Melissa's Reviews > Goodbye Earl

I'll be honest in saying that the story started off a bit slow and that I wasn't sure why we needed narratives from all four women when the story mainly affected two, but it turns out that I enjoyed getting to know the women after a while and seeing their friendship in the present and back in high school. I also enjoyed the element of suspense after the climax.

I love that this novel was inspired by a Chicks song. However, the iconic band didn't change their name to The Chicks until 2020, which is after the time this story takes place, so it made no sense to call them that instead of The Dixie Chicks.

I wish RACK (the initials of the four friends) had been around to help out some of my friends. I know of a few "Earls." That's all I will say though. It was interesting to see the impact the situation in the story had on each of the women and how they went about handling it. I also enjoyed seeing outside perspectives toward the end of the book, as those hadn't come into play until that time. And some of the guys in this novel were definitely swoonworthy.

Leesa Cross-Smith did great work with details to bring the southern town of Goldie, and all its inhabitants, to life. I felt like I was right there, hanging out with RACK. Aside from wishing I knew them in order to help some friends out, I also wish I had a friend group like that when I was growing up. I had friends (and still do), but never in one tight group like that. (The one time I thought I did, one of those so-called friends turned out to be extremely toxic.) I loved reading somewhere about how Leesa was inspired by books like The Baby-Sitters Club series to come up with this set of friends.

This novel is perfect for fans of the hit series Ginny and Georgia. RACK even reminded me a lot of MANG.

(Trigger warnings below)

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