Where It All Goes Down
Lakeview
What Happened to Goodbye takes place in a town that may be familiar to discerning readers of Sarah Dessen's other books. Mclean and her dad move to Lakeview, a fictional town based on Chapel Hill that makes an appearance in many of Dessen's novels.
Lakeview is a fine, comfortable little suburb where many of the residents have lived for their whole lives. People like Dave and Opal grew up there… and never left. As Opal explains her attachment to Luna Blu and Lakeview:
"I started in high school. It was my first real job." She picked up the milk crate, moving it to the opposite wall, then folded the chairs, one by one. "Eventually I left for college, but even then I came back and waited tables in the summers. Once I graduated, I planned to get a full-time job with my double degree in dance and art history, but it didn't exactly work out." (3.152)
At first Mclean thinks that Lakeview is just like every other town she's ever lived in—after all, even the high school looks the same as other schools she's attended—but she soon finds that what makes the town of Lakeview special isn't the buildings, or the local attractions. No, it's the people who live there that make it special—it's the community that brings life to the town. And since this book is, in many ways, about coming home, it's the perfect place for Mclean's journey to unfold in.