What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah DessenMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Great coming-of-age story! Mclean's parents' divorce made front page news after her mother's affair with the local university's basketball coach. Her father took a job as a consultant moving from town to town trying to save failing restaurants. Disgusted with her mother, Mclean decides to live with her father, much to her mother's dismay. The novel picks up as Mclean and her father are moving to their fourth city in 2 years. As the story unfolds you find that Mclean picks a new persona and identity in each new city as to not become too attached. Before she knows it, the walls she's carefully built begin to crumble as classmates Riley, Deb, and Dave befriend her. She comes to realize she's taken on new identities in each city not only to protect herself, but also because she lost her sense of her own identity with her parents divorce. Before she can figure out who she is, she has to let go of her anger.
Told with honesty and well-rounded characters, this is a great read about what happens to a teen when parents divorce. Mclean is given a realistic voice, and her relationships with her parents and friends are just as realistically complex. This would be a good recommendation for any teen struggling with parental relationships.
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