Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book, as this book has already been published, I will not share my review on Netgalley at this time.

An eclectic group of people mired in loss embark on a road trip to Graceland, each with their own agenda, and one with plans to murder. What transpires is a hilarious and touching journey.

K.J. Reilly puts forth a compelling cast of quirky and endearing characters in this coming-of-age novel that captures grief through the eyes of an adolescent boy. New Jersey teenager Asher Hunting is hell-bent on punishing the drunken truck driver, dubbed "Jack Daniels," who collided with his mother, while she was traveling home from the mall after buying Asher special soccer cleats, in an accident that resulted in her death. As part of a plot for revenge, he connects with the driver's daughter, Grace, and asks her to prom despite the thousand miles that separate them. Reilly invokes a stream-of-consciousness narrative to capture Asher's rumination over the accident itself (it was his fault because his mother was buying his lime green Nike Superflys), as well as how he plans to murder Jack Daniels, which involves a trip to Memphis with a tuxedo and a baseball bat.

Asher, awash with grief, perseverates over the reasons for his mother's death, coming up with a list of people who "killed" her, including "David Beckham for making [him] love soccer," as well as himself. He disparages the school psychologist, calling him "HeWhoKnowsNothingAtAll," and initially provokes those in his bereavement group with the retort of "At least you have a mother." However, it is not long before Asher realizes that the other group members are tethered to him by grief. He befriends a boy named Will, who has lost his brother to cancer, and discovers solace in finding someone who is "being swallowed by the same tar pit." He agrees to plant sweet peas with the aging Henry in memory of his lost wife of 50 years. He checks in on Sloane, who has been hiding in the bathroom of her school since her father died. He forms the type of bonds with these characters that only devastating loss could forge, and then casually asks them if they want to go to Graceland, where Henry had always hoped to take his wife.

While Asher's rambling inner monologues parallel those of J.D. Salinger's famous character Holden Caulfield, Asher has an ace up his sleeve that eluded Holden: steadfast friends and wise allies. Asher is fortunate enough to have a father who empathizes with his need to watch out for his little sister Chloe's safety following his mother's death, even if it means putting a helmet, life preserver and tin foil on her to protect her from "the top killers of children under the age of five," such as drowning and low frequency electromagnetic radiation. The bereavement group moderator, who Asher nicknames Peter Pan due to her sprightly tendencies, provides him and other members with coping techniques, doling out copies of The Little Prince for philosophical advice and creating an M&M-based reward system. She sagely reminds the group, "You can't be self-destructive sad." Armed with this motto, as well as a supply of M&Ms, the four main characters hit the road.

While Henry, Sloane and Will are unaware of Asher's revenge plot, they each have their own agenda. The peculiarities of the travelers provide comic relief, and their collective strength gives the reader a sense of comfort that Asher will ultimately "turn his wounds into wisdom." Will has a penchant for quoting philosophers, Sloane possesses a depth of compassion and Henry carries with him, quite literally, his deceased wife of 50 years as she accompanies the group in her urn. Although at times the plot feels a bit fantastical, such as in Asher's elaborate catfishing of Jack Daniels' daughter, the work provides an authentic narrative of teenagers trying to make their way to adulthood amidst astounding odds and breathtaking loss. Reilly underscores the timeless earmarks of resiliency: friends who save us from ourselves, and the capacity "to cling to something we're not entirely sure can hold us up," such as hope.

Four for the Road offers something to young adults, as well as older ones, who have felt a loss of great magnitude, and have hopefully been fortunate enough to have a pit crew waiting on the sidelines to facilitate the journey through grief. Although some of Asher's preoccupations revolve around violence and the graphic details of his mother's death, Reilly provides the foreshadowing necessary to allay any of her audience's fears that he might make a poor choice.

An intense grief story like this one can be a bit of a slog. The characters grief is so intense that it creates a sense of unreality, a disconnect from the world. These characters make decisions that make very little sense. A challenge to connect with.

Four for the Road is an emotional story about grief and loss. How it twists inside of us and makes us not notice the world still turning. It can hollow us out and set off chain reactions in our day. These little moments and memories which haunt us. But what really got my heart were the scenes where Asher tries to protect his sister and the knowledge that we can never protect the ones we love from everything. That it's just an essential knowledge to life. Four for the Road is emotional from beginning to end.

It begins with this fact that grief and loss feels inherently unfair. Unfair that our lives have changed so fundamentally and that for others, their worlds have continued onwards. That we are living in this new reality so separate from others, where they wake up every day and don't think about this hole in their life. And then Four for the Road becomes a story about mystery. It propels readers through as we wonder how it will resolve. Because resentment and revenge brought to life is something different than our dreams.

Asher’s mom was killed by a drunk driver driving a semi truck that caused his mom to crash. He starts going to grief support groups where he makes three friends -Henry, Sloan and Will. He convinces them all to take a road trip with him under the illusion they are taking Henry on a trip he and his dead wife never got to take but Asher is really taking a trip to finally get his revenge on the man who killed his mother.

I really enjoyed this book. There were only a few things I wasn’t super in love with but I loved the way the writer portrayed Asher’s grief and the way he and his friend dealt it hit together.

I’ve never read anything by this author before but I will definitely be checkin* out anything else they have written.

