Until Friday Night by Abbi Glines

A #1 New York Times bestseller and the first novel in a brand-new series—from bestselling author Abbi Glines—about a small Southern town filled with cute boys in pickup trucks, Friday night football games, and crazy parties that stir up some major drama. To everyone who knows him, West Ashby has always been that guy: the cocky, popular, way-too-handsome-for-his-own-good football god who led Lawton High to the state championships. But while West may be Big Man on Campus on the outside, on the inside he’s battling the grief that comes with watching his father slowly die of cancer. Two years ago, Maggie Carleton’s life fell apart when her father murdered her mother. And after she told the police what happened, she stopped speaking and hasn’t spoken since. Even the move to Lawton, Alabama, couldn’t draw Maggie back out. So she stayed quiet, keeping her sorrow and her fractured heart hidden away. As West’s pain becomes too much to handle, he knows he needs to talk to someone about his father—so in the dark shadows of a post-game party, he opens up to the one girl who he knows won’t tell anyone else. West expected that talking about his dad would bring some relief, or at least a flood of emotions he couldn’t control. But he never expected the quiet new girl to reply, to reveal a pain even deeper than his own—or for them to form a connection so strong that he couldn’t ever let her go…

1.5/5 stars

I don't want to talk about this book ever again. Thank you.

Flew through yet another Abbi Glines book. Full thoughts to come later.

From like, page 4, I couldn't put this book down. Having seen a lot of traumatic things in my life, like Maggie, and always managing to seek out those who need fixing, like West, made it really easy to relate to these characters. Maggie copes with her trauma by keeping to herself until she sees that West needs help from someone who can relate - there was a point last year where I had decided to do this, though not as extremely as becoming mute. The emotion and evolution of each character's self-reflection in relation to each other is so achingly real - something I know might be hard to believe, but I say this because it matches the timeline I've experienced. I wish this was something I had read 3+ months ago because even though this is a YA novel I found a lot of insightful moments that taught me a lot about myself and other people who have experienced bad pain. Abbi Glines does such a fantastic job painting a picture and making it come to life by using dual POV - something I hated until now I think I have read every Abbi Glines book to date and actually finished all three in this series in one weekend reviews of book 2 and 3 to follow.