While I was a little put off at first with Dane's obsession with suicide, I found this story to be a heartfelt look into the complicated lives of teens. Mental health is a serious issue for young adults, and this novel deals honestly with the challenges that parents, teachers, and friends face when trying to help a teen in crisis.

What I Liked:

Characters:

Dane is grieving over the death of his dad which comes out as anger towards his mom. This adds to a depression that has persisted for several years. As he enters his senior year of high school, Dane has absolutely no idea what he wants to do after graduation. He doesn't see himself going to college, like most of his peers. But he also doesn't see any other path for his future. This is making him even more anxious than he usually is. I think the author gets this restlessness spot on. Very few seventeen year-olds know what they want to do in life. And the pressure to have set goals, such as to attend college, is enormous.

Ophelia is Dane's neighbor and the girl of his dreams. She is also under pressure from her father to be the perfect daughter: straight A student, completely focused on school, and responsible. But no one is perfect. I think she feels compelled to please her father because her mother has a drug problem. She has gotten the message from her dad that she can't take after her mom if she wants his love.

Mental Health Issues:

Dane has dealt with depression for several years as the book opens, and has attempted suicide in the past. This make his mom very anxious about how he's dealing with his father's death. While Dane thinks his mom is going overboard with therapists, it's what any competent parent would do.

What I found so realistic about this story is that Dane can't see that there's anything wrong with him, yet he has a serious problem with impulse control. For instance, he thinks that setting a fire in the backyard and nearly burning the house down is just a simple misunderstanding. He doesn't really consider the consequences of his actions. While it's understandable in a teenager, he make several missteps that put his life in danger. At several points in the book, I wanted to yell, "Dane, don't do it!"

What I Was Mixed About:

Romance:

As Dane and Ophelia discover that they like each other, they decide to place an expiration date on their relationship. Their rationale is that the best part of dating is at the beginning, so why not just set a date on when it's over? Then, one doesn't need to deal with all the messy bits. But as another character points out, this is a lazy solution. They never need to put any effort in their romance to make it actually work. If they truly cared about each other, which I believe they did, they should have wanted to learn more about each other, and from the relationship. I think ending their dating on a specific date was the easy way out.

Possible Date Rape:

The book also touches on a possible sexual assault of one of the characters. We see all the signs that a person was given a date-rape drug, and the victim shows signs of trauma. But nothing comes of it in the story. The girl never says that she actually was assaulted, and Dane doesn't feel the need to find out. I found this really strange. Sure, everyone deserves a right to privacy, but, if you think that someone you care about has been raped, wouldn't you want to help the girl get some assistance?

Trigger Warning for suicide and sexual assault!

I would like to extend a bit of a trigger warning for The Tragedy of Dane Riley: this book delves deeply into a grieving teenager’s mind, and there are parts of this book that introduce topics such as self-harm, suicidal ideation, and suicide attempts.

Dane Riley, the titular character of the novel, has been coasting through life ever since his father passed away the year before. As if that weren’t bad enough, his mother is now dating his father’s best friend Chuck, and Dane is saddled with a pseudo-stepsibling who loves to cause him misery. Everyone in his life appears to have moved on, but Dane remains stationary, struggling to come to terms with the death of his father, the only person who made Dane feel like it was okay to be himself. An emotional novel about mental health, loss, and growth, The Tragedy of Dane Riley is a book that forces you to reflect on your meaning of life and what (or who) you live for.

This book was an incredibly difficult read, as it fixates on extremely heavy content that can be hard to digest. Losing a parent is something that happens to everyone; whether you have a close relationship with them or not, whether it has happened in your life or not, this happens to everyone and will happen. Although it has not yet happened to me, I imagine that it is an unbelievably harsh reality to navigate.