Five-star book alert! Four for the Road is hands-down one of my favorite books of 2022. This YA novel hooked me from the first page, and it was a book that I both wanted to keep reading because I loved it and that I never wanted to end because these characters felt like family. And now I want everyone else to read it because it is so good!

Here’s what you need to know: Asher’s mom is dead and he’s not handling it well. She died in a fiery car crash exactly twelve months, three weeks, one day, six hours, and fourteen minutes ago, and even though he goes to therapy and has a lot of support, he still isn’t okay. As the novel starts, Asher is attending a bereavement group – but he accidentally ends up in a group for old people, not for teenagers. He quickly realizes his mistake and starts attending the group for teens. But he can’t stop thinking about Henry, the older gentleman he met at the first group who is mourning the love of his life, Evelyn. So Asher ends up going to bereavement groups four nights a week. And it’s in these groups that he finally meets people who understand exactly what he’s going through. In addition to Henry, Asher befriends Sloane, who lost her biker dad, and Will, who lost his little brother. And when Asher decides to go to Memphis to exact revenge on the drunk driver who killed his mother, Sloane, Will, Henry (and Evelyn) come along for the ride.

Four for the Road is visceral and raw. It is a road trip story of grief and loss but it also has elements of joy and love and healing. Asher narrates the story with long sentences, full of snark and pain. Four for the Road will break you down and put you back together. It will bring you to tears over and over again, and you’ll want to reach into the novel to hug Henry and Sloane and Will and Asher. This book utterly devastated me, in the best possible way. These characters will live in my heart for a long time.

I recommend Four for the Road for grades 8+. Hand to teens who love sad books or anyone dealing with grief and loss; for fans of Dancing at the Pity Party.

This lovely story is both heartbreaking and heartwarming, and I absolutely enjoyed the ride (road trip pun mildly intended). We're introduced to Asher, who has lost in mom in a pretty horrific car accident about a year ago. He has now fully devoted his existence to A) trying to keep his existing family alive, no matter how many of his sister's bikes he must destroy, and B) plotting to literally murder the drunk driver who killed his mom. He is... well look, he isn't doing well. He goes to grief support groups, but mostly to be snarky, until he meets a few people who may just understand what he is dealing with.

First he encounters Henry, an elderly fellow who has lost his wife Evelyn. Asher befriends Henry, but also finds some friends of his own generation at a bereavement group for young people. Sloan has lost her father, and Will who lost his little brother. Henry mentions that Evelyn has always wanted to go to Graceland, and since Asher's revenge victim (and also his date to prom, but that is another story altogether) are in Memphis, he decides to get the whole band together for a road trip!

So, as you can imagine, this book is going to be full of the feels. Each character, and their deceased love one, frankly, is incredibly well developed. I fell in love with each of them- perhaps even before I fell in love with Asher- and their stories wormed their way into my heart. They were all in very different places with their grief, but the bottom line was that they all really needed each other, to have that support from someone who could understand what they are going through. They had finally found people who didn't try to force them to tamp down their grief, or shy away from the hard topics. Here, on this unsanctioned road trip, they were able to share their loved ones' stories, and in many cases, favorite meals. They didn't have to tiptoe around the non-grievers, to hide their pain and put on false fronts.

I don't want to give away too much of this emotional journey, so I will just say that the book is full of amazing characters, a lot of friendship, and was hugely therapy positive. The characters undergo a ton of growth during their trip, but they are in no way done grieving. The author does a great job of making this trip life changing, but not in any way a fix-all, and it was truly the perfect balance.

Bottom Line: This book broke my heart, and then put it back together again mile by mile.

Oh my god, I was completely enthralled in this novel.

After a drunk driver kills his mother, Asher sets himself on a self-destructive path of revenge.

I cannot express how sincerely good this book is, how much it touched me, made me feel. The characters are honest, brutally honest. Kids dealing with death, an elderly man trying to live with a version of normalcy. Asher is a unique protagonist, where you're almost rooting for him to do the wrong thing because you feel his pain, you feel the guilt and confusion, and mostly, the frustration with death. Reilly does an incredible job at balancing the tragedy of grief, humor, and an adolescent reaction to a life they can't control.

The writing style isn't for everyone. it's repetitive (meaningful so) and like an endless stream of consciousness flowing from Asher's mind to the page. Dialogue is also somewhat structured oddly, but once you're invested you don't notice it anymore. I personally really appreciated the way the characters interacted and the way the plot slowly unfolded in front of you.

Didn't expect to love this as much as I did. There's so much heart, so much pain, and love between the characters. Asher, Solane and Will, Henry and Evelyn. Their stories are important. Their healing is important.

This is one of my favorite reads of the year so far, and I'm so glad I had the chance to read it. My favorite books are those with a strong voice, and this is one of the strongest and most unique voices I've read in a long time. The tone and pacing were absolutely perfect. It balanced humor and grief and made me want to read everything this author ever writes.

Nothing but good things to say about this one.

Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Absolutely loved this book about Asher taking his new group of friends from his bereavement group on a revenge trip to Tennessee. Along the way, all four of them find ways to confront their grief especially Asher. Someone tells Asher that we have to accept what we can’t change and move forward. Can Asher do that after a shocking realization? A truly, unforgettable book which will stay with me.