praptii 's review for:

Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

2.0

emotional lighthearted mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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If you’re looking for a fun, lighthearted mystery (like I was), I would not recommend this book. Although it could be considered fun and lighthearted to some, it was just barely a mystery. I really only finished this book because the first 3/4 of it I was wondering where does Bernadette go? And when does actually she go there? It takes so long for the story to get to when Bernadette goes missing that you actually start to forget what the plot is. 
I wouldn’t say this is a bad book but I think it just wasn’t for me. I can’t really see this being interesting or relatable to many POC - I don’t remember there being anything outright offensive but Bernadette strikes me as an “I don’t see color” type of person which made me dislike her fairly quickly and made me kind of apathetic to her situation. 
All that being said, I did start to like the story more towards the end when the mystery finally starts and we’re trying to solve it alongside the characters. I wouldn’t say it’s worth it to read the whole book just to get to the mystery but by the end I at least didn’t hate it as much as I expected to.