I believe I first discovered Rebecca Stead's Newbery Medal Winner, When You Reach Me, somewhere between sixth and seventh grade. I had come across its Wikipedia page and saw that it dealt with some time travel theories that even at that age I was intrigued by, thanks to a book on Harry Potter I read (specifically, about the Time Turner and whether they really changed anything), and so I had to read it. Like Harry Potter (the storytelling of which I was quite obsessed with at the time), it had a well-crafted story where everything falls into place, and I loved it. I convinced two of my friends to read it, I went out and bought it, and I read it two or three times within a year. (I would digress more, but we're here to talk about Goodbye Stranger.) And now, I've been increasingly interested in writing middle grade realistic fiction recently, and a few months ago I read Stead's other realistic novel, Liar & Spy, which took me by surprise by the end and I did love it, but I did not have that personal connection and admiration as I had with When You Reach Me. Nevertheless, Stead became one of my favorite authors and an inspiration.
I discovered the upcoming existence of Goodbye Stranger back in January or February and was immediately excited. Friendship? Love? Middle School? Yes, please.
And I was not disappointed. In fact, this may have somehow exceeded my extremely high expectations...right now, I think I love it a little bit more than When You Reach Me, if only because of more personal connections.
Goodbye Stranger follows multiple interlocking storylines. The main one, written in third person limited, is about three seventh grade girls: Bridge (our POV, so to speak), who survived a severe accident when she was younger that left her wondering what her purpose is for living as she tries to figure out her life; Tab, who begins to get involved in feminism and human rights; and Emily, who has developed faster than the other two and is attracting the attention of older girls and boys. They have been best friends for several years and made a pact to never fight, but now they are beginning to take different paths. Meanwhile, Sherm's grandfather left his grandmother after fifty years and Sherm writes letters to him that he never sends, in the midst of forming a close bond with Bridge. And on Valentine's Day, an unnamed girl skips school and reflects upon her friendships that have become toxic; and while this is strange at first because it is written in second person and seems tangentially related, it does match up with the main storyline (and I'm a teensy bit proud of figuring out how before it was revealed), and little details were woven throughout.
It is a complex book, filled with small but important moments, but I did not find it particularly hard to understand. That said, it is subtle, often stating its meanings with metaphors or questions or brief thoughts from the characters, and this works because it's practically about the complexity we begin to see around us as we grow up and our confusion and questions as we wade through them. To be brief, this is something I relate to strongly and it's largely how I view the world. All the characters make some mistakes and do things they regret, but that's part of growing up and ultimately what they did do made them stronger. No one is chiefly good or bad, whether they are adults or kids, parents or teachers, boys or girls. Even if the school administration has some rules that the characters question, there are teachers who question them as well. Friendships are not always pleasant, but not all need to be broken off either.
Bridge isn't sure what the distinction between friendship and something more is--and if it really exists. And oh man, I related to her feelings about this so much. I was never sure either, but I did experience what she does with Sherm: how she looks for him when they might be in the same room, how the time she spends with him takes on a new weight, how she's worried that kissing might ruin any prior platonic relationship they had... It was something so touching and so relatable and I couldn't help but love the little insights into how this young teenager viewed the world.
I wish I had this book in middle school. Not necessarily because my friends were having the same problem, but because in seventh and eighth grade I was enjoying the middle grade sci-fi/fantasy series I read less and less. (Lord of the Rings, which I read about the beginning of seventh grade, was my last love in that department.) It would not be until my freshman year of high school that I would discover I wanted character-based stories I could relate to, even if the situations of the characters did not appear to be similar to mine at all. But in middle school I didn't know my way around literary fiction/classics and preferred not to read much adult content, and the romance kept me out of the YA titles I saw (which were probably all series as well, because they were the most popular). The Giver and When You Reach Me were great, but I struggled to find much in the middle grade department...and admittedly, I didn't know what I was looking for, either. Goodbye Stranger is middle grade, but it bridges that much-needed gap between middle grade and YA, where the characters are in their early teens and dealing with more mature issues. And this is an age group sorely missing from bookshelves that is so important, and that's something I am inspired to explore in my own writing.
Furthermore, Stead incorporates texting and social media that are such a large part of adolescent communication--and not in a negative way, either. Plus, it's vague enough that it won't be dated in a few years or gets the mechanics of the website wrong; the pages the girls look at might have been interpreted as Facebook a few years ago, but now they can easily be Instagram. Em's storyline does not preach, either, instead presenting the conflicting feelings involved and the consequences happen, but not necessarily should happen. There are some really great points made throughout, and as much as Bridge and Em are wary of Tab repeating dogma from her teacher, they end up reaching some feminist conclusions on their own. I've admitted my uncomfortable relationship with novels considered feminist (see: here), and I think a lot of that was because they weren't too subtle and presented a situation that was just too simple, which made me find holes and parts I disagreed with. Goodbye Stranger is the opposite. (I feel like I should apologize again, but...look, it's just a lot closer to how I view the world and what I like.)
Aside from being complex, the relationships in this novel are so strong. Bridge, Em, and Tab do have their tough moments and disagreements, but they are quick to defend each other, and be there for each other, and just unabashedly love each other. It was so touching and beautiful, especially when it is common to find, in both stories and real life, girls who easily turn on each other. The book doesn't completely live in Bridge, Tab, and Em's flawed utopia, however; it acknowledges that there are girls who hurt other girls, too. (Quite a bit like the little world I lived in with my friends and what I observed from others during middle school.) Meanwhile, the bonds within families, between teachers and students, and between Sherm and Bridge are all strong albeit different.
My final stand-out element in Goodbye Stranger is the setting: New York City (specifically Manhattan, I believe). Stead is a native of the area and still lives there, and she captures the atmosphere perfectly. My father is from Brooklyn and I've spent plenty of time in residential New York (though admittedly I've only been to Manhattan twice), and so much of the setting rang authentic. Most importantly, and an improvement upon her previous novels, Goodbye Stranger is diverse. Bridge's father is Armenian-American (and she isn't whitewashed on the cover!!), Tab's parents are Indian and first immigrated to France before they arrived in New York, and Sherm's grandparents are Italian. (Like Sherm, my dad's side of the family is Italian, though I never got to meet my Nonno and Nonna passed away when I was very young. But I loved the little references to the food! So true.) Elements of their cultures appear because it's a part of their lives--and indeed, a part of New York City as a whole, because if you've been there then you know how much of a blend of cultures it is.
Goodbye Stranger is a book I immediately wanted to reread--not because I felt like I had missed something, but because I loved it so much. For the first time, honestly, I want to buy those little sticky-note tabs to mark all of my favorite passages (annotating a hardcover just feels wrong!). It's definitely going to be something I'll cherish for years to come and it's such a wonderful surprise that it even exceeded my very high expectations.
