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A review by therealbel
What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen

4.0

Sarah Dessen may be my new go-to-easy-to-read contemporary YA author.

"What happened to goodbye" was the second book of her's that I read in a week. Her style is simple and embracing, dealing with teenage issues and family situations with a tone that lacks condescension, characters that aren't whiney and plots that draw the reader in.

A few factors made Mclean, Dessen's main character in this book, call out to me -
(A) reinventing oneself upon a move to a new town / new county / new country is something that many people have done, not for any nefarious reasons but because a new life is easier without old life baggage.

(b) the fact that nothing in her future is ever certain - that is, basically, how life works; and I like that this is reflected in this book.


Although Dessen seems to like to tie up lose ends she does so in a way that isn't "happily ever after", rather its more of a "this is where we are right now and it's good" sort of way.

A good fun read. I'm sure if Sarah Dessen had been writing when I was a teen I'd have been obsessed.