57 pages • 1 hour read
Carola LoveringBye, Baby
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2024A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Shifting Dynamics of Friendship
Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses toxic relationships, mental health conditions, sexual abuse, and psychological abuse.
Bye, Baby explores the complex psychological dynamics that can pervade human connections. Depicting the relationship between the protagonists from both perspectives, Lovering illustrates how friendships can change as individuals age and evolve. In the case of Billie and Cassie, a seemingly inseparable childhood bond translates to a toxic dynamic in adulthood.
The novel’s backstory establishes that the protagonists’ childhood friendship has its roots in trauma and shared secrets. Their bond is strengthened by Cassie’s support of Billie through her mother’s illness and the sexual abuse inflicted by her stepfather. Cassie’s role in Wade’s death cements their intimacy with a secret they can never share with anyone else. In these sections of the narrative, Lovering captures the intense nature of childhood friendships. Billie and Cassie’s rapport evokes the fervency of a love affair, as they vow to always be there for one another and express the exclusivity of their bond by using the affectionate nickname “Baby.”
By the time they reach adulthood, the protagonists’ differing values and lifestyles make them unlikely friends. Nevertheless, Billy remains intensely loyal to Cassie, still considering her to be her best friend. Lovering emphasizes how memory and trauma continue to shape Billie’s perception of Cassie. Billie views Cassie as a savior figure due to the circumstances of Wade’s death. Cassie is also Billie’s one remaining connection to her dead mother and is, therefore, “family” in Billie’s eyes. However, while Billie wishes to cling to the past, Cassie wants to leave it behind. Having gone to great lengths to reinvent herself, Cassie views Billie’s continued presence in her life as an unwelcome reminder of who she used to be. The result is a one-sided relationship fraught with power imbalances. As Billie attempts to recapture their former intimacy, Cassie distances herself. Billie is relegated from maid of honor to just another guest at her wedding and one of thousands of followers on Instagram.
Billie’s narrative conveys the damaging effects of a friendship's lack of reciprocity on self-esteem. She is depicted as an otherwise well-rounded character with a rewarding career and a healthy social network, including her friendship with Jane and romance with Alex. However, her fixation on regaining her former intimacy with Cassie prompts her to make self-destructive choices, jeopardizing her other relationships and committing the novel's central crime.
Billie’s abduction of Ella demonstrates the potential for close friendships to turn toxic, exposing the vulnerabilities and character flaws of those involved. Billie’s loyalty toward Cassie transforms into jealousy and rage as she interprets her exclusion from Cassie’s birthday party as a profound betrayal. Billie’s vengeful behavior resembles that of a spurned lover, underscoring the concept of a pure childhood love turned sour. The skewed values of this toxic relationship are highlighted by Billie’s joyful resumption of her role as Cassie’s best friend in the aftermath of the kidnapping. Lovering emphasizes that the dynamics between Billie and Cassie are a travesty of their former childhood intimacy. The relationship is built on lies and the trauma Billie has inflicted on the friend she claims to love.
Ultimately, the novel presents the termination of the protagonists’ friendship as a liberating experience for both parties. No longer trapped by their past allegiances, Billie and Cassie can move on. Lovering suggests that the ability to recognize their friendship has run its course would have saved both characters considerable pain.
Class and Social Mobility
Bye, Baby explores how class impacts personal identity, opportunity, and relationships. Through the character of Cassie, Lovering examines the factors involved in attempting to rise above one's socioeconomic origins. In Cassie’s pursuit of upward mobility, the text highlights both the allure of social status and the internal conflicts and pressures that accompany redefining one’s social identity.
From an early age, Cassie believes that acquiring wealth and social status is the key to her future happiness. Her social aspirations partially derive from the conviction that she has been deprived of her birthright. Her father’s loss of the money he inherited gives Cassie a sense of entitlement to the privileges embodied in Grandma Catherine. Ultimately, she succeeds in her quest to marry a man from old money. However, Lovering also establishes that Cassie pays a price for social status. Her aspirations prompt her to make painful choices, such as casting off her first boyfriend, Kyle. Meanwhile, marriage to Grant is not the dream she anticipates. Although Cassie’s Cartier love bracelets proclaim her success in acquiring a wealthy husband, she often has to remind herself that Grant is her “forever ticket to happiness” (115). Cassie’s sister, Mara, points out Grant’s patronizing attitude toward his wife when he refers to her business as “fun.” The cost of benefitting from Grant’s wealth is an acceptance that he holds the power in the relationship. Lovering also hints at the internal conflicts that arise from Cassie changing her class status. Feeling pressured to fit in with those born with money, such as McKay, Cassie cannot be her authentic self. For this reason, she turns to Billie for comfort after the trauma of Ella’s disappearance.
