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I loved the beginning of Go Gentle: Adora Hazzard, a middle-aged divorced woman living in an Upper West Side apartment building, forms a coven of other single women so they can look out for one another as they age and split the costs of things that make no sense to buy alone (like an entire bundle of celery or season tickets to the ballet). She’s got a sassy teenage daughter and an unusual job as a private philosophy tutor for a wealthy family’s adolescent sons.

I enjoyed the first few chapters and thought I was reading a funny, quirky story about female community and midlife reinvention. The narrator’s voice has a delightful, witty energy that I appreciated.

The novel takes an abrupt turn when a stranger enters the story and disrupts Adora’s peaceful life. We get a #MeToo back story, a romance that doesn’t feel fully believable, and a murky international art-dealing mystery. I had trouble following the storyline, and the plot shifts left me feeling a bit disengaged. While the beginning felt grounded in everyday absurdities, the later sections felt scattered and less entertaining.

Maria Semple is known for Where’d You Go, Bernadette, a funny and wry satire about motherhood that was made into a movie starring Cate Blanchett. Go Gentle is a bit harder to categorize. It blends midlife reinvention, strong women characters, madcap capers, and some romance, all delivered in a sharp, witty voice. If that mix appeals to you, it’s worth a read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Putnam for the ARC. All opinions are my own.