FOUR FOR THE ROAD

Three New Jersey teens and a semisenile senior citizen, all grieving family losses, take a road trip to Graceland.

All four are devastated, vulnerable, and looking for ways beyond therapy groups to ease the pain. Henry seizes the chance to carry his beloved wife’s ashes to Memphis, and Sloane comes along to steal and ride a Harley down Beale Street wearing her father’s leather jacket. Will’s motives are less defined until the sight of a group of young cancer patients outside St. Jude’s helps him with the gnawing loss of his little brother to neuroblastoma. Unlikely as it seems, readers may end up rooting for 17-year-old cyberstalker Asher, who narrates in snarky, Holden Caulfield–style sentences. Asher is catfishing Grace, the daughter of the drunk driver who killed his mother—and plans to murder Grace’s dad. (Though set up to be a victim, Grace turns out to be a redoubtable scene-stealer and one of the book’s best surprises.) So overwhelming is the load of trauma they each carry that it’s hard to see how their journey could end on a buoyant note, but Reilly pulls it off by developing rich friendships while artfully slipping in comical elements on the way to a climactic whirl of laughter, tears, budding romance, and well-placed insights. Not to mention references throughout to Kierkegaard, The Little Prince, stages of grief, and coping strategies like self-forgiveness. The cast presents White.

A heady round trip, heavy baggage and all, from heartbreak to healing.