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The night before they both leave for college, Clare and Aidan have one big decision to make: will they stay together or break up? Clare is going to New England and Aidan is going to Los Angeles, so after being together for two years in their little town near Chicago, they will be a few thousand miles apart. Clare is leaning toward breaking up. It’s just logical. Aidan is leaning the other way. He thinks they can defeat the odds.
Clare has the night mapped out for them, revisiting places that have been important to them. As they go from the high school to their favorite pizza place to the bowling alley to their houses and more, they see family and friends and spend plenty of time talking. Over the course of the night, some surprises even come up.
As the clock ticks down to each leaving town, the two figure out how to say goodbye. They just have to figure out: Will it be goodbye for now or goodbye for good?
I’ve enjoyed several of Smith’s other books, and since this was made into a Netflix movie I thought I’d check it out. It’s very real; there are no easy answers. The characters are wise enough to know that, and the reader knows that as well. Smith doesn’t bring in a deus ex machina to magically solve their problem, which I respected. But she winds it up in a way I found sweet and satisfying. Even so, it’s probably still my least favorite of her books (I thought Field Notes on Love was a delightful young adult romance, and her recent adult fiction, The Unsinkable Greta James, was a wonderful story about grief, family and love).
Rated: Moderate. Profanity includes between 5 and 10 uses of moderate language, a few uses of mild language, and 4 or 5 uses of the name of Deity in vain. It’s implied/understood that the teens had sex at one point in the past, and they have sex in the present, though there are no details past kissing. A couple of parties are mentioned that include teen drinking, and kids being drunk and hungover. Two male friends get into a fight and end up with bruising and black eyes.
