User:Lilyroxs15/sandbox

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 team- Defriese University new coach, Peter Hamilton. Mclean despises her mom for leaving their family like that. 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, student government joiner” But as she begins school, she forgets about all those persona's and starts to be herself and attracts new friends and a new romance. Gus Sweet 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 accidently accepts the responsability 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 three different Ume pages, each with a different girl that they don’t recognize. A 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 Poseiden, an old, worn out motel that smells like mildew. Mclean and her mom use to spend many nights in the Poseiden, 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 Posiden. 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.

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 laughing 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 Lakeview.

Characters
Mclean Sweet is the protagonist of the story. Mclean’s attitude is cautious but very adventurous. She wants to become her own person not a made up idea of a character. Mclean is a senior in high school and is still grieving over her parents horrible divorce. She has moved 4 times with her dad in the past 3 years since her parents divorce.

Dave Wade is Mclean’s intelligent neighbor. He is a “boy genius who skipped, like, all of junior high and was taking college courses.” To his parents dismay he decided to transfer from an elite private school to a public school because he wanted to have a normal high school experience. Dave owes community service because he was caught underage drinking, so he spends a lot of time working on the model of the town to fill his requirements. Mclean and Dave fall in love.

Gus Sweet is Mclean’s father. He is an attractive man with blue eyes and longish hair, which women are drawn too. He has been divorced for two years. He was a huge fan of Defriese University basketball team, which is an understatement because “he lived and breathed DB," until his ex-wife fell in love with the coach. Gus use to own a restaurant in Tyler with his ex-wife, Kathryn Hamilton, called Mariposa Grill. He decided to sell it and take a consulting job with EAT INC. His new job takes him all over the country.

Kathryn Hamilton is Mclean’s mom. She came from a very wealthy family that she gave up when she married Gus Sweet. She use to own a restaurant in Tyler with her ex-husband, Mariposa Grill. She left him when she fell in love with the Defriese University basketball coach. She married him and they have twins. She wants to connect with Mclean, but Mclean feels like she ruined their family and doesn’t like to talk to her.

Opal is the manager of Luna Blu. She has worked there since she was a teenager and doesn’t like how much Gus is changing it. She ends up dating Gus towards the end of the book. When Luna Blu closes down, she buys the building and opens her own restaurant there. She lets Mclean move into her spare bedroom, so she can finish up her senior year at Lakeview.

Deb is one of Mclean’s new friends from school. She has a very peppy attitude and before Mclean came to Lakeview, Deb did not have any friends. She takes control of building the model of the town and later becomes a waitress at Opal’s new restaurant.

Peter Hamilton is Mclean’s stepfather. He is the new head coach of the Defreise University basketball team. He is laid back and only says what is needed. He is usually busy either taking calls or answering press questions.

Lindsey is a councilwoman in Lakeview. She and Opal have been rivals since high school. She assigns Opal to make the model of the town, and she briefly dates Gus.

Riley is Dave’s childhood best friend. She and Dave have matching tattoos on their wrists. Riley and Mclean become friends.

Heather is one out of McLean’s new friends. She has a sassy attitude and is not afraid to say what ever is on her mind.

Maddie and Connor Hamilton are Mclean’s half siblings. Maddie and Connor are twins. Their father is Peter Hamilton and their mother is Mclean’s mother, Kathryn Hamilton.

Reoccurring 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’s experience 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."