Throughout the novel, the author presents an implied critique of the American class system, depicting the upper-class characters as discriminatory and superficial. Grandma Catherine’s elitist dismissal of Kyle as an unsuitable boyfriend for her granddaughter is echoed in McKay’s loss of interest in Cassie when she learns she grew up in Red Hook. Both characters prioritize wealth and status over personal qualities. Lovering also explores inequalities in educational opportunities through Cassie and Billie’s experience of applying for colleges. Despite mediocre grades, the wealth of Cassie’s grandparents secures her a place at Harvard, which guarantees enhanced cultural capital. Harvard not only offers better career prospects but also allows Cassie to network with wealthy, influential people.
Lovering emphasizes how the American class system operates via unspoken markers of cultural capital. Upper-class individuals identify one another through details such as where they live and how they dress. This point is emphasized in Cassie’s shocked discovery that her boyfriend Jay is not from the wealthy background she anticipated. Jay does not deliberately deceive Cassie, but she misinterprets his outward signs of cultural capital, believing “[o]nly rich people own vacation homes in Aspen” (238). The superficiality and entitled attitude of the upper-class characters are highlighted at Cassie’s dinner party, where the conversation centers on comparing nannies and the importance of coordinating outfits on Christmas card photographs.
Bye, Baby offers a commentary on social inequality and entitlement. Reflecting on the interplay of wealth, status, and inherited privilege, the author questions the fairness and values of the American class system. While acknowledging the outward appeal of social mobility embodied in the American Dream, Lovering also warns against fixating on it as an assured route to happiness.
The Consequences of Concealing the Truth
The concealment of the truth is pivotal to the plot of Bye, Baby. The theme drives narrative tension while exploring the moral and emotional repercussions of deceit. Lovering depicts the cascade of consequences that can follow even a seemingly small lie. She also examines the destructive power of hidden truths to the characters’ psyches and relationships. The novel’s plot revolves around two central hidden truths—one in the past and one in the present. Billie and Cassie share the secret of the real circumstances behind Wade’s death years earlier. Meanwhile, Billie also harbors the secret that she abducted Ellie. The concealment of both incidents is shown to be a burden on the protagonists.
While Cassie tries to convince herself that she has left the past behind, her role in Wade’s death and Billie’s knowledge of it means she remains psychologically bound to Red Hook and her old friendship. Cassie’s latent fear of her secret being exposed is demonstrated in her reaction to the innocent Instagram message referring to a “crime.” Cassie’s description of her ensuing anxiety, “dark, ravenous, churning through [her] like a parasite” (97), highlights the insidious effects of secret keeping. The parasitic imagery conveys how guilt and apprehension eat away at Cassie, leading to paranoia.
Similarly, Billie’s narrative illustrates how her abduction of Ella and subsequent concealment of her actions lead to inner conflict and negatively impact her relationships. While her friendship with Cassie is renewed in the short term, Lovering emphasizes the fragility of a relationship built on lies and deception. Billie’s intimacy with Cassie can only be sustained for as long as she succeeds in hiding her role in Ella’s disappearance—a situation that takes a heavy psychological toll on Billie. The ripple effect of her deceit expands as Billie faces losing Alex and Cassie and possible prosecution due to one impulsive action. The novel presents dissimulation as a web in which Billie is inevitably trapped. The series of events in which she is cornered wearing Jane’s hat to the concert illustrates how her lies eventually catch up with her. Lovering also highlights the role of self-deception in Billie’s behavior. The joy she experiences at resuming her role as Cassie’s best friend involves repressing the truth about how she has achieved this. The author highlights the dangers of self-delusion as Billie’s actions become increasingly rash and self-sabotaging.
In addition to scrutinizing the impact of telling direct lies, Bye, Baby explores the effects of omissions or withheld truths on relationships. Billie is shown to inadvertently create emotional barriers with boyfriends Remy and Alex by failing to be open with them. She withholds her sexual abuse from Remy and, in both relationships, struggles to be frank about her firm opposition to having children. Billie’s omissions lead to both boyfriends misinterpreting her behavior and intentions. In Cassie's case, her social media persona also illustrates a withholding of the entire truth. Cassie notably omits to mention her housekeeper and nanny, Lourdes, in her Instagram content, leading followers to believe she is solely responsible for running a household and a business. Her representations of perfect family life are also demonstrated to be less than transparent as her idyllic posts contrast with her conflictual relationship with Grant. These omissions create an unrealistic and dishonest portrait of her life that her followers can never live up to.
In her depiction of various forms of truth concealment, Lovering emphasizes how deceit inevitably leads to the unraveling of lives. Dishonesty takes a profound psychological toll on the deceiver and inevitably destroys the trust essential in healthy personal relationships.
