Did you stop and smell the roses today? According to Gigi/Celeste, you should “always remember to stop and smell the roses”, p. 45. Hello, Goodbye is a multi-generational story about loss, first love, family, and friendship. 15-year-old Hailey befriends her grandmother, Gigi in the summer she will never forget. This read is for teens and adults alike who appreciate the lessons adults can learn from teens and the wisdom adults can impart to teens. Gigi and Hailey try to solve their family secrets that have caused trauma for three generations. The wit and witticisms of Gigi are imparted in a way Hailey can appreciate. This isn’t the type of young adult book written by an adult through rose-tinted glasses to tell teens to appreciate their family. This is an emotional story written in retrospect by an adult who remembers exactly what it’s like to be a teenager. Lovers of Twilight by Stephenie Meyer and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald will appreciate the comparison of the two when Gigi reads Twilight and Hailey read Gatsby so they can compare. Hailey’s analysis on p. 66 is priceless. “But Gatsby and Daisy don’t make my heart happy; they make my heart ache. They make life’s cruelties painfully real, and their story makes clear how love’s obsession can destroy everyone and everything around you.” Hailey’s analytical skills make for some great moments. The times Hailey tells off her Mom, Gigi, Bree, and then finally Blake put Jane’s rant in Pride and Prejudice to shame. While the writing draws sympathy from us for Hailey’s brash Mom because of her internal bruises, the frustration with her inability to move on is tumultuous. The colorful writing also brings small-town Texas to life as well as classic car appreciation for Gigi’s car, Betty with the visual and sensory experience of doing donuts in a school parking lot. The last portion of the book was so far-fetched it was crazy, yet it lent a storytelling element similar to Fredrik Backman’s My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry. That’s the fun of fiction though, which allows a crafted writer to take true historical elements and give them new life. The way historical facts and dates are intertwined into fantastical fiction and combined with great character development are the trinity of a perfect story.
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