Goodbye, Perfect

I’ve had my eye on Sara Barnard’s shiny cover books for YEARS now – each of them sound so intriguing and real and I was eagerly waiting for the day I got the chance to dive into one. And so, when Goodbye, Perfect showed up in a surprise package from Pan Macmillan India, I was over the moon! Let’s break it down: • I read the entirety of this book in LESS than a day. It was its own kind of addicting. For the first time in a long time, as I was reading Goodbye Perfect, I found that teenagers were portrayed as REAL people – partially grounded, figuring things out, learning to love themselves, and I absolutely loved that. • I also REALLY loved the mature relationship that our protagonist had with her boyfriend, Connor. I loved how they just hung out together without any life-altering drama. • I ALSO LOVED EDEN’S FAMILY, AND HER BACKSTORY. I loved her sisters, especially Valerie, because we got to see more of her and also her adopted parents. It was such a beautiful thing, and I absolutely loved it. It was so nice to see INVOLVED parents, actual examinations that don’t magically fly by, “ teenage rebellion” that wasn’t the whole story and a blended family. • CAN WE ALSO TALK ABOUT THIS HAPPY, SHINY COVER BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT IT MAKES ME FEEL – HAPPY AND SHINY AND IT’S THE BEST FEELING! • While there was so much I loved about Goodbye Perfect, I kept waiting for the protagonist to make the right decision in regard to her friend, Bonnie, running away, but she never did. Not until the last 50 pages of the book, and then the impact on Eden and Bonnie’s friendship was SO RUSHED OVER that I felt like it was an incomplete ending/ pages had been ripped out of my copy. • I really liked this book – REALLY – but I feel like what would have made it EXCEPTIONAL was if we occasionally heard from Bonnie as well, over the course of The Week. I loved seeing it from her best friend’s perspective, but I wished we saw her thinking as well. ALL IN ALL, I would DEFINITELY pick up another Sara Barnard book, and I would DEFINITELY recommend this one. A poignant, real look into the life of two teenage girls, Goodbye Perfect handles a taboo topic with grace and maturity and it was a stunner of a book!