“The Good Goodbye” is the first novel I have read by Carla Buckley. I wasn’t sure is it was a mystery/thriller or fiction/literature. It turns out to be certainly more of the latter than the former. It was almost more about teenagers than it was about adults as the focus of the story was on two younger cousins who were, as they say, “coming of age” during the story.
The story is told in three voices – Natalie – the mother of Arden and aunt of Rory; Arden and Rory, two cousins who have been raised almost like sisters and who have just started college. In addition to the three points of view, each of their stories jumps from present to past and back again without much notice – sometimes on the same page. It made it a little difficult to keep track of who was who and where in time I was in the story.
I think it was because of this, that the story was a good one for me versus an excellent one. The big dramatic moment of the story was actually given away about mid-way through the book and, because of that, the story became a little too predictable for me as someone who reads many mysteries and thrillers.
It as a good read and one that I would recommend to anyone who enjoys novels about older teenagers and family issue literature.
I received a complimentary copy of this book via the publisher.
