Book Three Review

What happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen is about a teenage girl named Mclean who moves around a lot because of her dad’s job. Gus’ job is to fix and renovate restaurants that are failing; at every new town that they arrive at, Mclean changes her name along with her personality. She does this because she hasn’t felt like the real Mclean since her parents got divorced. Her mom remarried a famous basketball player –while hurting her dad in the process- and since then she has cut her mom out of her life. Her mom desperately wants to be a part of it and continues to reach out to her. The genre of this book is realistic fiction. Sarah Dessen is New York Times number one bestselling author and has written eleven books.

The main character Mclean is a very strong character. She proves this by picking up everything she has and just leaving her friends when her dad needs her to. ”I hadn't said goodbye. It had been easier, like always, to just disappear, sparing myself the messy details of another farewell.” Another main character is Dave, which is her neighbor and becomes her boyfriend later in the book. “‘Pretend to be a delinquent?’ I said, clarifying. ‘You can do it,’ Dave advised me. ‘Just don’t smile, and try to look like you’re considering stealing something.’” This quote shows that Dave adds humor and light to the book; while also helping Mclean figure out what’s going on in her life.

Something that I didn’t like about this book is there was no big explosion with Mclean and her mom. Mclean was mad at her mom for many different reasons; the biggest one is that she divorced her dad for someone else. But it wasn’t just anyone; it was a basketball player from the Defriese basketball team. Defriese basketball was a big part of Gus’ life and Mclean is actually named after the head coach. A second reason why Mclean was mad at her mom was that she threw away everything from her old life. Her mom went from Katie Sweet who was a restaurant manager who took road trips with her daughter to Katherine Hamilton stay at home mom with a glamorous mansion. A third reason why Mclean was mad at her mom is that, she wanted Mclean to come live with her and fit into her perfect little family and to forget the past; which Mclean did not want to do. “She had no interest in discussing our previous lives or the part she may or may not have played in the fact that they no longer existed. No, I was supposed to just fold myself seamlessly with her new life, and never look back.” But even after all of those reasons they never had a huge fight to relieve all of the tension.

One of the themes in this novel is family. Something that shows this theme is that Mclean’s parents keep pulling her from one family to the other. When she is with her mom and her step siblings, Mclean doesn’t feel like she belongs. At the beginning of the novel Mclean doesn’t feel like she belongs with her dad at the restaurant either. But as the story goes on, she finds some friends like Dave, Riley, Heather and Deb who make her feel more at home. Another theme is this novel is finding your identity. Mclean didn’t feel like herself after her parents’ divorce and that made her change her name and personality every time she moved. But when she got to Lakeview she ended up being Mclean Sweet, the girl with the divorced parents and basketball scandal.

  I would give this book a five out of five. One reason why I would do this is because when you’re done reading it, you learn a lesson. That lesson is to be yourself and do what makes you happy instead of what other people want you to do. A second reason why I would do this is because it shows you that even a strong character like Mclean has flaws and falls sometimes. A third reason why I would do this is the story is relatable and many young girls can connect with it.