Literary Fiction • 2026
Go Gentle
By Maria Semple • ★★★
Bernadette is one of my favorite books and honestly what got me back into reading as an adult. I later tried Semple’s other books and they were horrible, so when Go Gentle was announced as a similar vibe I was thrilled but skeptical. When I bought it at my local bookstore and the woman behind the counter told me she loved it, I let myself be hopeful.
It was… decent. A strange story, and I think if I were 15 years older I’d have enjoyed it more. It had moments that reminded me of Strangers by Belle Burden — a middle-aged woman rediscovering herself — and those were the parts that worked best alongside the mildly entertaining heist plot. The part where Adora’s husband is MAGA without fully understanding it was genuinely sharp, and the teenagers being more confident and aware of right vs wrong than the adults around them was one of my favorite dynamics in the book.
Overall though, it didn’t quite do it for me. It was a little too silly and ridiculous at times to work as comedy, the romance felt random and never really tied the title together for me, and it took about 150 pages to pick up. I’ll give this another read when I’m 45 and hopefully look back on it differently.
Go Gentle by Maria Semple. 📌 This post contains affiliate links. I may earn a small commission at no cost to you.
Marin Robinson 
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