Four for the Road

Four for the Road
Author(s)
Age Range
14+
Release Date
August 23, 2022
ISBN
978-1665902281
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The Perks of Being a Wallflower meets The End of the F***ing World in this dark young adult comedy about four unlikely friends dealing with the messy side of grief who embark on a road trip to Graceland.

Asher Hunting wants revenge.

Specifically, he wants revenge on the drunk driver who killed his mom and got off on a technicality. No one seems to think this is healthy, though, which is how he ends up in a bereavement group (well, bereavement groups. He goes to several.) It’s there he makes some unexpected friends: There’s Sloane, who lost her dad to cancer; Will, who lost his little brother to a different kind of cancer; and eighty-year-old Henry, who was married to his wife for fifty years until she decided to die on her own terms. And it’s these three who Asher invites on a road trip from New Jersey to Graceland. Asher doesn’t tell them that he’s planning to steal his dad’s car, or the real reason that he wants to go to Tennessee (spoiler alert: it’s revenge)—but then again, the others don’t share their reasons for going, either.

Complete with unexpected revelations, lots of chicken Caesar salads at roadside restaurants, a stolen motorcycle, and an epic kiss at a rest stop minimart, what begins as the road trip to revenge might just turn into a path towards forgiveness.

Editor review

1 review
Gut wrenching and beautiful all at once
Overall rating
 
5.0
Plot
 
5.0
Characters
 
5.0
Writing Style
 
5.0
Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)
 
N/A
Grief is messy and painful, and Four for the Road did not shy away from illustrating that. In the wake of Asher Hunting's mother's death, he is undergoing a range of emotions, and as a reader, you are touched by them. K.J. Reilly wrote Asher's grief so raw and moving. In his grieving process, he was all over the place, from guilt to anger to sadness. Throughout the story, I found myself crying.

Asher's anger fuels his desire to get revenge on the drunk driver who killed his mother. With friends from his bereavement support group, he begins an epic road trip to Memphis, Tennessee. The road trip crew consists of a motley group of people (two teenagers and a 90-year-old) who are all dealing with grief in their own way. The fact that Asher befriended Henry, a 90-year-old widow, was so endearing to me. Asher seems unable to connect with people he knew before his mom died and for him to show so much empathy to Henry gave me hope that he would survive the darkness. While Sloane and Will agreed to the road trip for their own personal reasons, they all helped each other through the grieving process.

Despite being incredibly sad and dark at times, this book is well-balanced with a sprinkle of humor, hope, and healing. I found it to be a powerful read and one of my favorite books I have read in 2022.
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