New Favourite YA Book? Goodbye, Perfect | | Book Review

I do not say this lightly when I say I've found a new favourite YA book. I mean it like I stayed up into the early hours of this morning devouring it. It is SO damn good. The first book by Sara Barnard I've read and I wasn't disappointed. Readers on Twitter have always praised Barnard, and I have to agree. 

She writes young adult fabulously and flawlessly. 

Goodbye Perfect is about best friends, adopted and a bit wild Eden and goody two shoes Bonnie in their final year of high school, they're tackling revision and their GCSE's. It's a stressful time of year, made 10x more stressful when Bonnie runs away with her secret boyfriend. The police are involved, journalists are swarming their town and Eden is desperate to get her best friend back. But is she really her best friend? Aren't they supposed to tell each other everything? No matter how bad it seems? 

When Eden discovers where Bonnie is, she keeps it a secret. It's awfully selfish on Bonnie's part I think, Eden shouldn't have to keep this massive secret, secret, it's unfair and possibly even dangerous.

Remember the famous line from Matilda "Best friends don't tell.". Eden's loyalty to her best friend is seemingly unbreakable. 

Is Bonnie safe? Will she come back? 

Barnard has written an absolutely incredible and honest friendship between these girls, they reminded me of some of the friendships I had in high school. Almost made me nostalgic for what felt like the worst five years of my life. I understood Bonnie and her academic personality, the good-girl, the need for control in all aspects of life. I got that SO hard. I saw my teenage self in Eden too. There's good and bad in everyone, and you can't always stay on one side. 

Eden and Bonnie understand each other like no one else can, or so they think. They balance each other out. Bonnie's steadiness calms Eden's wild nature. It is an extraordinary friendship.

Family is important too. Eden was adopted by the McKinely's when she is 9, alongside her younger sister Daisy. The McKinely's have a biological daughter Valerie, the friendship that blooms between her and Eden is beautiful. Eden's character development through the book is unbelievable. She realises everyone doesn't always see her bad side. Everyone inherently has a bad side to their personality. 

It has been skillfully plotted, the book had my full attention from start to finish. I can't stop thinking about how wonderful it is. It made me feel everything. I laughed, I cried, I wanted to scream and punch walls at their naivety. I love Eden's adoptive parents and their love for gardening and their calm demeanour. I love her boyfriend Connor, like her and Bonnie another unlikely relationship that just works. I grew to love Valerie, just like Eden did. I just love it so much. Barnard captures what it can be like to be a teenager, fighting their wide range of emotions, having a boyfriend for the first time, deciding where their life is going to lead. The characters are diverse and different, Eden isn't academic, she doesn't portray the good-girl trope. She misbehaves and gets detention, she's been in trouble with the police, but she isn't a bad person. Ultimately, that's it, no one is perfect. No matter how hard you try to keep up with a persona, you'll find its faults soon enough. 

After reading Goodbye, Perfect, I need to lie down for a little while before I begin another book. I have been knocked off my feet by this book. I can't wait to get my hands on a physical copy when it's released in Feb, 2018!