The character of Dane Riley goes through a lot, especially within the condensed time frame that the novel presents. The upheaval that his father’s death and his mother’s new relationship causes does not help with his deteriorating mental health, and he slowly begins losing his grip on reality and his desire to keep going, whether it is graduating from high school or identifying the purpose to continue living. The text is particularly draining; Dane’s mind is a cesspool of dark thoughts, hopelessness, and so much anger.

There are moments where we can come up for a breath of air, such as when Dane gradually relaxes when working at Mr. Edgar’s Grocery Store, or when he is with Ophelia, the girl next door and his first love. Wry humor is also stamped in various places to help balance out Dane’s despondency, but for the most part, readers are quite literally forced out of their comfort zone as they share a space with Dane’s musings.

Yet, this is the compelling nature of Spears’s writing. Readers are not only immersed in the Dane’s story, but also Dane’s state of mind. Dane even mentions it multiple times in the novel: everything that he feels is exhausting, and sometimes there are only brief moments of a reprieve before he sinks back down, similar to how depression and/or anxiety may feel to others (I don’t wish to speak generally, but based on my own experience, this is comparable to how my emotions drained me at my lowest lows). Spears does an excellent job at tying this element into her novel to interact with her audience and encourage empathy toward her character and those who are like Dane.

The Tragedy of Dane Riley is a heartbreakingly raw examination of mental health and coping with loss. Spears does not shy away from Dane’s reality, and she also takes care to implement brief instances of differing realities from the characters around him. Everyone’s walk through life is different, and being sad or depressed is a perfectly acceptable response to life and its many punches. Spears’s novel manifests this concept in an honest manner, and while it doesn’t have a traditional “happy ending,“ I was left with a message of hope alongside the debilitation that there is something to live for for everyone. It may take others longer to identify it, but it is there, and it is waiting.

The Tragedy of Dane Riley by Kat Spears is going to be one of my top books of the year.

"Dane is a senior at a high school he really doesn't want to attend. His father died right before Christmas and Dane misses him terribly. What makes it worse is that his Mom doesn't seem to care that his Dad is gone. She's even started dating his Dad's business partner. No one understands his grief. Not even the girl next door that he has a big crush on. Dane's not even sure he can find a reason to go on living much less graduate."

This book is about grief - the incredible burden of trying to fill a hole in your life. It's about broken families trying to figure out a way to put things back together. It's about the impact a simple conversation with a teacher can have. It's about love and hope. And taking a leap.

Maybe you're not a 17-year-old guy but Spears, through Dane, asks a lot of the same questions we all ask. I always thought that made me feel less alone knowing someone felt the same way.

Add this book to your list this summer. Great read from Spears.

In this novel by Kat Spears, the reader is treated to a journey into the life and mind of senior Dane Riley. His father has died from cancer. He's harboring a love for his next door neighbor, Ophelia. He has three close friends, the "Extreme Sports Asians" with anglicized names: Mark, Harry, and Joe. His mother is dating his late father's best friend/business partner. And most important, Dane is suffering with depression and mental illness.

This is a quiet book. There's not a lot of extreme action. Most of the book is internal; Dane is trying to find his way through a world he doesn't understand or really care about. He texts his late father and gets responses from whomever has the new number; it's a bit of a lifeline for Dane when he struggles most with the loss. He's in danger of not graduating because "what's the point?" He's been on antidepressants and seen multiple therapists, including the latest, Dr. Lineberger. At first, when I looked at the title, the character's name, the love interest's name, the fact that Mom is now with the father's best friend, I thought I was going to read a reimagining of Hamlet, but this is not the case.

The pacing seems a little uneven - there are long passages describing insignificant things, but then important things get glossed over quickly. However, since most of the novel is in Dane's head, this makes sense. Though I felt the secondary characters were mostly two dimensional - there's a mention of Emily early in the book as part of his friend group but she's never seen again - because of Dane's inner struggles, I could overlook that. It's emotional and heartbreaking to read, but a necessary look into what depression and grief can do to a teenager.

