well here. It sure as hell made me cry several times during the book. But I have to say that the “goodbye days” were weird at some points, and some parts were definitly not fair. But the thing is, it would have been impossible not to feel guilty on Carver’s shoes, and it’s also not fair to say that he’s blameless on this situation, but still, a lot of people put the blame solely on him – and I get it, he’s alive and the other are not – but from an outside perspective, it’s a tough pill to swallow.

I highly recommend this one, but be warned that this is a sad read, with heavy subjects, though the way they were dealt with didn’t make for a heavy book. Also, this book has such great elements of friendship and family, and those are always amazing to find in YA.

“I’ve heard that people who lose a limb have a “phantom limb,” which itches and senses pain as though their body’s forgotten that it’s gone. I have a trinity of phantoms.”

6 ugly crying stars

Ugh, I don’t know if I was hormonal (I’m a girl so it happens), an easy cryer (might be) or if this book was extremely emotional (undoubtedly) but I cried buckets while reading Goodbye Days.
I was on the train and big fat tears kept falling on my cheeks, along my neck… I was sniffling all the time (how gracious I know). I tried every trick I know: looking at the ceiling to try avoiding the tears; blowing my nose at the slightest inkling of water; chanting “this is not true, this is fiction, Carver/Blade does NOT exist”; telling myself to “breathe in, breath out, blow slowly….” NOTHING WORKED.
By the end of the book I had puffy red eyes and a congested nose. As I read till the wee hours to finish the story I was sporting slits for eyes the morning after and yawning all the time at work.

Jeff Zentner with his Goodbye Days opened my chest, tore my heart out and scattered the remaining pieces all around the floor.

Blade/Carver had lost his tree best friends, the Sauce Crew in a car accident and he HURT all the time. Worse he was texting the driver just before the accident happened and he feels guilty. He is drowning in guilt. Not only survivor guilt but “maybe murderer of your best friends” guilt.
The “beat me up”, despise me because I’m undeserving of forgiveness guilt.

All along when I witnessed people conspiring against Blade, be it Adair Eli’s twin sister, Eli’s dad or Mars’s father JudgeEdward  I really wanted to shout: open your eyes guys! Maybe he sent that text but the driver was a fool. He could choose not to answer while driving. He could have been careful and wise! It’s not Blade’s fault it’s Mars fault! How could they not see it? I was beyond rightfully indignant. I was MAD at these people.

Now I guess it’s easier to blame someone alive than a dead guy. With Blade they had an outlet. They could throw all their anger and grief to his head. They could hurt him as much as they were hurting. They could…
And Blade was crumbling under the sorrow, the guilt, the grief. He had panic attacks. He wanted to disappear. 

This story addresses the topic of grief. All the ways people use to cope with grief. The sorrow, the anger, the acceptance and then the forgiveness.

The goodbye days were beautiful sometimes, dreadful other times or a harsh catharsis. 

Blade was a generous and vulnerable character. He was gutted by what happened and wore his heart on his sleeve. Jesmyn helped him cope with the grief and she was a lovely character as well but Blade has a rare uniqueness in his frailty and honesty. 

I loved Blade. Fiercely. Protectively. Utterly and unconditionally.

I loved Nana Betsy her strength and generosity. 

I loved Georgia she was a kickass big sister.

I loved reading about Sauce Crew and their pranks.  I was baffled when I read what happened to Blake and realize he still had not a bad word about anyone. 

I loved Jeff Zentner’s writing, so realistic, sensitive and vivid. It hit every cranny and nook in my soul. It made me bleed out.

I loved…everything. I can’t fault a thing in this book. Because it made me feel. It made me hurt and smile sometimes. It made me fear the worse. It made me forget my world and live in Blade’s heavy world for some hours. That’s what I expect from books: to make me travel and experience other’s lives. To make me ponder and think on hard topics.

Jeff Zentner turned my world upside down and I need to recover.

Oh and replenish my stock of tissues. 
And invest in waterproof mascara. 
And sleep some more.
And …


Some of my favorite quotes (among many of them)

“Our minds seek causality because it suggests an order to the universe that may not actually exist, even if you believe in some higher power. Many people would prefer to accept an undue share of blame for a tragic event than concede that there’s no order to things. Chaos is frightening. A capricious existence where bad things happen to good people for no discernible reason is frightening.” It is certainly that. “Pareidolia,” I say. “Come again?” “Pareidolia. One of my favorite words. It’s when your mind sees a pattern you recognize where there isn’t one. Like seeing a face in the moon. Or shapes in clouds.”

