Review: Where'd You Go Bernadette by Marie Semple

Title: Where'd You Go Bernadette

Author: Marie Semple
Publisher:  Little Brown and Company 
Publishing Date: August 14th 2012

Pages: 330
Genre:  Chic Lit

Series:  Stand Alone
Source: Audio

  

Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she's a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she's a disgrace; to design mavens, she's a revolutionary architect, and to 15-year-old Bee, she is a best friend and, simply, Mom.

Then Bernadette disappears. It began when Bee aced her report card and claimed her promised reward: a family trip to Antarctica. But Bernadette's intensifying allergy to Seattle—and people in general—has made her so agoraphobic that a virtual assistant in India now runs her most basic errands. A trip to the end of the earth is problematic.

To find her mother, Bee compiles email messages, official documents, secret correspondence—creating a compulsively readable and touching novel about misplaced genius and a mother and daughter's role in an absurd world.

This has been on my list for a while. Not normally the books I choose to read but I have read many wonderful things about this book. It came up as the read for one of my groups so I gave it a shot. I really adore this book. The story, the characters, and the humor was just so zany, I couldn't help but enjoy and devour every bit of it. It was a real feel good book.

Bee has a very strange family. Her mother was a famous but short live architect who is quite odd and her father is well known for his current project at Microsoft. Bee is graduating from middle school with straight A's and as a reward she has asked for a trip to Antarctica. A few days before her mother, Bernadette goes missing and Bee is determined to find her by puzzling together what led up to her mother leaving. Her only clues are a bunch of emails, an article, and a few other bits of conversations between many people in her life. 

I heard bunches of praises for this book before picking it up but I wasn't so sure I would enjoy it as much as others. I enjoyed it way more than I expected. The book was full of adventure, deception, mystery, family relationships, and friendship. It was so chic lit that I couldn't help but love it. It made me laugh out loud, giggle, smile, tear up, and so much more. 

The story was cute in some parts, sad in others, and very funny in many parts. I felt all kinds of emotions. I loved the tale of Bernadette and I loved the way the story was told. Emails, recordings, articles, and from many different point of views. I was captured at the very beginning and I never got bored. There were plenty of witty remarks, hilarious one liners, and comical adventures to keep me interested but the story also had a bunch of drama and some very tear-jerking parts.

The characters definitely made the story even better. Bernadette is just plain crazy. I never knew what she would say or what she would do. Bee was smart and fun to watch as she figured everything out. The neighbors and other parents in the story were just nuts. It was all so much fun. It was like watching the cast of a favorite sit com. I grew to love them all one way or another. 

In the end I finished with a bit smile on my face and I felt very satisfied. I really would love more from the characters but I am not sure where the story would go from here.  

I loved it and I am so glad I gave it a chance.