What Happened to Goodbye is my first ever Sarah-Dessen read. Before this book, I was a Sarah Dessen virgin.
What I really like about SD's books is the characters are very chill. The teenagers are responsible, they're nice, they actually have friends, there's none of that insta love bullshit and I think her books are very good for teenagers & young adults. I know a lot of people think that the characters in SD's books are too nice compared to other teenage characters from other books (for example from Kody Keplinger's books, Katie Cotugno, etc. Because they're sexually active). So I guess SD's books are more suitable to 10 until 14 years old? I don't know how it is in America but in Indonesia teenage girls don't really think about sex until the age of 15-ish sometimes even older, depends on where they live, really. If they live in the city they usually know about this stuff earlier. So yeah, I think SD's books are meant to be for younger girls and her books have issues like divorce, having crush, friendship, bulimia, etc. So I think it's good for young teenage girls to read about this stuff from the characters in SD's perspective (because even though they have so many problems they don't get too destructive).

Personally what I love about WHTG is the characters, like any of Sarah Dessen's characters, McLean has so many problems and she's so strong. And just because she has a crush on Dave it doesn't mean that she thinks about Dave 24/7 and becomes obsessive or dependent. One more thing I love about SD's books is the love interest and the romance in her books are so subtle. And I'm so glad that this one has a happy ending and McLean's problems got solved!