“Nobody around. The beach is freezing. But you couldn’t tell how cold the beach was by looking. There aren’t leafless trees there or anything. The ocean looks the same; everything looks the same. So it could be summer, except that the beach is deserted and everything’s closed. It’s a really sad and lonely feeling.” “That’s me now, inside. Beach-in-November.”

Today was cathartic in the way of a vigorous puking session. You don’t feel good, exactly. Just purged of something.

Going into a book written by Jeff Zentner, you have to be prepared for sadness. I knew this, I hardened my heart, but I still cried multiple times. While the Serpent King was more of a punch in the gut, this was like a constant cloud of somberness following you around. There’s such an important message here – don’t text while driving! It’s what starts this mess and then unabashedly portrays the devastating aftermath. It sugarcoats nothing and goes deep into the self-blame, the anxiety, the loneliness and sometimes downright panic of the situation.

“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.”
I thought that most of the story was handled in a very realistic way and that it flowed beautifully. No matter how emotional or intense the book gets, it never overwhelms you. The sadness comes in waves and little punches instead, always revealing something new to you about the people Carver cared so much about and he loved those boys so very much. I enjoyed that this was a book about friendship and family, especially the parents or guardians had important roles to play and we all know how rare that is in YA these days. There might be a sort of romantic sub-plot, but it didn’t take up too much of the time and I liked how that was left in the end.

The only reason this book isn’t a complete 5-star-read for me, is that I struggled a bit with the criminal investigation. While I understand the components of guilt and blame, I just couldn’t wrap my head around the legal charges. I think it was explained pretty well, but I just don’t believe that those claims were substantial, which is also why I wasn’t entire happy with the resolution of that part. It’s really only a minor thing though, something that adds to the drama I guess.

Finally, there’s a cameo of someone from The Serpent King and it’s bit of a spoiler if you realise that person is the cameo. So, I would recommend you read the other book first, but it’s completely up to you.

After first reading the blurb for Goodbye Days, I was happy that an author was finally going to write about the dangers of texting and driving. It's such a dangerous thing to do and so many people die because of it. So to have a young adult book address this is amazing.

One day Carver Briggs had it all--three best friends, a supportive family and a reputation as a talented writer at his high school, Nashville Academy for the Arts. The next day it all crashed and burned, literally, after he wrote them out of existence with a text sent to his friend Mars--the last words his friends ever see.

Carver can't stop blaming himself for the fatal crash and he's not the only one. But Carver has some unexpected allies: Eli's girlfriend, who is the only person to stand by him at school, and Blake's grandmother, who asks Carver to spend a Goodbye Day with her--having him stand in as Blake for one last day doing all their favorite things so they can share memories and say a proper goodbye.

Soon Eli and Mars's families are asking for a 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 prison or a complete breakdown?

This book gripped me immediately. We were taken straight into the story line and I felt like no build up was necessary; we were given character foundations through flashbacks that Carver had. I just felt so sorry for Carver but it also made me think about my actions. Carver knew that Mars was driving when he text him and Mars went to answer Carver's text. Who's in the wrong? Carver or Mars? Personally, I text my Mom when I know she is driving, but I know that she'll reply once she is parked up. So does that make me equally as guilty as Carver? I don't know... let me know your thoughts on this...

I also loved how panic attack were portrayed in Goodbye Days, I think Zentner describes them spot on. I actually got quite emotional reading Carver have a panic attack because it made me realise how scary it is for the people around you to witness it happening.

However, there were a few problematic areas for me....

1) During one of the flashbacks, Carver and Blake are shown to make jokes about hanging themselves and they then go on to imitate cutting their wrists... This was deeply upsetting to read, because it shouldn't be used in a humorous context..

2) The second problematic area for me was when *slight spoiler ahead* Blake came out as gay to Carver but then Carver automatically questioned Blake as to why Blake wasn't attracted to him. Just because someone is gay or lesbian, that does not mean that they are automatically attracted to everyone who is the same sex.

