What Happened to Goodbye

Plot Summary

The story begins with the narrator, Mclean Sweet, describing the table of her dad’s new restaurant. Mclean lives with her dad, Gus Sweet. Mclean hates the fact that her parents are divorced and that her mom married her dad’s favorite basketball team-Defriese University's new coach, Peter Hamilton. Mclean despises her mom for leaving their family. In her backstory, Mclean and her father have moved three times in the last two years because of her dad’s new job at EAT, Inc. With each of the moves, Mclean decides to take on different personas. Lakeview is their fourth move. Mclean is quizzed as to which persona she would pick––whether it would be the “the perky rah-rah girl, black-clad drama queen, or student government joiner.” But as she begins school, she forgets about all those personas and starts to be herself and attracts new friends, plus a new romance. Gus is trying to rebuild a restaurant called the Luna Blu, which is described as a "Contemporary Italian and old-fashioned good” and in the process he meets Opal. Opal is the type that "[takes] each criticism personally.” She is the manager of Luna Blu and has been there ever since she was a teen. She is very stubborn and likes things done her way. She accidentally accepts the responsibility of making a complex model of the town, which ends up being taken over by Mclean and her friends. Opal and Gus try to rebuild Luna Blu but couldn’t, so Gus decided to close it down.

After living in Lakeview for a few months, Mclean finds out that her dad got another job offer in Hawaii. While she is trying to cope with the ideas of moving for a fifth time, her friends find out about all the different personas she has taken on by discovering that she has four different Ume pages, each with a different girl that they don’t recognize. An Ume page is similar to a Facebook page. Mclean for once is grateful to go to the small beach town of Colby with her mom, which her mom had insisted on doing during Mclean’s spring break. She is relieved to get away from all the overwhelming events that has happened back in Lakeview. While she is in Colby, Mclean overhears her mom telling a friend that she thinks that it was mistake inviting Mclean to come to the beach. Since Mclean feels out of place, she decides to leave her mom’s house to go to the Poseidon, an old, worn out motel that smells like mildew. Mclean and her mom use to spend many nights in the Poseidon, when they took one of their spontaneous beach trips. Confused and in need of a companion, Mclean calls her “two a.m.,” the person she knows she can always rely on no matter what, Dave. In the meantime her parents are worried about her. Mclean’s mom frantically calls her dad. While Mclean’s dad is leaving the house to drive up to Colby to look for Mclean, he sees Dave who tells him where Mclean is. Mclean’s parents both go to the Poseidon. There, Mclean tells them about the different personas she has taken on and, for the first time, they realize how hard the divorce is for her. Mclean’s parents apologize. Mclean also finds out that she misheard her mom when she was talking to her friend. Her mom was talking about not wanting to host a party at her house this year, like she has done in the past.

Following the conversation with her parents, Mclean decides that she will not go to Hawaii with her dad because she does not want to have to start all over again with a new school and new friends so near to the end of her senior year, so her “only option” is finishing her senior year in Tyler, where her mom lives. When she gets back to Lakeview, after her trip to the beach, she finds out her father’s restaurant is officially closing. When Mclean gets home, she hears a woman talking and crying with her dad. She thinks it’s Lindsey, who is an annoying councilwoman her dad was briefly dating, but it turns out to be Opal. She finds out that her dad and Opal have been dating. Two weeks later, Mclean and her friends have finished the model, and her dad has officially been assigned to the project in Hawaii. Opal has submitted her resignation, and once the Luna Blu building is put on the market, she plans on buying it to start her own restaurant. Mclean is packing up her belongings because her mom is picking her up and taking her to Tyler that day. As Mclean and her mom are starting to drive away, Mclean’s mom stops the car and decides she can’t take her daughter away from Lakeview and all of her friends; she can’t make Mclean move again. Mclean moves into Opal’s spare room and finishes her senior year at Jackson High.

Characters

Major Themes

A recurring theme in What Happened to Goodbye is the search for self-identity. For example, in their review of the book, Seventeen Magazine noted that, “if you’re having any pangs of I-don’t-know-who-I-am, Mclean’s journey might feel both familiar and inspiring to you.” Other critics have described the book as “A tale of self-identity” and as a novel that addresses “how important our identities are” Another important theme in the novel is family relationships. In one review, Pamela Kramer from the Examiner noted that “what the reader learns through Mclean is the importance of family." A reviewer from Galley Smith added that the novel has “many common themes relating to children of divorce and family dynamics." Another important theme in What Happened to Goodbye is friendship. One reviewer stated that “working together on an intricate model of the community is a not-so-subtle metaphor for Mclean building an emotional community for herself”, Dessen emphasizes friendship throughout the novel by “having the characters reach out to one another to forge genuine relationships."

Reception

What Happened to Goodbye has mostly received positive reviews. Critics have praised Dessen’s way of making her characters realistic. Critic Melissa DeMoux said that each character really “resonates with the reader”." Dessen’s books are aimed toward teens because she focuses on the “exploration of a teen’s life”. The Horn Book Magazine said that Dessen “creates a comfortable space for young adults struggling with identity, relationships, and all that messy family stuff”. Readers can relate to the characters because they are “realistically flawed” according to reviewer Galley Smith and LA Times Reviewer Susan Carpenter described Dessen's writing as “ remain[ing] true to modern adolescence”

Many reviewers focuses on Dessen's effective character development. The LA Times said that Dessen “avoid[s] the usual cliches for such characters," which makes them come to life. Not only can readers relate to the characters, but they can also relate to the situations they are faced with. Seventeen Magazine notes that Dessens “ability to write about serious issues in an upbeat manner allows teen to relate to situations they face”. Critics praise Dessen’s ability to create well-developed characters. Publisher Weekly commented that “the depth of her well-developed characters grabs readers’ attention and leaves them anxious for each new release”. The supporting characters are as well developed as the main characters. Common Sense commends Dessen for having a “strong supporting cast”. All of the characters have very “distinct personalities”. Even though some critics felt like the characters were well-developed with definitive and unique personalities, critic Joceline Farrah felt like they didn’t get a “strong sense of personality”, which made them feel like they didn’t get to know the characters.

Critics note that Dessen writes in a simple format, but still adds depth and complexity to her novels. Galley Smith commented that “What Happened to Goodbye has some simple plot elements yet still manages to be surprisingly complex”. Publishers Weekly also points out that Dessen does not use “complicated dialect”, which can distract the reader from the main plot. Karen Elliot of Library School Journal also criticized the “slight lack of tension... which keeps it from being truly compelling”. Publisher Weekly commented that it has an “emotional punch to a long narrative that doesn’t otherwise have much of an arc”. Common Sense reviewer Darienne Stewart said that the weak conflict causes the story to ramble. Common Sense point out that it is very repetitive because Dessen “[draws] unnecessary circles” She similarly notes that “Dessen often skips backward and forward in the narrative”, which can be confusing for the reader.

Allusions to Other Books