Line #49 Literature/WheredYouGoBernadette


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bernadette.png]]
2	A novel (as made clear by the subtitle) by Maria Semple about a woman living in UsefulNotes/{{Seattle}} who disappears two days before Christmas as her family is preparing to travel to Antarctica.
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4	It is mostly an EpistolaryNovel, compiled from emails, letters, and invoices sent among the main characters, with a few scenes conventionally narrated in first person by Bernadette's teenage daughter Bee.
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6	A movie adaptation was released on August 16, 2019, directed by Creator/RichardLinklater and starring Creator/CateBlanchett (in the title role), Creator/BillyCrudup, Creator/KristenWiig, and Creator/JudyGreer.
7	----
8	!!This novel provides examples of the following:
9	* ACupAngst: Bee is about as far from angst as you'll ever see in a teenager, but she is annoyed that she hasn't grown breasts.
10	%%* AdorablyPrecociousChild: Bee
11	* BargainWithHeaven: Bernadette swore to God that [[spoiler:she would renounce her architectural visions if Bee survived]], which was odd because [[spoiler:she was an atheist]].
12	* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Bernadette's neighbor Audrey wants Bernadette to [[spoiler:clear all the blackberry bushes from the hillside that rises above Audrey's house]]. Bernadette does, during the rainiest winter in a very rainy city...
13	* BelligerentSexualTension: Bernadette and Paul Jellinek, from two different cities, about something that happened 20 years ago, over email.
14	* BrutalHonesty: Whereas everyone else sees Bernadette as a victim, Paul Jellinek calls her out for TemptingFate and thus indirectly contributing to the Huge Hideous Thing that happened to her.
15	* TheCameo:
16	** One of the "epistles" in the book was a blog entry by Cliff Mass, a weatherman that Bee and Bernadette like. Cliff Mass is, in fact, an actual weatherman in Seattle with a blog.
17	** Buzz Aldrin makes an appearance as well.
18	* CatchPhrase:
19	-->'''Bernadette:''' "You little rotter."
20	-->'''Ollie-O:''' "REAL-TIME ⚡ FLASH!"
21	* ChekhovsGun: Audrey Griffin's emergency room bill from when [[spoiler: she pretended that Bernadette ran over her feet]] had a line item for Vicodin tablets, and a note explaining that she was in hysterics and demanded the drug among other things. A few weeks later [[spoiler: her son Kyle was caught with the empty bottle of Vicodin in school, implied to have taken or sold the tablets]].
22	* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Nigel Mills-Murray, who [[spoiler:surrepetitiously bought and demolished Bernadette's Twenty Mile House]].
23	* CrankyNeighbor: Bernadette and Audrey Griffin are this to each other.
24	* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: [[spoiler:Audrey's son Kyle, who is a poor student and troublemaker at school,]] is a talented computer hacker.
25	* DramaQueen: Audrey Griffin. Bernadette would probably be considered one in another story, but she seems positively laid back compared to Audrey.
26	* DumpsterDive: Bernadette did this a lot when [[spoiler:building the Twenty-Mile House]].
27	* EmbarrassingFirstName: Bee's real first name is Balakrishna.
28	* EvilCannotComprehendGood: Audrey Griffin and Soo-Lin don't believe that anyone would want to opt out of getting Galen Street School email announcements, and that Elgin must have been ObfuscatingStupidity when he claimed he didn't know about [[spoiler: the hillside collapsing on Audrey Griffin's house while a school event was being held there]], which was announced by email.
29	* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:Audrey Griffin]] decides she's gone too far when she learns that Bernadette [[spoiler: is about to be committed, in part thanks to her lies]]. She then [[spoiler:helps Bernadette escape]].
30	* HelicopterParents: In spades. Averted only by the mother of Bee's friend Kennedy.
31	* HollywoodHacking: Averted. Although the ease in which [[spoiler:Kyle Griffin]] was able to remotely hack into [[spoiler:Soo-Lin]]'s account at Microsoft may have been exaggerated ([[TakeThat or may not have been]]), [[spoiler:he]] used mostly realistic hacking methods.
32	%%* HollywoodMidLifeCrisis: Soo-Lin
33	* KubrickStare: Discussed by Bee's parents, who call a face she makes at them her Kubrick face.
34	%%* LargeHam: Ollie-O
35	* LittleMissSnarker: Bee, mostly when narrating.
36	* MacGyvering: Bernadette uses trash and abandoned industrial parts [[spoiler:as raw materials to build her two houses, the Beeber Bifocal House and the Twenty Mile House]].
37	* MaddenIntoMisanthropy: What has happened to Bernadette
38	* MissingMom: Kind of a ForegoneConclusion.
39	* MoodWhiplash: Bernadette writes a very, ''very'' snarky email to Paul Jellinek, in which she describes her dissatisfaction with her life in Seattle in hilarious detail, when she suddenly starts writing about her miscarraiges. After that, she goes right back to the snarking.
40	* OldDarkHouse: Bernadette and family live in one. It was formerly a school for delinquent girls, where it was rumored they were forced to have abortions.
41	* PluckyComicRelief: Detective Driscoll provides some oblivious tone-deaf lines when [[spoiler:Bernadette is about to be committed]].
42	* ReferenceOverdosed: The novel is ''loaded'' with commercial and technological references to things considered trendy in the 2010 timeframe.
43	* RetiredBadass: [[spoiler:Bernadette is considered one of the world's most influential architects, but she [[HeroicBSOD withdrew to Seattle when her masterpiece home in Los Angeles was demolished]].]]
44	* TakeThat: Bernadette's emails absolutely skewer {{UsefulNotes/Seattle}}.
45	* ThemeNaming: Several children are named after U.S. presidents; this is most likely the author mocking Seattle parents.
46	* ToughLove: After years of [[DotingParent doting]] on Kyle, Audrey Griffin finally comes to terms with the fact that he's a [[spoiler: drug-dealing, drug-abusing, computer hacker]], and sends him to a immersion rehab camp that dumped him and several other boys in the middle of the desert and left them to their own survive for a week.
47	* TropaholicsAnonymous: Soo-Lin is in a member of a support group called Victims Against Victimhood, which she details in her letters to Audrey.
48	* UnusualUserInterface: Samantha 2, the project Elgin is working on, is a device that allows a person to control a robot just by thinking.
49	* {{Workaholic}}: Elgin, although it was partly was because he didn't want to deal with Bernadette's rants.

Context Literature / WheredYouGoBernadette