Goodbye Days

Carver’s one friend after the accident was dating Eli before he died, which is what initially connects her and Carver. However, her status as Eli’s former girlfriend complicates their relationship when Carver develops feelings for her. Her character thus serves to deepen Carver’s guilt, adding a new layer of complexity to his emotions. After Carver becomes jealous, the two argue and have a falling out. They reconcile, however, and the novel’s end suggests the two have created a strong friendship, even hinting that a future romance may be possible.

Like Carver, Jesmyn is a creative person, although her art is music instead of writing. The narrative follows her journey as she prepares her audition for Julliard. While she starts out as being simply “Eli’s ex-girlfriend,” Jesmyn evolves to become a well-rounded character with a complex identity: musician, Filipina, southern, adopted. As a person of color, she also serves to educate Carver—and, by extension, the reader—on the harm of casual racism. For example, she tells him: “Every time I mention being country, you’re so shocked because Asians can’t be country” (173). 

The Briggs are Carver’s parents. Lila is a physical therapist, and Callum is a college English professor. They are clearly loving parents and do everything possible to support Carver, both emotionally and practically. They are even willing to pay up to $150,000 in lawyer’s fees and consider remortgaging their house to do so. Although his parents are loving and supportive, Carver, like many teenagers, isn’t very close to them emotionally. His relationship with his parents evolves throughout the book, as he sees how his deceased friends never really showed their parents their true colors—and now can’t. The realization spurs Carver to plan a “hello day” with his parents as an opportunity to bond with them. 

Carver’s big sister is a pillar of support for him, offering guidance on everything from girl problems with Jesmyn to mental health. She also encourages him to open up to their parents. Georgia’s character also serves to emphasize that mental health problems can come in all forms and for all varieties of reasons—in her case, depression and an eating disorder following a breakup. Her character serves as a sort of mental health advocate: She takes Carver to see Dr. Mendez, encourages him throughout the therapy process, and tells him “you’re brave for getting help” when he cries (145). Within the narrative, her primary role is as a pillar of support for Carver, but seen in a broader context, Georgia can be characterized as a mental health advocate not only for her brother but also for any reader whom her pro-mental-health messages may resonate with.

Black is one of the three deceased members of Sauce Crew. All four boys were preparing to start their senior years at Nashville Arts Academy when the car accident happened that kills all three of them. Blake was planning to move to Los Angeles to pursue comedy and screenwriting. Since his death takes place before the story opens, Blake’s character is only revealed through the eyes of Carver and Blake’s surviving family (Nana Betsy). Blake’s talent was comedy. He was a YouTuber known above all for his fart pranks. Like Mars and Eli, Blake didn’t show his parent figure, Nana Betsy, his true authentic self: He was also gay, a fact that he confessed to Carver but not to his religious grandmother. Blake’s difficult family history—his mother has substance abuse issues and could no longer take care of him— highlights the theme of family and how it can be built in unique ways.  

Nana Betsy took Blake from his neglectful, drug-addicted mother (her daughter) and raised him. A religious woman, she is one of the few characters who seems not to assign blame or seek causality for the accident. She believes in God, and in her eyes, everything that happens is God’s will, one way or another. Her religion is possibly the reason that Blake chose not to confide in her that he was gay and makes Carver hesitant to reveal Blake’s secret to her. While she’s clearly a good-hearted woman, she’s very traditional and also uses language that would be deemed inappropriate by modern standards. For example, she refers to Jesmyn as “the pretty Oriental girl” (208), and Carver corrects her simply saying “Asian.” When Carver reveals Blake’s big secret to Nana Betsy, she reacts with grace and acceptance, proving that her familial love is greater than religious belief. Nana Betsy’s character is also integral to the book because she introduces the idea of the goodbye days. 

Eli is another deceased member of Sauce Crew. Like the others, Eli was preparing to start his senior year at Nashville Arts Academy when the accident happened. Eli was planning to attend Berklee College of Music to study guitar. Throughout the novel, his character is only revealed through the eyes of Carver and Eli’s surviving family (Mr. and Mrs. Bauer and his twin sister, Adair). Like Blake and Mars, Eli hid parts of himself from his parents that Carver then reveals to them during the goodbye day—specifically that he considered the possibility of God’s existence. To his atheist parents, this is shocking news. Eli’s character serves to heighten tension by introducing Jesmyn—his girlfriend at the time of his death—into the story. Carver’s attraction to his dead friend’s “ex” exacerbates his feelings of guilt and self-blame. The eventual blowup between Carver and Jesmyn adds drama to the story.

Eli’s twin sister, Adair Bauer, is angry and grief-stricken. She blames Carver for her brother’s death and actively seeks to help the investigation that will land him in jail. She encourages her parents to participate in the goodbye day, for example, because she hopes Carver will say something incriminating. Adair’s anger, which never subsides, serves as a contrast to Carver’s guilt, which he gradually comes to terms with over time and with the help of therapy. Adair’s constant rage demonstrates how people grieve differently.

Dr. Pierce Bauer and Dr. Melissa Rubin-Bauer, Eli’s and Adair’s parents, do the goodbye day with Jesmyn and Carver. As atheists, they are surprised to learn about Eli’s consideration of a possible god. Their marriage suffers following their son’s death, and they plan to get a divorce, an event that might be seen as one of the ripple effects of the accident.

Mars is another deceased member of Sauce Crew who, like them, was preparing to start his senior year at Nashville Arts Academy when the accident happened. Mars was planning to pursue his dream of becoming a comic book illustrator. Like Blake and Eli, Mars was not his authentic self around his family. Mars’s situation was the most extreme because of his strict father, Judge Edwards. The large gap in who Mars really was versus who his father wanted him to be also makes for the most dramatic goodbye day, since the Judge is initially angered by Carver’s attempts to share the real Mars with him.

Judge Edwards is Mars’s father. He is divorced from Mars’s mother, Cynthia, who doesn’t make any significant appearance in the story. Judge Edwards is a driving player in the plot: He instigates the investigation into the accident but also ultimately saves Carver by asking the district attorney not to pursue the case further. Judge Edwards explicitly raises the theme of race during Mars’s goodbye day, a topic that the book only lightly touches on until that point. He makes the argument that allowing an investigation into the accident to proceed would have only tarnished Mars’s reputation. The media would have painted him, a Black teenager, as a “thug,” in the Judge’s view.