30 Books in 30 Beach Days Day 10: "Where'd You Go, Bernadette"
Where’d You Go, Bernadette is the perfect beach read: funny and fun, part mystery, with strong messages of self-love and self-empowerment. It’s the story of Bee Branch, a smart 15-year-old who’s just graduated with straight A’s (actually, straight “S’s” at her crunchy-granola Seattle private school) from middle school and is on her way to boarding school at Choate. Bee is best friends with her agoraphobic Mom, Bernadette—a woman who, unbeknownst to Bee, once won a MacArthur Genius Grant for her work as an architect and who rarely leaves the house, outsources all sundry tasks to a remote assistant in India, and tries unsuccessfully to avoid the prying eyes of the high-strung moms at Bee’s school.
When Bernadette vanishes two days before Christmas, Bee sets out to find out what happened to her. This novel is a result: a collection of report cards, emails, letters, and personal memories from Bee that all seek to answer the same question: where’d you go, Bernadette?
The story is very much about Bee’s ability to grow from child into young woman, as she pieces together the clues that would lead her to her mother. But it’s also a pseudo coming-of-age tale about Bernadette, who must come to terms with her crippling anxiety if she is ever to grow as a mom and as a person. The title is a tongue-and-cheek play; it literally alludes to Bee's quest to find out where her mother physically went, but it's also a question about what happened to Bernadette, that one-time famous genius, who retreated further and further inside herself until she, too, was lost.
Wholeheartedly recommend this fantastic book. Rating: 5/5.
