Where’d You Go, Bernadette

Book: Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

Summary: Just a couple of days before she’s supposed to leave for Antarctica with her daughter and husband, the agoraphobic Bernadette Fox disappears from her home in Seattle. Bee, her daughter, is left behind to piece together her mother’s mysterious past and the reason she left through emails, letters, and even emergency room bills.
I loved this book. I read about it on some old lists of books to read over the summer, and something about the descriptions made me really want to read it.
The book was hilarious; Bernadette’s adventures and interactions are made much funnier with agoraphobia. The best parts of the book, for me, were her interactions with her neighbor Audrey, who is also the mother of a child in Bee’s class. Their battle over blackberry bushes, shown through notes to and from a gardener, an emergency room bill, school newsletters, and a letter about PTSD in kindergarten students, was highly entertaining.
I really enjoyed the unique format of the book; most of it was told through invoices and emails, but there were parts told from the point of view of Bee’s daughter. The writing was extremely funny and the story was well-told and somehow relatable, although the situation was fairly unrealistic. Another one of my favourite parts was Bernadette’s rant about Seattle in a letter to an old friend, complaining about everything from the drivers to hairstyles.
I would recommend this book to anybody who enjoys humorous books and hilarious character interactions.
Rating: 10/10
Currently Reading: Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins