Goodbye Days

A novel by Jeff Zentner. I. Am. Wrecked! This is a young adult novel; why is the YA genre so gaspingly real! Carver Briggs is a bright young man who has maybe done a stupid thing. He texted his friend Mars; a friend on the way to meet him with his two other best friends, Eli and Blake. Then there was The Accident. All three of his friends died, and on Mars's phone was a half - finished text to Carver. Now Carver is friendless, going to funerals, blaming himself, being blamed by some of the family members of his friends. Mars's father, a judge, is pressing the district attorney to charge Carver with negligent homicide. Eli's twin sister, Adair, stares daggers through him and uses her considerable influence at the prestigious Nashville Academy of the Arts, where they all went/go to school to turn people against him. He's having panic attacks. Yet Carver does have a support system still. His family. Jesmyn, Eli's girlfriend. Dr. Mendez, his psychiatrist. And Nana Betsy, Blake's grandmother, who asks Carver for a goodbye day, where they fill each other in on their parts of Blake's story. His life. It was successful. Cathartic. Soon the other families are asking for goodbye days. Will they be as successful?