Book Review: Where’d You Go, Bernadette?

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

This novel was not exactly what I expected going into it. I anticipated a thriller or mystery, but this story ended up consisting largely of a family/mental health drama of sorts. I will say though, it still sucked me in, so let’s see what this book is all about!

Brief Synopsis

The story is narrated by Bernadette’s daughter, Bee, but we are given details about the story in many different formats. We see emails, texts, calls, and other various modes of communication throughout the novel that help us piece together the plot.

Most of the story follows events in Bernadette’s life leading up to her “disappearance”, giving us a glimpse into possible reasons why she ends up missing and why others are concerned about her throughout the book. Even though she and her husband are very wealthy, their lifestyle doesn’t seem to reflect it for some reason which makes many people judge Bernadette a certain way. We also see some of Bernadette’s strange tendencies and decisions which concern readers as well.

Review

I really enjoyed the style of this book more than anything else. The variety of formats used to give us details and encourage the plot along were super fun and interesting. Sometimes they didn’t quite make sense (like why Bernadette would be sharing her whole life story and internal thoughts via email to an old friend…), but I still enjoyed the rhythm. It helped the book move quickly, but it did make it hard to know when to stop reading often because there weren’t really chapters.

I found the characters across the board to be super interesting albeit some totally frustrating! I appreciated hearing from different characters’ perspectives through the correspondences though and seeing the different sides of each story. Also, the plot in general was very intriguing and paced really well.

*SPOILERS*

I think the most disappointing part for me was Bee and Elgie’s trip to Antarctica. I understand why the author included it and how it led to Bernadette’s resolution, but it felt like that part dragged on, and I would’ve liked the letter from Bernadette to have happened sooner. It was such a great conclusion and a great reveal of Bernadette’s purposes and motivations, so I wish that had happened sooner and we just hadn’t had all of the Antarctica part.

Conclusion

In the end, I think this book deserves to be read and enjoyed for the quirky, fresh novel that it is. It’s not one of my favorite books ever, but it had a super unique perspective on themes like creativity, pursuing your dreams, and depression.