Dane is a deeply unhappy teenager and he definitely has a reason to feel that way, but it makes the majority of the book be a bit of a depressing read. That said, it also makes for some of the most empathetic writing I've read in a while. You spend the book in his mind and really understand how he got to the point he's in and why he seems dead set on not getting better, or better said, how those around him don't seem to want to give him a chance to grow.
It's a deep character study of a teenager who feels like he should be happy because his life isn't difficult but also knows that it's deeply unfair to force him to feel what others want simply because it would be more convenient. Spears put a lot of humanity into Dane and his constant feeling of not feeling a part of the world. It makes Dean and his situation both relatable and understandable.
My one gripe would have to be the fact that it happens in weird little time jumps where we get to experience brief moments of Dane's life and the aftereffects of them without actually experiencing the passage of time. I was never certain when things happen or how months suddenly seemed to pass by from one paragraph to another. Not a big deal when it comes to the quality of the story, but a pet peeve of mine when it comes to how a story is told.

Many happy thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the read!

This book is YA realistic fiction.

The narrator is high school senior Dane (1st person POV). He is a troubled teen who is grieving the loss of his dad. We see how he deals with life, school, girls and therapy.

This book is at times not easy to read. Dane has problems. And they are not always fun to read about it. But I think that this book is important. And it deals with many important topics. And after reading the author's comments (on goodreads in her review) I am in awe. She tried to do show readers certain things and I think that she was succesful.

There were definitely things that I really liked about this book. I loved Ophelia and everything to do with her friendship with Dane. I enjoyed everything to do with therapy/his therapist. And I actually liked the family dynamic between Dane, his mom, Chuck and Chuck's son.

I also absolutely loved how the more that I looked at this cover, the more that I discovered new things about it that were somehow related to the story.

This is a quick read. But some of it just wasn't overly enjoyable to me. I feel like this could be super helpful to teens (which I am not). So it's difficult for me to rate. But ultimately I decided to go with 3 stars.

A YA book for ninth grade and up, this well-written and affecting book explores some pretty serious topics with realism, humor, and emotion.

Dane Riley is a high school senior who's survived one suicide attempt and is contemplating it again as his depression gets worse with the unexpected death of his beloved father. Dane's livid that his mother has already moved on by allowing her new boyfriend, his father's best friend, Chuck, to move into the family home. Chuck's nasty son, Eric, goes to school with Dane and torments him. Dane's in love with his next-door neighbor, Ophelia but doesn't know how to make his feelings known. Dane tries to numb his emotional pain by hanging out with his friends and smoking weed, but the lure of suicide continues to beckon. With allusions to Hamlet, this novel explores Dane's serious mental health struggles and the relationships he has with his family and friends.

The frankness of this novel is laudable. I haven't read any of Spears' previous books, but her ability to realistically portray the actions, thoughts, and voices of disaffected teens has been highlighted in every other review I've read. I commend that in this novel, too. Dane's chats with his therapist and his mom, his texts to his Dad's old number, and his discussions with Ophelia and his friends were authentic and engrossing. Spears shows a deft ability to authentically portray all the characters (save Dane's mom--she seemed lacking) that are part of this complicated and serious situation.

At the same time, these portrayals, particularly Dane, may have been too real for me. I absolutely appreciate it, but I felt the depths of Dane's anger, disillusionment, and emotional pain were explored at great length yet not balanced out by enough time spent on redemptive or cathartic moments. I know real life doesn't always wrap up in a bow, but I felt like too much was left unresolved at the end, especially the texts to his "Dad." That plot point in particular seemed to be built up just to fizzle out. The slight resolution to the entire story seemed rushed, too.

Spears has a talent for writing teens, so I will definitely check out her other books. There's absolutely value and a need for serious young adult books like this; however, the exhausting emotional content in this one and its lack of a stronger resolution might be too overwhelming for some kids, particularly those who are dealing with similar mental struggles.

