The Bright Years

The Bright Years by Sarah Damoff was published on April 22, 2025, by Simon and Schuster. It follows the Bright family across four generations in Texas as they struggle to contend with the impact of abuse and alcohol addiction. Damoff is a social worker in Texas, and she draws from her own experiences in the field to explore the hardship and hope faced by many families. The novel features husband and wife Ryan and Lillian Bright and their daughter Jet to explore themes including Breaking Cycles of Generational Trauma, The Effects of Addiction on Loved Ones, and The Endurance of Love Through Crisis.

This guide is based on the 2025 first edition hardcover.

Content Warning: The source material and this guide feature depictions of child abuse, physical and emotional abuse, addiction, substance use, pregnancy loss, disordered eating, suicidal ideation, mental illness, illness, and death.

Plot Summary

In 1958, Ryan Brighton draws on the underside of his family’s kitchen table, trying to ignore the sound of his parents fighting. His father Barton misuses alcohol and often takes his frustrations out on Ryan’s mother Elise. On this particular night, however, Elise takes Ryan, and they leave.

In 1979, Lillian Wright sits in the library, reading when she should be preparing for work. Ryan sits down next to her and tells her he recognizes her from the bank where she works. He invites her to lunch, where they share their stories. Ryan, an aspiring artist, tells Lillian about how he wants to open an art gallery, and Lillian, wary of love because of a troubled past, falls for Ryan.

The two date for six months before Ryan introduces Lillian to his mother Elise. Lillian immediately recognizes how close the mother and son are, and she revels in Elise’s warmth, having lost both her parents when she was younger. Ryan opens a gallery, and Lillian helps him run it. After a successful opening night, Ryan proposes to Lillian, and a year later, they marry in the gallery. After their honeymoon, a mother asks Lillian to hold her child in the gallery while she speaks with Ryan. The baby makes Lillian uncomfortable, reminding her of the son she put up for adoption when she was in college, a secret that Ryan does not know about. When Ryan hints that he wants a child, Lillian eventually agrees, but they are both devastated when she loses the pregnancy.

When Lillian was in college, she fell in love with Zack Melendez, an aspiring musician who helped numb her pain after the loss of her parents. When she discovered that she was pregnant, she felt as though they could have a new beginning together. However, on the day she meant to tell him, Zack broke up with her because he was starting a tour with his band. She decided not to tell him about their son, and when the baby was delivered, Lillian put him up for adoption. Afterward, she could not decide if she made the right choice, but she knows she was not prepared to make the choice at all.

After they lose the pregnancy, Ryan and Lillian grow apart, unsure of how to comfort each other. The gallery begins to struggle, and the strife between them continues. A few months later, Lillian discovers that she is pregnant again, and though Ryan is overjoyed, she is terrified. That summer, Lillian gives birth to a baby girl whom she and Ryan name Jet, short for Georgette. One night, Lillian finally tells Ryan about her first son, and though he is initially angry, he comforts her.

As Jet begins to grow up, Ryan begins drinking for the first time in his life. He assures Lillian that he is not like his father Barton, whose abuse he has told her about, but as his drinking worsens, she becomes worried. One night, Lillian brings up buying a house, and in frustration, Ryan throws a beer bottle at her and misses. Lillian leaves with Jet and temporarily stays with Elise. Days later, Ryan calls her to say he is moving out. He will send checks for Jet but will stay away to protect them from himself.

Lillian raises Jet as a single mother, making friends with Shauna, another single mother in their apartment complex. Shauna’s son, Kendi, becomes best friends with Jet. Ryan is an absent father, missing many visits and all of Jet’s birthdays. When he does not show up to Jet’s sixth birthday party, Lillian thinks of her son’s sixth birthday, when she visited Zack in Nashville and finally told him about their son. Zack did not care, and Lillian felt that she made the right choice.

When Barton dies, Lillian and Jet go to Memphis to support Elise and Ryan. While they are there, Ryan is sober and spends time with Jet. Lillian sees how much he is hurting and tries to reconnect with him. He tries to push her away, but she does not let him, saying that even though she hates him, she still loves him. For months afterward, he maintains his sobriety, but one day, when Lillian pays him a surprise visit, Ryan is drunk. Lillian refuses to be with him.

