Goodbye Perfect
Author: Sara Barnard
Publisher: Pan Macmillan Australia
Pages: 384 pages
Release Date: 30/01/2018
R.R.P: $16.99
When I was wild, you were steady...
Now you are wild - what am I?
Eden McKinley knows she can't count on much in this world, but she can depend on Bonnie, her solid, steady, straight-A best friend. So it's a bit of a surprise when Bonnie runs away with the boyfriend Eden knows nothing about five days before the start of their GCSEs. Especially when the police arrive on her doorstep and Eden finds out that the boyfriend is actually their music teacher, Mr Cohn.
Sworn to secrecy and bound by loyalty, only Eden knows Bonnie's location, and that's the way it has to stay. There's no way she's betraying her best friend. Not even when she's faced with police questioning, suspicious parents and her own growing doubts.
As the days pass and things begin to unravel, Eden is forced to question everything she thought she knew about the world, her best friend and herself.
My review
Thoughts on the book: Goodbye Perfect is the fantastic new YA novel from Sara Barnard which centres around sixteen year old Eden McKinley who has had a less than perfect life but has one steadying factor in it, her best friend Bonnie who is as straight laced as they come. So when the police rock up on her door step wanting to know why her best friend has run away with her boyfriend, who coincidently turns out to be their music teacher, Mr Cohn. Eden had no idea that Bonnie was even planning on running away and all she had been told about this so called boyfriend was that his name was Jack. Of course Eden tells the police nothing and upon talking to Bonnie she is sworn to secrecy about what is going on. But the longer Bonnie is on the run the more Eden questions everything that is going on. Why would Bonnie not tell her best friend that she was in love with a teacher and that she was planning on running away. They were meant to be best friends and best friends tell each other everything, don't they?
Massive thank you to Hannah Membrey from Pan MacMillan Australia for allowing me to be apart of this blog tour and for giving me an ARC of Goodbye Perfect by Sara Barnard. I didn't really know what to expect from Goodbye Perfect which was good because it meant I could go into it blind and make my own assumptions. I really liked the idea of the plot which was based on the thoughts of someone that wasn't involved in the initial trangrestion and therefore we get to see what happens to the people who are left behind to deal with what has happened. Teacher/student relationships seem to happen a lot more than we think and the author did an amazing job of capturing how everyone was feeling about the relationship between Bonnie and Mr Cohen and the fall out for the people that were left behind.
I really liked that our main character Eden was not just your typical bad girl. She came from a hard life before she was adopted but she also understood why she lived that hard life. Yes she has problems such as her dyslexia but she makes them work for her and when she doesn't this is when she acts up. But she seems to have a pretty good life with her adopted family, her garden and her boyfriend, who can really identify with her, despite all these amazing things at times she really annoyed me. Eden is so self centred and believes that everyone has it out for her. She is constantly being rude to everyone around her, despite most of these people trying to help her, and tends to believe that she is the worst off in not just this situation but in most situations that occur.
Overall Goodbye Perfect is a pretty solid read but as much to my liking as I would have thought but I'm still interested to read more from Sara Barnard.
Rating: 3/5
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