Review: Where'd You Go, Bernadette

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

This has been my year of reading about quirky characters who captivate me with their whimsy and their humor. (At least when I'm not reading about Nazis, the Holocaust, or time travel.)

Where'd You Go, Bernadette fits into the quirky category, and I almost didn't read it. It seemed too popular. After all, a movie based on the book comes out in a week or so.

And then I saw a trailer for the movie and said, "Why not." Indeed why not.

I got sucked into the sarcasm, the over-the-top characters, the extreme situations. A dear sweet eighth-grader everyone loves Balakrishna, also known as Bee). A private school with all the intrigue between parents. A genius mom who has quit creating (Bernadette). A genius (and clueless) father who works for Microsoft (Elgie). A trip to Antarctica. A personal-assistant from India who is really an identity theft racket in Russia. And on and on.

And then Bernadette disappears.

It does get mixed reviews, but I loved it from beginning to end.

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