So yeah, those were the two problematic areas for me that made me feel slightly uncomfortable. But this was a very good book and I loved the way Zentner showed that it wasn't strange to see a therapist to get some help. He made it feel normal (to a certain extent. There were a few times where Carver asked if he "was crazy yet?" that didn't really sit right with me. Having panic attacks doesn't make you 'crazy') Georgia - Carver's sister - also went to therapy which I thought was good because, again, Zenter showed that therapy was normal.





"But understand that young black men have no margin for error in this country. I had to teach him that. I had to teach him that he can be the son of a judge, but if he acts the way young white men do - the way his friends do - he will be treated more harshly. People, police - they won't see a judge's son. They won't see a kid who worked hard and mostly stayed on the straight and narrow. They'll see another 'young thug' - the term du jour for all young black men in certain circles. They'll go through and find every picture of him wearing clothes that are too big for him, or flipping off a camera, or acting like a normal, rambunctious young man, and that will be all the proof anyone will need that he got what was coming to him."
- Jeff Zentner, Goodbye Days





I have one more issue. It's not problematic, it's just something that i didn't like about the book. *spoiler ahead* I hated it. Absolutely HATED it when Carver started to fall in love with Jesmyn. No. She was your best friends boyfriend. You do not get to love her. It's wrong. It's so disrespectful to the memory of his best friend. And you know the most infuriating bit? I knew it was going to happen. Once they started hanging out and helping each other with their loss, I knew he was going to fall in love with her. And I didn't want that at all. I am so glad she said no.

However, overall this is amazing book. I loved the whole concept of it, I loved the message that Zentner was conveying, I loved the characters, I loved Zentner's writing style (apart from those few problematic areas) and the ending just made me cry. I do definitely recommend this book if you're looking for a brilliant contemporary.

Disclaimer: this book was sent to me by the author in exchange for an honest review 

Released 6th April

General rating: 3.5 stars
Diversity rating: 3 stars (POC (Filipina), LGTB+ (gay), disability (synesthesia))
Goodbye Days by Jeff Zentner is a novel about grief and friendship. It's a very emotional book, and starts off with Carver (also called Blade) at one of his best friends' funerals. His three best friends died in a car crash and Carver blames himself for it.
What I loved about this book is the characters. The characters are diverse, original, funny and overall just really amazing. I loved Carver and Jesmyn and Mars, Eli and Blake were great too. I loved to read about the memories they shared and how they were all very different but had great chemistry. I didn't really like the love story in this book, but at least it wasn't insta-love. It was okay and quite cute. But I rather have them be friends.
"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."
I loved how it addressed topics such as sexuality and especially parents. My relation with my parents is not that amazing but it was really nice to see how different people have different relationships and how that works out.

The writing of this book really made it stood out, the writing is just beautiful. With this Jeff Zentner definitely put himself in the position between the other great contemporary authors.

"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.
There is just one thing, one thing I just can't understand. I've been reading through some amazing reviews about how this book shattered them and how it broke their hearts and left them crying on the ground. Well, that didn't happen. At all. Not a single tear. Sorry Jeff, your book just didn't give me any feels. Nothing. It makes me feel so indifferent about this book, even though it was really good. It just didn't do it for me. And I really don't know why, it's a mystery I might never find out.

I'm giving this book 3.5 stars, because it was great, but it just didn't do much for me. The mystery of why this book didn't crush me will remain. The lyrical prose and the characters really made this book great. I will definitely recommend this book if you like heavy topics in contemporary.

Seventeen-year-old Carver Briggs was texting one of his best friends, Mars, when Mars and Carter's two other best friends were killed in a highway car accident. Carter, as a result, feels responsible for their deaths and must now deal with this guilt as well as going on to live his life, forever altered.

Under Tennessee law (our story is set in Nashville), Carver might be held as “criminally negligent” for knowing Mars was driving when he text him. As well as battling the threat of being punishable by law, Carter must cope with the feelings of his own family, his deceased best friends' families, his friends and high school acquaintances, and the local community, who have all been affected by this horrible accident. The term "Goodbye Days" refers to the act of holding a day in a deceased loved one's memory, where you honour that person and say a proper goodbye to them.

This novel looks at the aftermath of tragedy and the feelings that are conjured up by those who are left behind to deal with it. It is about trying to process overwhelming loss and grief while also consumed with guilt and fear, and finding the strength to carry on.

