(Good thing I still can barely articulate my thoughts on this book!) I think we have to start by talking about Bridge, the overall protagonist of this book. I want to talk about SO MANY THINGS, but I also want to leave a lot for you to discover when (not if, when) you read the book, so I'll be very careful here to avoid spoilers. It's almost ridiculously ambitious ( as my favorite books tend to be), but somehow, it works. So that's a lot, and it's all crammed into just 287 pages.

And then we have the third perspective of the unnamed high school girl, who appears in chapters set entirely on Valentine's Day and written in second-person (as in, 'you' pronouns instead of the 'I/me' of first-person or 'he/she/they' of third-person).

But Sherm actually does get his own perspective besides his appearances in these chapters-we see first-person letters from him to his grandfather, and he also gets a couple (two, I believe) third-person chapters from only his perspective. Characters like Em and Tab (that's what Emily and Tabitha often go by) are introduced solely through these third-person chapters, not their own points of view. One is the third-person chapters from the perspective of Bridge (the primary protagonist of the book). There are three main perspectives in this book. OK, I'd like to fill in a few gaps from that description. I'm hoping this review can act as 'Completely Full Bookshelf's definitive analysis of Goodbye Stranger!' But after deciding to re-read this book yet again, taking notes, and writing down page number after page number, I am going to attempt to (a) write a good review re-review re-re-review of Goodbye Stranger and (b) simply dissect all the things I love about the book (without spoilers, of course) for my own personal satisfaction. But my second review didn't either, and this review won't either-this book is simply too complex to be summed up. And over the years, I've reviewed it twice: once in 2017, and then again in 2018 because my first review didn't do the book justice. I should have kept count, but I believe I've now read Goodbye Stranger 8 times (including the time right before this review).

But my opinions on Goodbye Stranger began to change as I re-read it. As I discussed in this Thursday Thoughts blog post, I did not like Goodbye Stranger when I first read it in 2015 (when it came out). It's written by Rebecca Stead, who is also the author of First Light, Newbery medalist When You Reach Me, Liar & Spy, Bob , and The List of Things That Will Not Change. Goodbye Stranger is my favorite book of all time. Oh my, I don't even know where to start, but I have to start somewhere.

Goodbye stranger novel