What Happened To Goodbye (YA)

What Happened To Goodbye. Sarah Dessen. 2011. Penguin. 416 pages.

The table was sticky, there was a cloudy smudge on my water glass, and we'd been seated for ten minutes with no sign of a waitress. Still, I knew what my dad would say. By this point, it was part of the routine. 

I love Sarah Dessen. I do. I just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE her work. I love her characters, her stories, her writing. I love how easy it is to love her books. She makes it easy to love reading. There's just something wonderful about them. I've never once been disappointed. So it shouldn't really surprise anyone that I loved What Happened to Goodbye.

Mclean Sweet sometimes wishes things could be as simple as loving her dad and hating her mom. Since her parents have divorced, Mclean has had to reinvent herself again and again and again and again. Her dad has a job that requires him to move around a lot. He's been hired by a company to "fix" problem restaurants. (Think Kitchen Nightmares with less yelling!) Sometimes he's able to "save" the restaurant, and they move on to the next place, the next town or state. Sometimes he's not able to save a place--no matter how much time and energy he puts into a place--and they move on. In each town, Mclean gives herself a new name--a new personality, a new identity. Knowing that she can recreate herself into someone new--if only for a few months--gives her a sense of peace. Temporary peace, perhaps, but it helps her cope with what her life has become since the divorce. The divorce that she totally blames her mom for. I mean how could HER mom have an affair with the head coach of her dad's favorite basketball team? How could she become pregnant and leave them both behind? Why doesn't her mom get why she is so angry? Mclean feels she just doesn't belong in this new family with her half-siblings and her stepfather.

But she does find herself belonging here in this town, in this school, with her wonderfully strange friends, with her wonderfully strange neighbor, Dave. For the first time in a long time, Mclean can practice being honest--with herself, with her boyfriend, with her friends, with her dad, with her mom. Perhaps it's just as difficult for her to be honest with her parents as it is to be honest with herself. For in all her inventing, Mclean has lost pieces of herself. She's lost herself and buried her pain deep, deep inside. But it may just be time for Mclean to heal. In Lakeview, she may just find the support she needs.

I enjoyed this one. I liked Mclean. I liked her parents. I liked how complex these relationships are. How life can't be as simple as hating her mom and loving her dad. I liked how challenging these relationships are. I liked how we get Mclean's perspective--but not so blindly that readers can't see things from the other side. And it was great to see her relationship with her dad. How much she loves him and takes care of him. But also how he's there for her when she needs him. He's not perfect, but I do think he cares very much for his daughter. Her friends. I also liked them. Especially Deb and Dave. I love how eccentric yet believable her characters are! And I liked Dave as the love interest!

© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews