A review by alexblackreads
Goodbye from Nowhere by Sara Zarr
3.0
I think this is the most disappointed I've been with a Sara Zarr book. She's definitely written books that weren't for me about topics and situations I had no interest in, but even then I usually loved her writing style and setting and the way she developed the characters. Even in the ones that weren't for me, I still felt like I could wholeheartedly recommend them.
This one I didn't feel much of anything for. It wasn't bad by any means. There's not a whole lot I have to say about it that's negative. It's just that I don't really have much positive to say either. It exists in the world, I guess. It's inoffensive at both best and worst.
The main character finds out his mother has an affair and it shatters his idealized notions of what his family his so he kind of ruins his life. That's pretty much it. Maybe I'm too much of a cynic to connect to a plot like that because I just can't imagine the kind of reaction the main character has being all that realistic. I'm sure something like that would affect most seventeen year olds, but he really goes all out in destroying every aspect of his life.
It was cool to see aro/ace rep because that's still not something I've seen much, but at one point she gets outed after telling the person to keep her sexuality between them and it's never commented on. It's just apparently no big deal in the narrative that her trust was broken. That really rubbed me the wrong way.
Sara Zarr is still really great at capturing small stories about small lives that feel so realistic in their smallness, but the ending was almost a bit too climactic for the rest of the story. A lot of her books just kind of stop because that's how life works, but this one got dramatic. Off screen dramatic, but it still didn't really fit right.
I dunno, I wouldn't say don't read this book. It's not bad and I'm sure if you connect a little more to the main character you'd enjoy it more than I did. I still think Sara Zarr is great, but this one didn't do much of anything for me.
This one I didn't feel much of anything for. It wasn't bad by any means. There's not a whole lot I have to say about it that's negative. It's just that I don't really have much positive to say either. It exists in the world, I guess. It's inoffensive at both best and worst.
The main character finds out his mother has an affair and it shatters his idealized notions of what his family his so he kind of ruins his life. That's pretty much it. Maybe I'm too much of a cynic to connect to a plot like that because I just can't imagine the kind of reaction the main character has being all that realistic. I'm sure something like that would affect most seventeen year olds, but he really goes all out in destroying every aspect of his life.
It was cool to see aro/ace rep because that's still not something I've seen much, but at one point she gets outed after telling the person to keep her sexuality between them and it's never commented on. It's just apparently no big deal in the narrative that her trust was broken. That really rubbed me the wrong way.
Sara Zarr is still really great at capturing small stories about small lives that feel so realistic in their smallness, but the ending was almost a bit too climactic for the rest of the story. A lot of her books just kind of stop because that's how life works, but this one got dramatic. Off screen dramatic, but it still didn't really fit right.
I dunno, I wouldn't say don't read this book. It's not bad and I'm sure if you connect a little more to the main character you'd enjoy it more than I did. I still think Sara Zarr is great, but this one didn't do much of anything for me.