Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

BOOK REVIEW

Release Date: August 14, 2012

Genre: Fiction/Humor

330 Pages

Published by Little, Brown and Company

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ My Goodreads Rating

BOOK BLURB

Bernadette Fox has vanished.

When her daughter Bee claims a family trip to Antarctica as a reward for perfect grades, Bernadette, a fiercely intelligent shut-in, throws herself into preparations for the trip. But worn down by years of trying to live the Seattle life she never wanted, Ms. Fox is on the brink of a meltdown. And after a school fundraiser goes disastrously awry at her hands, she disappears, leaving her family to pick up the pieces--which is exactly what Bee does, weaving together an elaborate web of emails, invoices, and school memos that reveals a secret past Bernadette has been hiding for decades.

Where'd You Go Bernadette is an ingenious and unabashedly entertaining novel about a family coming to terms with who they are and the power of a daughter's love for her mother.

MY THOUGHTS

Captivating and whip-smart!
A remarkably funny novel with a clever mixture of cultural jabs, social inadequacy and over-the-top private school politics. 

Even the writing style here is unconventional, in the form of e-mails, letters, FBI classified documents and a famous TED Talk.  I have to confess that at first I thought this style would be boring and I’d lose interest, but, Semple manages to weave all this information together, while keeping it funny and adding one tumultuous event after another.

The story is told by Bee, as she tries to piece together the puzzle that her mom has left behind.  Her dad is an Executive at Microsoft and works crazy hours.  Bee and Bernadette have a loving relationship.  What people see in Bernadette as inclusive and anti-social, Bee thinks it’s normal.  When Bernadette disappears, Bee decides to find her at all costs.

I liked Bee. She was my favorite character.  A sassy, smart teenager that actually understood her mom, even with all the eccentric/weird acts.

I also found it fascinating how the author was able to give us a few characters that started one way (one sympathetic/another hateful) and then changed completely throughout the book.  Some might say that’s not realistic but I think that in reality, people change their opinions and minds all the time, so the fact that a few of the characters here changed, made the book more relatable to me.

Bee’s obsession with Antarctica was also cute and eccentric in her own way (she is her mother’s daughter after all).

But who is Bernadette and why did she disappear?
…You’ll need to read the book to find out. The movie comes out in March, so hurry up!

Oh, and after you read it, let me know if you’re a Subaru or a Mercedes…
🚗

“People like you must create. If you don't create, Bernadette, you will become a menace to society.”

“I can pinpoint that as the single happiest moment of my life, because I realized then that Mom would always have my back.
It made me feel giant. I raced back down the concrete ramp, faster than I ever had before, so fast I should have fallen, but I didn't fall, because Mom was in the world.”