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Semple returns to ground she covered in Where'd You Go, Bernadette? (2012), with an artistic antiheroine fumbling through her life of privilege as an NYC transplant to Seattle. Married to a celebrity hand doctor and 10 years separated from her career as a groundbreaking animator, Eleanor Flood spends her days studying poetry with an untenured professor and thinking acerbic thoughts about the other moms at her precocious son's private school. Having lunch with a former minion breaks something free in Eleanor's past, and her life falls apart over the course of an afternoon. Readers learn details of her backstory and will sympathize despite the seemingly trivial nature of her troubles (Sticking her foot in her mouth with her poetry teacher! Estrangement from her sister! Her husband's absence from his practice! Her son's enjoyment of makeup!). Hilarious and touching, this will satisfy Semple's numerous fans and gain her new ones. Give this to readers of women's fiction, Seattle denizens and aspiring residents, and people reviewing their lives and choices.--Moroni, Alene Copyright 2016 Booklist

Publishers Weekly
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On the fateful day she decides to be her "best self," Eleanor Flood-cult-famous cartoonist, mother, wife, cynic-spirals from one catastrophe to the next. Her day quickly turns hectic when her son, Timby, comes home sick from school. Hoping his father might help, Eleanor instead begins to suspect her surgeon husband is having an affair when his receptionist acts cagey. Eleanor's ego is bruised when she realizes an underling she fired years ago is now a famous artist, she dodges calls from her publisher about a long-passed deadline for her graphic memoir, and, finally, she suffers what may be a concussion after crashing headfirst into a sculpture. The latest from Semple (Where'd You Go, Bernadette?) is a sharp, funny read, and the author injects quirky elements-drawings, a comic book, photocopies of poems-to add another layer of enjoyment. Though Eleanor is snarky, her troubles and growing calamities are engaging. Some of her encounters are a bit too convenient, and the trope of a "day from hell" makes for shallow interactions between characters, but Semple augments these first-person antics with third-person sections that dig deep into Eleanor's past, finding particular resonance when telling the story of Ivy, the sister Eleanor feels she has lost to a wealthy husband in New Orleans. In the end, the novel wraps up too neatly, but the ride is consistently entertaining. Agent: Anna Stein, ICM Partners. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Like her previous best seller, Where'd You Go Bernadette, Semple's latest bitingly satirical novel features a modern woman on the verge of a breakdown. Middle-aged Eleanor Flood, former New Yorker and animator of a hit cartoon series, feels at loose ends in Seattle with her husband, Joe, the -Seattle Seahawks team physician, and their pre-cocious young son, Timby. As the book begins, Eleanor starts out the day with a mantra: "Today will be different.. Today I will be my best self, the person I'm capable of being," but within hours she and her son, who has again faked illness to leave school, are on a madcap mission to track down her possibly adulterous husband, who is also playing hooky from work. While many listeners will appreciate this raw, often laugh-out-loud glimpse at the struggles of a woman today, others may not be able to relate to the character of Eleanor, seeing her as a wealthy, unfulfilled person searching for meaning in an overprivileged life. Kathleen Wilhoite delivers an outstanding, energetic performance, giving the audiobook the feel of a one-woman show. VERDICT Recommended for fans of caustic novels. ["An introspective look, both comedic and tragic, at attempting to be the best one can be: wife, mother, or sibling. While not as...funny as Where'd You Go, this book will satisfy fans of Semple and satire": LJ 8/16 review of the Little, Brown hc.]-Beth Farrell, Cleveland State Univ. Law Lib. © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Narrated by irreverent Eleanor Flood, a self-described "past her prime animator" who achieved fleeting fame, Semple's latest novel following the best-selling Where'd You Go, Bernadette features the author's trademark satire. After relocating from New York to Seattle, Eleanor's erratic life consists of shuttling son Timby, lunches with friends she can't stand, poetry lessons with tutor Alonzo, and thinking about revitalizing her marriage to Joe. That is, until an old friend mentions Eleanor's estranged sister, Ivy. Interweaving chapters provide flashbacks to Eleanor and Ivy's difficult childhood after the death of their mother and years with an emotionally distant, alcoholic father. Semple acutely captures the complexities of sibling relationships when describing Ivy's hurried marriage to overbearing scion Bucky -Willett, the series of events that led to the sisters' estrangement, and their failed efforts to reconnect. Present-day chapters focus on Timby faking his way out of school and Joe's unexplained absences at work, causing -Eleanor's paranoia and insecurities to get the best of her. VERDICT An introspective look, both comedic and tragic, at attempting to be the best one can be: wife, mother, or sibling. While not as laugh-out-loud funny as Where'd You Go, this book will satisfy fans of Semple and satire. [See Prepub Alert, 4/18/16.]-Stephanie Sendaula, Library Journal © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.