Where'd You Go, Bernadette?

Where'd You Go, Bernadette?
by Maria Semple

Genre:  Fiction
Published:4/2/13 by Little Brown and Company
Pages:  330
Format:  Paperback

My rating:
4 out of 5 stars







Bernadette, a former architect turned private school Seattle mother, doesn't fit in with her fellow Seattlites.  And she might be a little crazy.  Then one day, she inexplicably disappears.  This book tells of the events surrounding her disapperance, as told by her teen daughter Bee through a compilation of letters, e-mails, articles and other correspondence.

Where'd You Go Bernadette is such a fun read!  This sarcastic and entertaining satire is refreshing and often very funny.  One chapter near the middle of the book specifically stuck out in my mind.  It is a chapter where Bernadette is writing a letter to a friend and explaining her life in Seattle.  Most of it consists of Bernadette bashing Seattle and the her fellow private school parents and the weather and Microsoft and many other things.  It was spot on and so hilarious.  Some really great, witty writing in this chapter especially.

The ending was a bit disappointing.  The tone of the book changes for the last 50 pages or so, and with that change, the fun, witty tone totally disappears.  The plot also gets a little crazy and unbelievable, causing the story to suffer here.  If the ending could have kept up with the other three fourths of the book, then I think this could have been a five star novel.

I would still highly recommend this book to everyone.  The rest of the book is great and makes it easy to forgive the lackluster ending!