Dane Riley is struggling emotionally after his father's death. He was away at boarding school and was not given the chance to fully accept what was happening until he came home for the summer to spend that short amount of time before his father died. His mother has already moved on and Dane is angry and resentful about it. He is living a life of destructive behaviors and no direction for his future. His mother has hired a new therapist in the hopes that maybe this one can get through to him.

Through this book we get to know Dane a little better with each passing page. We see deeper into his soul and follow his journey as he comes to understand himself as well as the relationships with those around him. His mother, the replacement boyfriend and that man's awful son, and most importantly, the neighbor who has always seemed out of reach for him.

This started out rough. There didn't seem to be any hope for this troubled kid. It was painful to read. And while there isn't true closure at the end of the story, I feel as though the ending was right for this journey. It was never about beginnings and endings, but rather what happens in the middle. I thought that was a great sentiment and fit well with the story.

There's foul language in this one and again- it was pretty dark at times. Probably not for my young teens, but an older YA audience to could handle this and the topics that are addressed (there are a lot!)

Thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Do you sometimes question your existence in the world? For Dane Riley, this existential crisis has been an ever-present reminder, at the back of his mind. When Dane’s dad dies, the floodgates open and all his repressed thoughts and emotions fly to the forefront- is he worthy of life?

Some people may describe this book as morose or depressing, to them I say yes, it is both of these things, but it's so much more, it is thought-provoking and brings to the forefront very uncomfortable yet realistic issues on grief, suicide, and death.

"She told me it was better if I moved on, but where I’m supposed to be moving on to?"

When I read this I couldn’t help but think- money, status, position, beauty, what is it all worth in the grand scheme of things? Who are we truly as a person?

"It's a vicious pattern. Society conditions us to want the things we can't have."

To say I did some inner reflection after this book is truly putting it mildly, I thoroughly enjoy books that make me look at myself and the world around me differently and I think this book accomplishes that. If it's one thing I have learned from Dane it's that sometimes in life, it's ok to be lost, it's ok to feel small and insignificant in comparison to the great big world because life isn't just a series of beginnings and endings, it's about all the stuff- good or bad in between that matters.

"Things can be funny even if you aren't happy. Happy is just a state of mind."

Kate Spear has penned some truly complex characters, who have such a dismal yet hopeful outlook on life that you can't help but route for them. Her writing is sharp with a synergistic balance of dark taboo topics and fresh witty humor. The Tragedy of Dane Riley was such a psychologically compelling read, that forces you to challenge the status quo. It's a coming-of-age story, about a young boy who questions his existence in the world and his life’s purpose.

Thank you to Wednesday Books, the author, and NetGalley for providing me with an arc.

I ended up not finishing this book. Just was not my cup of tea in the end. Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Dane Riley's dad is dead. There's no sugarcoating it. A senior in a wealthy suburban high school, Dane struggles to come to terms with the fact that his father is dead. His mother has taken up with her deceased husband's business partner and Dane feels the crushing weight of his former life. He's given up on school, drinks too much, smokes too much weed, he's depressed, anxious, and suicidal. He's also in love with the girl next door, Ophelia.
This coming-of-age story is a solid choice for readers who may have or have had their own mental health struggles. Dane has a very "teenagery" outlook view on life and relationships which adult readers will most certainly relate to as they reminisce on their own teenage years. The suicidal ideation may be a trigger for some readers, so tread with caution before picking up this book

tw: suicide attempt, death, drugs

The Tragedy of Dane Riley is a great coming of age story in the vein of The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Dane is a senior in high school who is feeling lost, his father has recently passed away, his mother is now dating his father's best friend and he's in a new school. He is every kid with teen angst but his has been tripled due to crippling grief and life instability. This book will make you feel so many emotions. There were pages where I wanted to shake him, passages where I wanted to smack him and chapters upon chapters where I just wanted to hug him and tell him everything was going to be ok.