This is quite an emotional story, for sure, but was not quite as gripping as I hoped it would be. It certainly paints an important message for teenagers around the dangers of texting while driving, but, dare I say, it left me a little cold. Zentner is a great writer (I have heard great things about The Serpent King and will still read it) but I found it a little hard to engage with these characters. I found Carver to be a little too old beyond his years, with a wisdom that I feel can only come from age and experience. He just wasn't believable enough for me to fully love him and this had an effect on how I responded to this story.

Saying that, I can see how fans of YA literature will enjoy this book. It is an emotional, tear-jerking story of young life lost, both physically and emotionally, and a sentimental look at friendship and belonging.

This is an incredibly moving novel about bereavement and finding your way through grief. Carver sent a text to his friend, and this led to the car accident that killed his three best friends and now he has to find a way to live with that.

I have to be honest and say that I found it a bit far-fetched that someone who sent a text could potentially be held legally responsible for the death of the person who read that text whilst they were driving and died in an accident as a result. This jarred with me and made it difficult to get into this book. However, once I put that to one side and focused on what the book was really about I found it such a heartbreaking read.

I lost my best friend when I was just a little older than Carver, and it’s so hard to process that someone so young can just be gone. I felt such empathy for Carver, and his thoughts through his grieving process were so real and raw to me. The descriptions of grief are so well written and absolutely believable.

Carver and the Nana of one of his friends decide to hold a goodbye day – where they spend a day together doing the things that each of them had enjoyed with Blake, and sharing their memories. I think this is such a wonderful idea, a dedicated time to share things – it must be a very emotional but ultimately cathartic experience.

Carver then holds a goodbye day with the parents of his other two friends who were killed. Each of the three days show the different ways that people grieve after losing a child – the devastation, the anger, the hurt. It’s palpable in places. I found the goodbye day Carver spends with Mars’ dad to be the most emotional and affecting.

Through the course of the novel Carver works through all of the feelings that come with grief, and the over-riding emotion is loneliness and this broke my heart. I remember that feeling so well, and it’s such a hard thing to come through. Once you lost someone you’re so close to you can never be the same person again, you just have to learn to be ok with the loss of them and the loss of the part of you that they took with them.

This book ultimately is a book about redemption, about how we atone for the things we’ve done wrong, or are perceived to have done wrong. It’s a book about the depths of grief, but our ability to recover and to find a way through the pain. I highly recommend it.

I received a copy of this book from Penguin Random House via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Brilliantly descriptive story. Poor Carver sent a text at the wrong time and his best mates were found dead in a car crash whilst texting back. Should someone living be blamed? Is it carvers fault? This book deals with all the emotions and feelings of each family and the public. Could not put this book down. Hope to read more from this author.

When a single text message sets off a tragic chain reaction resulting in the death of Carver Briggs’ entire friendship group, nothing can touch the grief and guilt he feels. Jeff Zentner takes an interesting approach to looking at grief, particularly when it affects teenagers, and the various processes people go through to learn to carry on without their safety nets. This book really highlighted to me the importance of those close to you, more so than I already realised, and how much each individual becomes a component in a finely knit unit that unravels as soon as you take a component away. It isn’t however the tear-jerker I expected; instead it is more of a frank, refreshing depiction of how Carver starts to put the pieces back together, for himself but also for those around him.

I loved Zentner's writing style. This is the first book I’ve read of his and it certainly won’t be the last. The writing is fluid and beautiful, whilst having elements of comedy I fully didn’t expect from this sort of book. Carver is self-aware, and intelligent, making him an interesting protagonist, but his ability to make even the most uncomfortable situation a little lighter made what could have been a pretty depressing read much less intense. Equally, as the book is told between past and present, we get to know the boys that died in the beginning of the book. I really bought their silliness, their reliance on each other and their ability to have each other’s backs and this helped me to connect with the characters, and the story, really quickly. It’s something I wish we saw more of in YA fiction actually instead of the typical mean-girl story arcs.

I also really enjoyed the interesting angle on a less than conventional love interest in this story; it was great to see this challenged. Carver develops an interesting relationship with a girl who was previously the girlfriend to one of his deceased friends – I love that this story challenges what we would expect and thought this was a unique twist.

However, I did struggle with the pacing of this book. Whilst Zentner tackles some really poignant issues in an interesting way, the story moves relatively slowly with no real developments until a long way into the book. The story is given a little more energy when we are introduced to a potential criminal conviction – could Carver be held responsible for sending a message which instigated the deaths of his friends? But I didn’t find this idea particularly believable; in fact it seems highly far-fetched to me to expect that a boy sending a text to his friend, who is driving and reads the text, is at fault for that person’s decision to read it. 

