Book Review: Where'd You Go, Bernadette?

Man, I love reading books, and I especially love Amazon recommendations based on previous books that I've read.

That's how I came across Where'd You Go, Bernadette?

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Here's the Amazon summary:

"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."

It sounded a bit strange, but based on the almost 5 star ranking from over 2,000 reviews, I thought I'd give it a whirl. And, it was $4.99 on my Kindle through Amazon.

The writing in this book is different but engaging, and the way the story is told/unfolds is creative. It takes a long while to get to what I thought was the heart of the plot (Bernadette disappearing), so I kept reading thinking "Where is this going?"

I ranked this book a 3 out of 5. I liked the uniqueness of the writing, but I had trouble connecting with the characters, many of which had some outlandish actions that just didn't seem totally "real" to me.

That being said, it WAS unique and I read the book pretty quickly because I wanted to find out what was going to happen next. So, it kept me intrigued. After reading it, I'm still thinking about it, which is probably also a good sign.

All in all, I liked the book. Did I LOVE it? No....but I did like that it made me think while I read, rather than just follow along with a story. I'm not sure that will make sense unless you read the book, so I recommend that you do :)

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