Dane struggles with communication issues, in his mind he is so profound and his feelings are so deep but what comes out when he tries to communicate he just never quite gets his meaning across. This leads to a lot of conflict with his mother, her boyfriend and his son. He is slightly better with his friends who understand the teen angst and who are trying to understand his grief. We see him as he has some breakthroughs with his therapist and how they translate through to his day to day interactions and his sense of purpose and future.
His most revealing relationship is with his beautiful next door neighbor who he worships and begins to teach him, not everything is what it seems on the surface. She teaches Dane that it's ok to be open and sensitive but that you also need to be aware that others may be having their own battles and you should be sensitive of that too. 
Just a lovely story with some profound coming of age lessons. I especially adored the reveal of who was communicating with him via his late father's cell phone. This one is out today so check it out!
Thanks to St Martin's Press for access to this novel. All opinions above are my own.

Dane was struggling in his day-to-day following his father's death. He resented his mother replacing his father so quickly, while he dealt with this hole in his life. Could he come to terms with his grief before his unraveled?

If I had to compare the experience of reading this book to something, it would be like watching a Wes Anderson film. It was a little weird, but at the same time, really engrossing and thought provoking. This was an interesting portrait of a young man dealing with grief, changes in his family situation, depression, and unrequited love. I appreciated his journey, which I found very honest and authentic.

I know people are going to come down hard on Dane's mom. Picking up with her husband's partner so quickly following his death had me side-eyeing her, but I was also disappointed in her for not being very supportive of her son. Not to fear, Dane had a couple of people in his corner. His friends, teacher, therapist, and neighbor were all sources of support for Dane. There was also someone answering the text messages he sent to his father's phone, which was a source of comfort for Dane.

Spears took on some heavy topics, but did a beautiful job balancing it all out with humor, wit, and a touch of romance. She explored Dane's grief and depression with care and depicted it in a very real way. I felt his pain, anger, despair, and loneliness. My heart ached for him, and I worried about him. His struggle was real, and his road to recovery was riddled was winding and long.

I enjoyed getting to know Dane. He was an intriguing characters. The ending left me a bit wanting, but it did seem things were looking up. Dane was moving in the right direction, and I was left feeling hopeful for him.

I was hesitant going in to this book after reading a bunch of poor reviews, but I’m glad I gave it a try! I thought this was a wonderful character driven coming of age novel that dealt very well with a lot of heavy subjects. Grief, depression, first love, relationships, both with parents, other adults and friends, and finding meaning in life were all dealt with throughout the book. And it wasn’t heavy handed or preachy, but it felt real and authentic. And just when things were getting bleak the author balanced it out with humor and hope. Great book, my only complaint was the ending.

This book was so hard for me to get through as someone who just recently lost a parent. I've never used the highlight feature more in my kindle because Kat so accurately had the words I needed to express my grief when I myself didn't have the words. There is discussion of self harm, mental illness, and eating disorders so if that is triggering for you I would avoid this book. I think it's done in a way that gives background on the characters without being used for the sake of shock value. Grief takes a lot of forms and there are a lot of stages to combine that with depression and anxiety is an incredibly hard thing to deal with.

This is a book about loss and how there is no right way to grieve those you love. it's a story about growing up and all the changes you experience as a young adult getting ready to graduate high school. The pressure to know what you want to do with the rest of your life, what school you want to go to, and my personal favorite the crush on someone you think is super out of your league.

*Huge thank you to Netgalley, Wednesday Books, and Kat Spears for allowing my to read an advanced copy of this book.*

Title: The Tragedy of Dane Riley
Author: Kat Spears
Genre: YA
Rating: 4 out of 5

Dane Riley's grasp on reality is slipping, and he's not sure that he cares. While his mother has moved on after his father's death, Dane desperately misses the man who made Dane feel okay to be himself. He can't stand his mother's boyfriend, or the boyfriend's son, whose favorite pastime is tormenting Dane. Then there's the girl next door: Dane can't quite define their relationship, and he doesn't know if he's got the courage to leave the friend zone.

