Glory Days

by Rachel Davidson, Nikki Greenhalgh

Will left a lot behind when he died. His childhood best friend. His alcoholic sidekick, his stoner confidant. His girlfriend, the girl he loved, his little brother, and, of course, his bucket list. It comes alive with his passing, along with the idea to finish it. Some items prove to be a bit more difficult than others. Antelope Canyon-right in their backyard. The Maldives, on the other hand-halfway across the world. Luckily, they have Will's entire college fund at their disposal, which should last them the five days it takes to get to California. One problem. These are Will's friends. He was the glue that held them together. What happens now that he's gone? Will a trip like this bring them closer together, or will it only tear them apart?

237 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 25, 2021

Reviews

[Nikki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pretty okay ig

[Megan Olds · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a pretty good debut for (at the time) a couple of high school seniors! It is pretty well-fleshed out and well-developed. Sometimes, the writing reminded me of my brothers (and not in a bad way.) And fans of LGBTQ+ inclusion will also be happy with this novel.

There's an ensemble cast of characters that at first, you wonder how some of them ended up being friends, even if you know that right now, they're being thrown together over grief and a specific purpose. Then it gets explained just how far back all of their childhood history goes, and it all starts to make more sense. No character was really totally likable or unlikable (except for maybe Jack's parents, haha; I didn't really like them!) They are uniquely their own, and that sets them off as human.

I related to some very real road trip happenings, like peeing in a cup. I liked Elijah and Mason as a couple better than Cassidy and Jack. And my only real complaint about this book is the ending. It just felt like the book could have kept going or eventually led to a sequel. It was hard to tell if enough got resolved for it to feel finished.

Overall, however, the effect of the book leaves you hoping for the best for all of the characters with their friendship and their futures. You can only imagine how much trouble they'll probably get into in places like China! Like I said before, it is a pretty good debut novel.

[Kelsey Beyerly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did not expect to give this book five stars, but it would be an injustice not to. Nikki Greenhalgh and Rachel Davidson embody the simultaneous naivety and wisdom of youth in their tragically hopeful bildungsroman, "Glory Days." Generally, as a fantasy genre enjoyer, I would not often pick up a realistic fiction book such as this one. I am sure glad I gave it a chance. What's more than being realistic to teenagers with just the right amount of angst, this novel depicts loss as both a glue and a dissolvent. A group of six teenagers traveling the globe, what could be a greater set up for failure? You might be surprised, you might not. You might find yourself wondering how much you know your closest friends, wondering how far you would go for them, wondering if they know how much you care. In today's world, many adults would pass off adolescence as a path of apathetic dissonance. According to "Glory Days," it's anything but. If there's one thing you can learn from this book it's this: the kids are alright.

[Eric Lenning · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and continued to laugh and marvel at some of its dialog and characters well after I had finished reading it. This is a remarkable first effort by two young women who upon completing it had yet to graduate high school. As a middle-aged guy and parent of two teens I am probably not in the core of its target audience, but somehow I was able to relate equally well both to the kids in the book and their mostly-absent parents, especially during the brilliantly outrageous and perfectly executed airport scene. I gave the book four stars rather than five for a reason that isn’t remotely fair but might be appreciated by the authors. For a growth and discovery road-trip novel written by two high school girls it is completely unreasonable to make comparisons to giants like Steinbeck, Kerouac, and Twain, but that certainly is the temptation here. I don’t think the book manages to offer the many layers of deeper meaning that those examples provide, but it is not hard to imagine what these these two will be capable of in the future given such a strong start.

[P.T. Notbarnum · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is quintessentially YA, a stark departure in genre and form from what I typically read, but I'm glad I read it. If you are going to pick the book up, there are some things to know:
1. The narrative is very character-driven, and other story elements are proverbially but in the backseat, including the overarching plot, and, occasionally, the setting(s).
2. Since it is a character-driven story, the book is heavy in dialogue. I didn't mind, the story almost had a Plato-esc quality to it, where the flow of discussion propelled the story.
3. This is a route story. I loved this geographic quality, but if you are a reader who is intrigued by a stagnant setting, this book is not that. (As an aside, I would have loved to see an auxiliary map that details the route the characters take. Maybe even a graphic of Paisley's kid's menu drawing.)
Overall, I enjoyed this book and thought it was a good initiation into the world of realistic YA fiction.