Gus is there to turn around a struggling Italian restaurant, Luna Blu, managed by the headstrong Opal, who has worked there since she was a teenager.

While she is trying to cope with the ideas of moving for a fifth time, Mclean's new friends find the various social media profiles she has created for her different personas.

Mclean decides to leave her mom's house to go to the Poseidon, an old, worn out motel where she and Katherine stayed on one of their spontaneous beach trips.

Mclean prepares to move back to Tyler with her mother, but Katherine decides she can't take her daughter away from Lakeview and all of her friends.

The Horn Book Magazine said that Dessen "creates a comfortable space for young adults struggling with identity, relationships, and all that messy family stuff".

[14] Common Sense commended Dessen's "strong supporting cast",[15] though Joceline Farrah of YA Reads disagreed.

[16] Galley Smith commented that "What Happened to Goodbye has some simple plot elements yet still manages to be surprisingly complex".

[18] Common Sense reviewer Darienne Stewart said that the weak conflict causes the story to ramble in "unnecessary circles," noting that "Dessen often skips backward and forward in the narrative.