Cute young adult book with a good message ( )

This book made me feel uncomfortable.

Finding Audrey by Sophie Kinsella is a book about a teenager named Audrey. This girl has an anxiety disorder that makes her life difficult, especially because of the past incidents that led to the disorder. She has a dysfunctional family as well that takes the spotlight in this book. And then there is Linus - her brother Frank's friend whom Audrey may be beginning to like and using the opportunity of friendship to get out of her shell.

One word describes this book to me: Eeek.

I am the weird person standing out in the crowd since I didn't enjoy this book. To me, this book felt like a mix of romance with toxicity. I could tell this book was trying to bring forth a different view of anxiety and connect with audiences but it just didn't with me. It felt like the book was trying to shove the anxiety down our throats and almost give a "friendship and romance can fix all yay" with an abusive and toxic Mother to boot.

I felt for Audrey and really connected with her. I have had some struggles with anxiety so I can relate and empathize about how difficult it can be to overcome hurdles or feel like you can't overcome them. I understand how high school can be awful and how people are mean. I can relate to having a dysfunctional family and trying to learn to navigate the world through that. Because of some of these ties, I felt like this book didn't hit the mark and felt super insensitive. But that's my personal opinion.

Let's not even get started about how the Mother is a screaming, insane psychopath who is basically abusing her son. You destroyed his computer? Those are expensive. Hide it or leave it at a relatives. Oh, that's how he connects with friends and you now have made it so none of his friends will ever talk to him again? What great parenting. She's abusive. She's toxic. And honest to God it's not okay. It's not funny. It's not cool. It was made to be that she's loving and kind but just cruel. Not. Okay.

Overall, this book was not for me. I can understand why some people think it's a romantic comedy with anxiety but it felt way too insensitive to me.

One out of five stars. ( )

Much more importantly than this being her first voyage into young adult literature, this is Sophie Kinsella's first step into something more than the fun and flirty but relatively shallow books she's previously published.

Audrey is not your typical Kinsella character. She doesn't care about shopping or appearances and she has no issues with her credit card bills. However, she's just as powerful. And she still made me laugh quite a bit.

This wasn't just about Audrey though; instead, it was more about the entire family, a less than cohesive unit. I felt almost as invested in Frank, Audrey's older brother, as I did her, and I was in love with her four-year-old brother Felix.

I adored how she initially is able to communicate with someone she's not comfortable with through writing notes. A lot of people could relate to this and though I haven't suffered from anxiety disorder I think this could be inspiring in a way.

The way she began thinking about other people was very touching. Her mother had given up a lot to take care of her and it was fascinating to see how Audrey reacted when she realized that she may have been a little wrapped up in herself.

I'm forever curious as to what happened. But I'll survive.

This wasn't necessarily as fun of a read as I expected it to be, but it made up for this in tackling things that actually matter.
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4.5. I really, really enjoyed this and I'm glad I finally picked it up. ( )

First sentence. “OMG, Mum’s gone insane.”

I haven’t read a young adult book since becoming a ‘proper’ adult, and it was refreshing to hear (read) the voice of a teenager (in which Finding Audrey is brilliantly written). Moreover, it is not the usual young adult novel. There isn’t a single scene set in a high school but it raises awareness of a very important, yet rarely discussed aspect of school life: bullying. It does so by focusing on the devastating effects bullying had on the victim. The complex psychological problems caused by the cruelty of a group of teenagers demonstrates that it is not only some common inconvenience of high school life, it is a serious problem.

This book has so many strong and important messages, it should be compulsory reading for adults dealing with teenagers (and they would enjoy it immensely, I guarantee that). It tells teachers and parents that bullying is a serious threat, and should be treated as such. It shouldn’t be downplayed saying ‘kids will be kids’. All the teenagers are shown that it is not ‘how life is’, it is not normal and should not be tolerated. The victims are ensured that they are not alone and there is a way out even of the darkest places. Their suffering will end, they can be healed. These messages can be life-saving.

All this in a novel brilliantly written, as always. There is just no putting it down. Great, loveable characters from the very first moment. Interesting, engaging storyline, a bit of romance, a cosy retreat of a family home, a great deal of humour.

It is so easy to identify with Audrey that the reader can better understand what it is like inside the mind of someone suffering from depression and anxiety disorders. Understanding then brings compassion, and compassion brings acceptance.

This book presents difficult and important topics in a light, entertaining read. I very much hope that it will become a huge success everywhere because it does a great job for raising awareness of the very real threat of bullying and for a better understanding of mental illnesses. Sophie Kinsella achieved everything I was missing from the one-hundred-year-old man’s story, and more. Her novel is a true page-turner. It is easy to identify with the protagonist, and I missed all the main characters after finishing the book. I cannot emphasize enough how extraordinary this book is in teaching the reader about important yet rarely discussed topics in a profoundly entartaining way. Amazing, loved it! ( )