My Darling, My Hamburger is a novel about adolescent love. The four main characters—Liz, Sean, Dennis, and Maggie—experience difficulties with their parents, their desires, their expectations of love, and their responsibilities. Dennis and Maggie, like many adolescents, think of themselves as grotesque, and envy Sean and Liz, who, on the surface, seem self-assured. Liz's and Sean's parents—particularly Liz's stepfather and Sean's father—erode their children's ability to love; Dennis's and Maggie's parents are supportive but largely unaware of their children's needs.

Like all of Zindel's novels, My Darling, My Hamburger is told from the teen-agers' perspectives. But unlike The Pigman, which features first-person narration, My Darling, My Hamburger has a third-person omniscient narrator who relates the main characters' thoughts.

The novel is both melodramatic and suspenseful, filled with romantic sentiment, adventure, and fast-paced action.

Because of the fear and anxiety generated by Liz's pregnancy and abortion, My Darling, My Hamburger contains little of the humor usually found in Zindel's fiction.