Review: Where'd You Go, Bernadette

Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

3.5 stars This one has been on my "to be read" list since 2013 so when it was suggested for one of our book club selections for this year, I added it to the calendar to finally get it off my list.

I'm really not sure how I feel about this book. I certainly didn't hate it, but I didn't love it. Yet I also don't feel ambivalent towards it either. It is the story of Bernadette Fox, once a rising star in the field of architecture who is now a somewhat reclusive house wife married to a star at Microsoft and mother to teen daughter, Bee.

Told in alternating voices mostly in the form of emails between characters, it focuses primarily on preparations for Bernadette and Elgin to take Bee to Antarctica as her reward for getting good grades and the drive for Bee's school to attract "Mercedes Moms" so they can become a better tiered school. Right before their trip is to take place, after a disastrous party for the school, Bernadette appears to vanish without a trace.

At first, the format of the book annoyed me and I wondered if the entire story was going to be told in alternating emails. But then about halfway through, I started to enjoy how the different voices factored into Bernadette's disappearance. It was definitely a unique approach to storytelling that would not work for a lot of books but made sense once it was revealed as to why it was being told in that manner.

As I continued to read, I wasn't sure how I ultimately wanted the book to end, though given the movie has come out, I feel the revised cover sort of gives it away. I still go back and forth with trying to decide if I'm happy with how it ended or if I wish it would have gone another way. I'm not dissatisfied with the ending, but rather, I would like it if there was an alternative ending as well that goes in the opposite direction.



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