Nevertheless, this is a unique look at dealing with loss and developing your own kind of coping mechanisms along the way. I like that this author has so wonderfully captured that each person is different when it comes to dealing with this, and that we can adapt to get through awful tragedies that life throws at us. I just found the pacing too slow and the story lacking in the necessary peaks and troughs to keep me hooked all the way through.

One of my most anticipated reads of 2017 and I'm so grateful to have had the chance to read it before the UK release date. To start, I finished this book within 24 hours. It was gripping from the very beginning and I just had to know what happened next. Every chapter had me wanting to read more. I liked the narrative voice of Carver. I also liked the idea of having a goodbye day for someone you didn't get to say goodbye to. I lost a friend in a car accident when I was 17 and the one thing I remember thinking after I'd heard she'd died was that I couldn't remember what the last thing I said to her was. I wrote a letter to say everything I would have liked to have said, so this book kind of struck a chord with me. Also, I loved the setting of this story. I've always wanted to go to Nashville and the surrounding towns so it was nice to be transported there through reading. Thank you again for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

From Jeff Zentner, who writes about grief as if it were his own, Goodbye Days is a beautiful book, fraught with emotion.

I wish there had been more insight into the individual personalities. I didn’t feel as though I really knew Mars, Eli and Blake. 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.

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.

I absolutely loved reading Jeff Zentner's other novel The Serpent King earlier this year and I added Goodbye Days to my list of most anticipated releases as soon as I finished it. You can imagine my reaction when my Netgalley request was actually approved... I didn't want to set my expectations too high after such a fantastic debut, and I kept telling myself it would be hard for Goodbye Days to outshine it. But I guess I shouldn't have worried, because I think I have just found my new favorite Zentner novel. Basically, this story took my feelings, put them on the middle of the road and ran them over repeatedly with a bulldozer. It doesn’t happen often that a book actually manages to make me cry, but Goodbye Days managed to break my heart more than once. Brilliant prose, excellent characters and those feels!! I literally flew through the pages of this story and the characters were easy to love. And this isn't just another YA contemporary story either; it also touches a very important topic. Thank you Goodbye Days for raising awareness to the dangers of using your phone while driving; is more dangerous than drunk driving and causes so many unnecessary accidents... Hopefully an eyeopener as well as a brilliant read! Recommended to any contempory/realistic fiction fan who doesn't mind sad stories.

C’est une histoire de dépassement. Comment dépasser son deuil? Comment dépasser sa culpabilité? Comment dépasser son chagrin? L’auteur répond à ses questions en nous projetant dans toutes les étapes que suit Carver.

Entre flashbacks et présent, il nous fait vivre son deuil comme si c’était le nôtre car lorsqu’on revient au présent, on est écrasé par l’absence d’Eli, de Mars et de Blake. Un instant, ils sont rayonnants de vie devant nous et l’instant d’après, ils n’auront plus jamais ces instants de complicité et de joie auxquels on vient d’assister. C’est déchirant.

A realistic and poignant portrayal of grief, Goodbye Days takes us into the life of Carver, a young man who loses his best friends - Mars, Blake and Eli - in a car accident, and who blames himself for possibly causing it. At the time of the accident, one of his best friends Mars (who was driving) was texting him back. Now, in the aftermath of that accident, Carver is stuck in a whirlpool of grief, fear and guilt. The grief because he lost his closest and only friends in the world, the fear because one of the parents wants a criminal investigation into the accident with the purpose of seeing him in prison, and guilt because moving on feels like he is being stabbed over and over with their loss. My only experience with such a kind of grief has been distant (a family member dying) so I wouldn't know how to even imagine losing someone who has been a part of your life so closely and who have brought light into your life. Now, in his Sauce Crew-less world, his support system is his sister and Eli's girlfriend, Jesmyn. Coping with loss and trying to survive through it are the main arcs of this story.

Emotion-wise, Goodbye Days is raw - it will make you laugh along with the shenanigans of the Sauce Crew, the witty quips between Carver and his sister or Carver and Jesmyn, and make you cry at every part where he remembers them or when their loss hits him hard. Trying to get closure, he agrees to a 'goodbye day' with Blake's grandmother - a day where they would hang out like Blake would with his grandmother, and they can tell each other stories about Blake. What really made me cry in these moments was the fact that it is a wound that you open again and again, to remember the person, but also to let yourself heal. But all of his goodbye days are not the same - because not all people process grief in the same manner. His goodbye days with the other parents are not beautiful and light, but they also show the varied ways in which people mourn.

