Whenever I listen to Simon and Garfunkel — which is fairly often — I begin to reminisce about simpler times. I’ve only ever owned their music on CD, and I remember when I purchased their greatest hits album on a road trip to visit Michigan State University my junior year of high school. Reading Steffan Piper’s Greyhound took me back to that memory because of how classic musicians play such a large role in the story. Bonus: the role is through cassette tapes.

Greyhound starts when Sebastien Ranes’s mother drops him off at the Stockton, California, Greyhound station with a ticket to Altoona, Pennsylvania and about $30. She’s getting married to a new guy, and Sebastien’s 11-year-old self is just too much baggage to take on. Besides, the soon-to-be husband doesn’t like him, so it makes sense to ship him off to grandma and grandpa’s. Along with the cash, all she tells him is to sit at the front of the bus, don’t talk to strangers, and don’t miss the bus when it leaves the station. No I love yours or I’ll miss yous for Ms. Ranes.

The year is 1981, and Sebastien is lonely. He’s being sent to live with people he doesn’t know all that well, and while he’s a bit apprehensive about traveling by bus across the US alone with very little money, he’s also going to use this as an opportunity to forget about his crappy home life and his worthless mother. When he boards his first bus in Stockton, he aims right to the back of the bus, where he will soon meet Marcus. Marcus, the African American ex-con, will soon become one of the few people in his life he can trust and rely on, and together they make a heck of a pair as they traverse the country by bus. Along the way, Sebastien will learn about loving life, making friends, how to appreciate music, and even how to appreciate literature. There is a happy splattering of literary and musical references, ranging from Catcher in the Rye to Cat Stevens. We’re steeped deep into 1981, but we’re also steeped into something completely modern and timeless.

Grayhound was a moving book, and it carries a lot more to it than what the description and the cover might suggest. In the story, all of our characters learn important lessons, as well as discover who they are and who others are via the vehicle of a road trip on one of America’s former strongholds of transportation. The Greyhound was the perfect vehicle for this story. We’ll also have highs and lows on the trip, from a hostage attempt to a broke down bus, that couldn’t happen realistically in another vehicle.

Although there are certainly depressing moments in the story, it is ultimately hopeful, and Sebastien is a character who is worth loving. This is a point Marcus will make, as well, but it’s one we as readers figure out far before either Marcus or Sebastien do. Piper’s characters are fully fleshed and dynamic and most importantly, believable. I loved their flaws and their moments of realization and connections to one another. I loved that Sebastien has preferences even down to who is driving the bus.

Piper’s story is well-paced, moving and jerking about in the same manner that the trip experienced by Sebastien does: there are times when it zips along and times when it is slow, methodical, and worth taking notes at. Although this could become gimmicky, I never felt it became that way. It just worked.

Although this title is marketed for adults, it is one that has incredible cross-over appeal to young adult readers. Fans of Stephen Chobsky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower will eat this title up, as, I suspect, will fans of Joe Nemo’s Hairstyles of the Damned and Rob Sheffield’s Love is a Mixtape. Though our main character is 11 and quite younger than the characters in the prior two titles, it’s the music, the culture, and the actual writing that will likely appeal. Oh, and it would, without doubt, appeal to fans of Catcher in the Rye.

Although we may feel our lot is at times crummy, we see the sparks of the good and latch onto those moments. I have a feeling Greyhound will stick with me for quite a long time in the same way some of these other titles have.