Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

If you didn't read Maria Semple's first book, This One Is Mine: A Novel you must do so. The author has the kind of writing where she slyly inserts little witty comments here and there and if you just skim the book, you'll miss those gems. Where'd You Go, Bernadette is an unusual and crafty novel in that it doesn't read completely like a regular book. Put together with bits and pieces from flashbacks, emails and other documents, the book has the reader turning pages to finally figure out where did Bernadette actually go? What mother can't identify with Bernadette's desire to flee? She was once a promising architect but is now someone who doesn't want to venture outside her house. She is irritated by her neighbors, mothers at her daughter's school,slow drivers, Canadians, to name a few things. In her near-refusal to leave the house, she farms her duties out to a virtual assistant in India and you might take a guess how that pans out. When Bernadette disappears, her 15 year old daughter is convinced Bernadette just wouldn't go without a good reason. She's the one who pieces everything together but not before the reader is taken on a journey to learn what exactly drove Bernadette to leave. I was hooked from beginning to end! This novel is fun and entertaining and I was sad to turn the last page.