What I liked in this novel is the presence of a positive support system and a good therapy doctor who help Carver come to terms with this loss. It is not that he is happy and healed at the end of the book, but he is in a place where he can process through the grief of his friends in a better way. I loved the characters in the book, especially his sister, and I also loved how they were open with one another, be it the love or the hatred. I mean, I expected it because it I read The Serpent King, but the writing blew me over again. Zentner crafted an emotional, beautiful piece of art with this novel.

Goodbye Days is my first Jeff Zentner’s book and I am so glad I have requested it: it is so much more than what I have expected. The writing is so overwhelming and tears were actually flowing out my eyes even in public places I couldn’t control myself. This story is so real that I am still shacking.

In a world where people decided to using their phones careless while driving even to do stupid things like to answer a text or (worse) check their Facebook page (I have seen those people and insult them from my car!) Jeff Zentner has been able to portrait a topic like “no texting while driving” in a brilliant and realistic way. Goodbye Days is gonna to make your think about life and not not take things for granted.

Zentner's writing style is special, not only does it seem as if he's playing with the words, he is one of the rare authors who manage to intertwine their work with emotion so evident, that you don't just read the story, you feel it, it overtakes you, it drains you.
The story deals with grief in it's many shapes, and with saying goodbye after someone is gone, something that we all have felt in one way or another, so it's easy to relate to it. Everything about this book is shockingly realistic, from the diversity of the characters, to their actions, and to the descriptions of the panic attacks (this comes from someone who gets panic attacks on a daily basis).
I am in love with this book. I don't think there's a person who wouldn't like this book.

After reading Serpent King, a book that crushed me, i couldn't wait for "Goodbye Days". When I saw the approval by Netgalley, I jumped. Up and down. While at work. Several times. My joy needed to get out of my body. Sadly, after having read "History is all you left me" by Silvera, this came around a bit too soon. I feel as if you can only read this many grief books at a time. 
At first I did had my difficulties, then my great aunt died during my read and I felt as if NOW I had to relate, right? With the griefing? Well... kinda not so. My problem, and this is personal, is that I need a longer grief period. As with Silvera Zentner makes it seems as if he expects you to be fine in a 4 weeks course. So all your friends died? In a month you should be fine. That's not working for me. 
I liked his approach on panic attacts and therapy. Also the goodbye days were adding the much needed spice to the story. As soon as these started this was my book. The investigations gave a little thrill to it all. So all in all Zentner knows how to do it. He is a great writer. I really do like him. For my personal taste, this could have been better, but wasn't bad. It is solid. A nice read, that I kinda enjoyed ( I mean it's about death and griefing... not so fun ). 
Am looking forward for his next book! I am definetely hooked!

A group of four boys, the Sauce Crew as they were known are now made of one sole member, Carver.

The other three, Eli, Mars and Blake tragically died when colliding with a truck.
Carver blames himself as he was texting them when they crashed.

However, Blake's gran is the only relative not to blame Carver, but to celebrate the life her grandson had with him. Carver's guilt also means he takes over Blake's chores he did at his gran's as she can't get down and weed to garden or now the lawns.
They also celebrate Blake's life by having a Goodbye Day for Blake together.

Carver bottles up a lot of his emotion but does open up to Jesmyn and Blake's gran about how he feels. He does suffer anxiety as the threat of possible jail time rests undecided over his head and see's Dr Mendez about his panic attacks in order to try and handle his emotions better and grieve. He and Jesmyn are talented students, Jesmyn in piano and Carver with his creative writing. They both appreciate and support each other's talents encouraging each other they do have a future to hope for.

This book shows the true horror of losing those closest to you but the flip side as well, showing who stands by you when you need them most. We see Carver go through a true rollercoaster effect of up's and down's throughout the book, love and loss play huge roles in this book. We also see Carver imagine his friends still with him throughout scenes in the book as he can't let them go at first. I really enjoyed it as it wasn't all solely focused on death, there are times of friendship flashbacks and happy moments for Carver with his sister and Jesmyn too.

Thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review it for them!