Getting Over Garrett Delaney by Abby McDonald

About the book

Getting Over Garrett Delaney is a stand-alone young adult novel by Abby McDonald. It was published by Walker on 2^nd May and the book is 320 pages long. Thanks to the publisher for providing me with a copy for review.

Plot Synopsis

Since the day they met two years ago, Sadie has been hopelessly in love with her best friend Garrett Delaney. However, Garrett doesn’t look at Sadie in that way and has had other girlfriends over time. When he goes away to a writing camp for the summer, Sadie hopes that Garrett will finally see what he has been missing all of this time. When he rings to tell Sadie he’s in love, she cannot believe what she’s hearing – until he tells her it’s with someone else. Finally realising he’s never going to return her feelings, Sadie decides it is time to get over Garrett once and for all.

What I thought

Before reading this one, I absolutely loved the idea for it. As a teenager, there were plenty of times I really liked a guy I was good friends with but he didn’t the feel the same way. Before even reading a page, I could understand what protagonist Sadie was going through. She pours her heart out in the beginning of the book, explaining how completely in love with Garrett she is and how they have never been anything more than best friends. They share so many of the same interests, have deep discussions about literature and writing and she cannot imagine her life without him. When Garrett gets into a writing camp for the summer that they both applied to, she’s devastated. How is Sadie supposed to cope for 6 weeks without her best friend?

Sadie was a fantastic character. She’s full of teen angst, unrequited love and she has an awesomely witty and honest personality. Unlike some female characters in young adult books who I wanted to smack because they’re so whiney about a guy, I didn’t feel this way at all about Sadie. Instead of being incredibly annoyed with Sadie, I was cheering her on the whole way through. I wanted her to get over the guy who didn’t pay her the right kind of attention. I wanted her to get a life of her own without having to rely on him and I wanted her to get out and have fun. The thing about Sadie that I loved so much was the fact that she realised her faults and wanted to do something positive about them. Like all teens, she isn’t perfect and she knows it. She knows she makes mistakes and says the wrong thing quite a lot but these things were what I liked about her.

While I didn’t like Garrett as a character, or a guy in general, I could totally see Sadie’s attraction to him. He talks like he knows what is best about everything, he introduces Sadie to a whole range of new and exciting things, he loves poetry and she feels comfortable with him. However, he was also a humongous arse. Sadie thinks he’s the coolest guy around though (and so do loads of other girls) and she loves that he’s different to most of the other guys at school. Garrett was so up himself it was unbelievable and I couldn’t wait for the moment when Sadie realised this and that he wasn’t exactly the best match for her.

With Garrett going away for 6 weeks to a writing camp, Sadie is left to her own devices. She gets herself a job in the local coffee shop and after a call from Garrett telling her she’s in love with someone else, she knows that it is time to get over him once and for all. Help comes in the form of the fabulous range of secondary characters. Without Garrett, Sadie is free to make friends of her own, to discover what she really enjoys doing and to actually have a life. New friends come in the form of co-workers at the coffee shop and older friend Kayla who she had lost touch with. Between Kayla, Aiko, LuAnn, Dominique and Josh, there is a fantastic range of personalities and a great group of people. They all rally round to help Sadie get over Garrett and to help her realise who she really is.

The plot is extremely fun, although pretty predictable. Sadie’s whole life changes over the course of this book and it sees her doing things she never would have before. I really loved Sadie making new friends and getting to know one another. Although a great mix of personalities, each of the characters brings out something different and exciting in Sadie, due to their own interests. This creates some really fun scenes with Sadie trying new things, going shopping and changing her look, going to a hockey game etc. There is loads going on for Sadie and her new life while Garrett is away.

Overall, Getting Over Garrett Delaney is a wonderful contemporary read and I loved it completely.