Goodbye Stranger Book Report

How do I begin to describe the cuteness and wonderfulness of Goodbye Stranger with its beautiful friendships and discussions about life, betrayals, forgiveness, and inequality? It’s a book that needs to be read by everyone! Everyone!

Goodbye Stranger follows:

Bridge Barsamian, an accident survivor who’s trying to figure out her purpose for being alive; Emily, a rising popular girl, who has developed new curves and gains the attention of an eighth grade boy; and Tabitha Patel, a know-it-all who repeats the feminist teachings of her English teacher;

Sherm Russo, a boy in Bridge’s class who’s dealing with the loss of his grandfather in epistolary format; and an unnamed fourteen year old, who skips school to avoid a betrayal that’s written in

why you need to read goodbye stranger

The friendship in this book is everything you ever wanted.

Rebecca Stead does a beautiful job capturing every facet of friendships—both the good (where it’s strong and supportive) and the bad (where it’s based on cattiness and

Each narrative point of view are woven together so perfectly.

You have third person point of view for Bridge, epistolary for Sherm, and second point of view for the unnamed teenager. I had no problem devouring all these narratives, especially the second POV. You’d think it wouldn’t work well because second POVs are usually awkward and distracts you from the other narratives, but in Goodbye Stranger, it works wonderfully! You’re put into her shoes, and I enjoyed it! It was such a trip because I was that girl once upon a time.

While Bridge’s and Sherm’s stories took place during half of the school year, the unnamed teenager’s story took place in a single day—Valentine’s Day. I love seeing how all the narratives converged and culminated on this very important day. This special day serves a significance for these characters, and seeing how the events played out was marvelous.

It discusses issues that teenagers would be facing like body shaming, personal identity, and