Customer Reviews

Goodbye Doesn't Mean Forever (A Bantam starfire book)

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I loved this book, as all of Mrs. McDaniel's books. All of her books are sad, but this one left me SOBBING for hours!! It was so good, yet so sad. I've read it a thousand times and I still cry. I liked it because it was strong and powerful and had great descriptions;among other reasons. You can usually figure out what's going to happen, but it still hits you hard when it does happen. It's a great book, and you absolutely have to read it. But I do recommend you read the first book in the series of Jory Delaney and Melissa Austin; Too Young To Die.

This book is absolutely amazing. It's a very sad but well written story and it will make you cry for hours. I recommend reading Too Young to Die First though. I've read this book over and over again since I was about 10 (I'm now 23) and the letter to Jory from Melissa still makes me cry. It's shows you that death isn't necessarily final. It's a brilliant story.

Lurlene McDaniel is my favorite author. I love all of her books, and some of them make me cry, but Goodbye Doesn't Mean Forever left me sobbing, literally. It's sad, but it gives hope and describes how families feel when this happens to their children. It also made death seem like just another adventure, not a finality. This book left me with hope and tears. My grandfather passed away recently. I was very close to him. The way Lurlene McDaniel describes Jory's feelings for and about Melissa made me remember. When Melissa died, Jory's reaction was like my own and made me feel less alone. It also made me remember that he's my guardian angel, always with me, and I'll see him again. That gave me hope and helped me. The part of Melissa's letter that said, "I'll be watching you! And when you least expect it, you'll hear me call you in the wind. I promise.", I sobbed. I realized that my grandpa's not gone forever and I'll see him again. Basically, it's not only well-written and a tear-jerker, but it gives help to those who need it-emotional help. For me, it was like she had read my mind and heart. My feelings were Jory's feelings. IT'S A EXCELLENT BOOK! KEEP IT UP!

I love all of Lurlene McDaniel's books, but Goodbye Doesn't Mean Forever is one of my favorites. I literally SOBBED when I read it. The way Mrs. McDaniel described everything that happened is really good, especially Jory at the very end. This book is extremely well-written. It's really sad, but it's really, really good. You'll be crying!

Goodbye Doesn't Mean Forever is written by Lurlene McDaniel. This book is about a girl named Melissa who is a high school junior. She is sick with leukemia and lives with her mother and brother. Melissa was so excited and prepared about getting a National Merit scholar ship to a great college. Melissa has a best friend named Jory who means a great deal in Melissa's life, she is very wealthy.
Melissa is nineteen and is suffering with her relationship with her friends. Jory tries making fund-raisers to help pay for the medical payments. She hates seeing Melissa go through that and not really be able to help. She also suffers from a bone marrow transplant and dies.
Lurlene's writing style makes it seem like were in her book that she has written. It would have been cool if Lurlene would have told us more about the relationships with the other people in her life and included them more.
Through reading this book I learned a lot about the disease, leukemia and how a best friend tried helping her brother and mother get through it. I could relate this book myself by the relationship of seeing a loved one die, I watched my friend Christine die from leukemia that's why I wanted to read this book.
I thought that this book was an awesome book and many people should read it. It is a book about loss, friendship, family and compassion.

Have you ever stopped and thought life is too short so enjoy it? If you have not you need to read the book called Goodbye Doesn't Mean Forever by Lurlene McDaniel. The reason why you should read it is because it proves we get so wrapped up with school and jobs. That we hardly ever stop and give thanks for the time we have now.

A girl named Jory found out life was to short. Jory Delaney's best friend since 5th grade Melissa Austin found out 1year ago when she was 16 that she had leukemia a type of cancer. It changed Melissa's life and Jory's. Melissa started chemo and it caused her to start loosing hair, she had to stay out of the sun and she had to be careful not get way to excited. It also caused her to start loosing weight and caused her to loose her skin color and became really pail. She ended up getting better then it turned and she got worse. She ended up having to go to the hospital again. Do you want to know more? If so, read the book and you'll find out the rest of the story.

