It's been quite a while since I read Maria Semple's "Where'd You Go, Bernadette," but I remember absolutely loving it and, on the back on that experience, figured I'd similarly fall in love with "Go Gentle." And while I enjoyed this book, I also felt it was a bit all over the place in a way that limited how much I could connect with it.

Our protagonist Adora Hazzard (!!) starts off super weird but in a unique and endearing way, peppering the narrative with Stoicisms and honestly providing some solid life advice. But I think Semple tried to make our leading lady wear too many hats over the course of the book, and that tempered my connection to her. Like, who is she supposed to be?!?! She started off as a philosopher, but as she developed into a conspiracy theorist, art connoisseur, crime aficionado, and love-struck teenager, I just couldn't relate to her much by the end. And I was disappointed to see a potentially memorable main character become an annoyingly conventional and watered-down version of her earlier unapologetically weird self.

I did like the art mystery aspect of the book, even though it was a little convoluted—much like the character arc of Adora honestly. I think we could've done with some more robust background on supporting characters, and honestly maybe a bit less on Adora herself!?! The TV writing backstory was obviously foundational to Adora's character, but it also felt reallyyyy drawn out and kind of shoehorned in, as its importance to Adora in the present was sometimes MAJOR and sometimes irrelevant. But the supporting present-day characters needed more feature time and stronger development, because their motivations played into the book's conclusion without the reader feeling well versed in the tensions/histories/reasonings at play.

And I alluded to the romance earlier, which I simultaneously enjoyed and was annoyed by... like, I'm all for a jaded mom falling back in love with LOVE again, but her total attitude 180 just didn't feel genuine to me given the type of character she's depicted as. Again, maybe this could've worked if it were the book's main storyline, but as a kind of side story it was a somewhat chaotic and rushed.

To sum it up, I think this book suffers from an identity crisis. It's not goofy enough to feel like a comedy, not serious enough to be a drama, and not fleshed-out enough to be an effective mystery. Sprinkle a bit of romance and teen angst into that confusion, and what exactly are you left with?? While I think this kind of genre subversion can totally work, here it's just a little off for me because there are so many diverting storylines that also try to cover different genres. And I think it's just too much.

So even though I enjoyed the read and the central story, I wish it had just a little more focus that might've elevated it from good to great.

[Thank you to NetGalley and Putnam for an advance reader copy of this book!]