WINFIELD

Goodbye Days by Jeff Zentner

by Book Blog

Posted on November 25, 2019

I really enjoyed Jeff Zentner’s debut novel, The Serpent King, so I was very excited to start this Gateway Award (2019) nominated sophomore novel.  It is not a follow-up, and even has a different structure than his other work, in fact, I’m not personally a fan of first-person POV in general, so I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this book.  However, if you choose this book, be prepared to feel really sad.  I mean, realllllllly sad.  Tears-dripping-down-your-face sad.  In addition to the sad factor, this book is also heavy.  Don’t say Hanff didn’t warn you!

It starts at the funeral of Blade’s three best friends, who died in a car accident, while texting Blade.  Heavy.  One of his friend’s dads is a judge, who says, at a news conference, that he wants the County Prosecutor to open an investigation into the accident, and file negligent homicide charges against the person who was texting with the driver.  Extra heavy.  Blade starts having panic attacks.  Extra-extra heavy.  That’s just the first thirty pages or so!

Blade has to figure out how to live with his guilt, the stress of the court system and police investigation, the loss of his only friends, the financial burden of the lawyers on his family, etc. while trying to remember the good times with his friends.

One of the friends’ only family was his grandmother, and she asks Blade to give her a goodbye day with her grandson.  She and Blade do some of her and her grandson’s favorite activities and Blade is able to tell her some things she didn’t know about him.  Eventually, the idea of the goodbye day gets around to the other families, and one goes...okay, and the other does not go okay.

At its core, this is a well-written book about loss, moving through pain, and how we show different parts of ourselves to different people.  10/10, do reccommend.

Tags:  so good, tears, sad, sosad, heavy, cryingisokay