It's through this experience and loss that Jory came to realize you should live life to its fullest because you really don't know how long you got to live. Make sure thought that you are safe because you could be the one that causes it to end sooner that it should.

Sometimes the things we see and experience through life teaches us the importance of life. That is why I thank Lurlene McDaniel for teaching me the importance of life in the book Goodbye Doesn't Mean Forever. Not only Jory gets to experience that lesson but its like your right there experiencing it too.

This is a great book for middle school and high school students, also older people, because we all experience a type of loss and wonder what could we have done to make it better for them. We also all need to learn the lesson of life and respect our life before it's all gone because you only get to experience it once.

In Goodbye Doesn't Mean Forever, Lurlene McDaniel tells a heart-felt story of a teenage girl who is struggling with cancer.

Melissa finds out early in the story that her leukemia, which has been in remission for two years has relapsed. Jory, Melissa's best friend promises to help her have the best senior year ever, because of all the stress and pain in Melissa's life. Melissa's older brother, Michael, who is also Jory's life long crush, is asked to donate bone marrow to Melissa, because that is her only hope. Soon after, Melissa becomes well and in a couple of days, the doctors say she will be able to go home. Jory goes to visit her two days later, only to find that Melissa has caught a fever and that her body is rejecting the bone marrow. At school, a boy named Lyle tries to help Jory with all the sorrow of her sick friend. Eventually, Jory falls in love with Lyle, but still has feelings for Michael. Will Jory find true love? Will Melissa overcome cancer? To find out, read Goodbye Doesn't Mean Forever.

I highly recommend this book to any girl ages 12-112 that enjoys romance and drama novels. It is an amazing book and I promise that if you read it, you won't be disappointed.

Goodbye Doesn¡¦t Mean Forever
By: Lurlene McDaniel
Reviewed by: J. Ku
Period: 1

This book is continued from the book Too Young to Die. In this book, Melissa has a relapse and needs to get back into remission. The doctors say, ¡§For a person to get into remission the second is harder.¡¨ The doctors recommended that Melissa try a bone marrow transplant. Since they needed to find a compatible donor, they said that a sibling would be the best donor. So then took some bone marrow from Michael, and sure enough, their bone marrow was compatible. Not long after that, they put Melissa into isolation. They needed to get rid of all her bone marrow and put Michael¡¦s bone marrow in her body. When people came to visit her, they had to be careful and not bring in any germs because her immune system couldn¡¦t fight off germs. Her brother¡¦s marrow was working fine, but then Melissa got a fever. It was either an infection or a sign or rejection for the transplant.

I like this book because it was exciting to learn about medical technology. I learned about things I never would have wanted to learn about. This book teaches friends not to give up on each other. Melissa always trusted Jory. Jory always did what she could to help Melissa. They depended on each other whenever they needed help. ¡§Melissa needs blood will you help me?¡¨ They never gave up on each other, even when Melissa died, Jory always knew that Melissa would still be there to help her, even if she couldn¡¦t help Melissa.

I dislike this book because this book I was very sad and Melissa died. When you read about people suffering makes you feel bad. I wanted to change the whole story and make it have a happy ending. I didn¡¦t like it when the doctors gave Melissa bad news about her leukemia.

My favorite part of the book was when Jory held a carnival and called it Melissa Austin Day. I really liked that part because not only Jory was doing it for a good cause, everyone was having fun. They raised a lot of money, and a lot of people donated blood to Melissa. I think that it is wonderful to have a friend that does these things for you.

I thought that the novel "Goodbye Doesn't Mean Forever" was ok. The main reason why I liked it was because my friend also died of Lukemia. Being in Jory's place however, I don't think that the author did a very good job establishing the characters. I know from personal experience what it's like to go through what Jory did, but I don't think it described her emotion very well at all. I didn't really have a chance to connect with the characters, and that to me, is what makes an exellent novel.

I love this book, it was one of the first books I ever read by Lurlene McDaniel. It was a great story with a good ending.I loved the characters and would recomend it to anyone.