Dane is an interesting character! He’s sad, but he’s so thoughtful and introspective about everything—and, while I don’t necessarily agree with some of his conclusions, I can see where they make sense to him, in the middle of the shadows where he is.

His mother comes across as clueless and insensitive, but I loved the reveal about her boyfriend. I like Ophelia, too, but she and Dane were both totally oblivious to each other’s interest, which was frustrating. I have to say, I didn’t care for the ending. It left things feeling unresolved, so that was definitely not a plus, but this book dealt with depression and grief in a way that draws the reader into Dane’s head, so they can understand exactly how he’s feeling.

Kat Spears thinks being a teenager sucked, so now she writes about it. The Tragedy of Dane Riley is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.)

(Blog link live 6/23.)

3.5 stars. This book really provided a good description of character building and dealing with grief at a fairly young age and I don't want to discount that in any way. However, it just felt like nothing happened from the beginning to the end. It didn't feel like it told much of a story or like anything really developed. It was heartbreaking, with only small glimmers of hope. Thank you to Netgalley and Wednesday Books for the ARC.

DNF at 30%. I actually enjoyed the writing quite a bit. There is a lot of (dark) humor woven into this very emotionally heavy story. There isn't anything wrong with the novel per se, but I just don't think I'm in the right mood to appreciate it. I've decided to put this one down for now.

CW's I encountered up until this point: death of parent, suicide attempt (off page), suicide ideation, grief, depression, drugs (marijuana), alcohol, mentions of: bulimia/eating disorder, unprotected sex, and abortion

Dane Riley has been depressed for years, and when his father passes away, things escalate. Dane’s mother is already dating his best friend, Chuck, who has a son he despises, he can’t seem to get the attention of the girl next door, he is failing his classes, and he can’t seem to relate to anyone he knows. Through the course of the novel, Dane, through the help of his therapist, slowly starts to find connections and mend relationships with the people around him.

There are definitely similarities to All the Bright Places. Dane is struggling with depression and often thinks about suicide (please check TWs before reading!!). Like ATBP, this is heavily character-based. Not much actually happens in the story other than some minor high school events, so this is a bit of a slow read. Be prepared for that.

The romance between Dane and Ophelia was a little odd to me. There seemed to be some purposeful miscommunication and ignoring of flirtatious signals to force tension in the story. I couldn’t buy into why they would be into each other. I wish, instead, the story built more of a friendship between the two of them and keep the romance out until maybe the end.

The story is a powerful representation of teenage mental health and Kat Spears demonstrated it authentically and beautifully. Mixed into the grief, sadness, anger, etc. are also bits of humor and lightheartedness that keep you going. If you’re in the mood for a deep and dark coming of age story, this is the one for you and is out June 22nd!!

⭐⭐⭐

(TW: suicide references, depression, grief, loss of father, mental illness, physical fight, talk of death)

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc!

Dane isn’t handling the death of his father well. It doesn’t help that his mother moved on so quickly, with his father’s best friend. As we watch Dane try to cope with the changes and pressures at school, his world seems to be falling even more apart. The only bright spot in his life is Ophelia, the girl next door. Instead of telling Ophelia he’s in love with her, he’s rude and pushes her away. But the hurt he’s carrying inside is spreading to his relationships. Dean needs some help healing and fast.

This story was a mixed bag for me. I appreciated how the author showed Dane’s struggles, but I felt the story’s pacing was off. Sometimes we spent time on relatively insignificant things and then raced through some important things. It was a bit jumpy from chapter to chapter, but I feel that reflected the turmoil that was going on in Dane. I think there’s a good message in this story, and many readers will benefit from reading it. Thank you, St. Martin’s Press/Wednesday Books, for sending this along.