by Maria Semple
reviewed by Jessica Mijares, class of 2015
Set in gloomy Seattle the novel begins with fifteen-year-old Bee begging her parents to go to Antarctica for Christmas break. Her parents agree and as her overly anxious agoraphobic mother Bernadette starts preparing for the trip she suddenly disappears a few days before they are supposed to leave. Bee doesn’t want to give up on her mother’s disappearance so she tracks down any information or secrets she can find about her mother. She goes through private emails, FBI reports, letters from a physiatrist, an emergency-room bill, and a cruise ship schedule to find any messages or clues her mother left behind. She starts making a book about all the information she collects. Most of the perspective of the book is told by different characters through letters and emails so readers can see what Bee is reading and develop their own idea about where her mother went. Bee’s story starts a few months before her mother took leave. The characters and the situations they end up in are what make the book not only funny but authentic. The ridiculous neighbors and the surprising disasters they create make for an interesting read. The book starts off slow, but after a few chapters the book becomes a definite page-turner. The author, Maria Semple, who wrote for shows Arrested Development and Ellen, crafts a quirky and hilarious novel with crazy characters and twists and turns that eventually show readers why and where Bernadette went.
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