The years go by, and Shauna and Lillian watch as Jet and Kendi grow up. Jet takes up photography, and one day, Lillian goes to Ryan’s gallery to show him Jet’s photos. Ryan, who is sober, is impressed and invites Lillian and Jet to his apartment for dinner. The dinner is nice, and Ryan invites Lillian back another night. At their second dinner, Ryan tells Lillian that he is sober and wants to make amends. Lillian asserts that she still loves him, and the two kiss.

Ryan becomes a part of Jet and Lillian’s life again and reproposes to Lillian, who says yes. He stays with them for a long weekend. Kendi is staying there, too, because Shauna, who recently remarried, is on her honeymoon. One night, Jet stays out late and comes home to find Kendi reading alone. When she checks on her mother, she finds Lillian dead of a heart attack.

After the funeral, Jet moves in with Ryan, but he begins drinking again. She decides to move in with her grandmother Elise instead. For years, she avoids Kendi and Shauna, blaming Kendi for not knowing Lillian was dead in the next room and wary of Shauna, who brings up memories of Lillian. She barely graduates high school, while Kendi goes off to college. On New Year’s Eve, Elise drags Jet to Shauna’s house for a party, but Ryan is there. Jet leaves and finds Kendi, who skipped the party because he knew Jet wouldn’t want him there, at the playground. They reconnect, and Jet realizes that Kendi grieves Lillian as well.

Jet begins working as a photographer and invites Kendi on a hiking trip so she can take pictures. On the trip, Jet feels comfortable with Kendi for the first time in years, though it becomes awkward after Kendi reveals that his girlfriend broke up with him because he is in love with Jet. Jet tells him she does not feel the same way.

One night, Jet receives an email from Davis Condie, Lillian’s son with Zack, who wants to meet. Confused and angry, she confronts Ryan. He gives her a letter from Lillian, but Jet refuses to read it. She agrees to meet Davis, and the two talk about Lillian.

When Jet is hired to photograph a birth, she is in awe of the devotion between the mother and father and the beauty of the new baby. She decides she wants to become a midwife and is soon admitted to nursing school. Soon after, Elise dies from a bladder infection, and Jet finds herself on her own. After the funeral, Jet eats with Ryan and realizes that she wants him in her life, if he is sober.

After the funeral, Jet visits Kendi’s apartment in Houston, staying over while she photographs a wedding nearby. At the wedding, she listens to the bride talk about how her supportive husband-to-be helped her overcome the pain of her past, and Jet realizes that she does want love in her life. She realizes that she does have feelings for Kendi. That night, she tells Kendi she was wrong and does love him. They kiss.

A year later, Kendi proposes to Jet, and she says yes. They return to Kendi’s apartment to find Shauna, her husband Michael, and Ryan waiting to celebrate. Jet wishes Lillian were with her. Ryan struggles through Jet and Kendi’s wedding, seeing reminders of Lillian everywhere. When he dances with Jet, he is overwhelmed by her forgiveness.

He and Jet often take Sunday trips to photograph nature, and on one trip, he opens her glove box to find an unopened pregnancy test. Jet reveals that she is pregnant but does not know what to do. Also in the glovebox is the letter Ryan gave her years ago. He leaves her alone to read it, and she learns that Lillian always meant to tell her about Davis.

Weeks later, Jet and Kendi tell Ryan that they are having a girl, and he finds himself jealous of them. He wishes he could go back to the early days of his relationship with Lillian and make different choices. When his granddaughter Apricity is born, he goes to visit her, but he realizes the next day that he was too drunk to remember her face. After speaking with a man in recovery, Ryan decides that he wants to be sober for Apricity.

For five years, Ryan is sober and a big part of Apricity’s life, there for her in a way he was not for Jet. However, before she turns six, Ryan is diagnosed with advanced cirrhosis. To prepare for his passing, he begins writing letters to Apricity, explaining the choices he made and encouraging her to keep her positive attitude and her loved ones close.

A pregnant Jet visits Ryan while he is in hospice, upset that he will not meet his second grandchild. Ryan is again overwhelmed by Jet’s love and forgiveness, and the two fall asleep, Ryan holding his daughter. He envisions Jet’s life without him, confident that she will be happy and cherish her family.