Finding Audrey // Book Review
Last night I finished reading Finding Audrey by Sophie Kinsella.
I. Loved. This. Book.
Goodreads Synopsis:
'An anxiety disorder disrupts fourteen-year-old Audrey's daily life. She has been making slow but steady progress with Dr. Sarah, but when Audrey meets Linus, her brother's gaming teammate, she is energized.
She connects with him.
Audrey can talk through her fears with Linus in a way she's never been able to do with anyone before. As their friendship deepens and her recovery gains momentum, a sweet romantic connection develops, one that helps not just Audrey but also her entire family.'
My review:
This book follows a teenage girl named Audrey at a difficult time of her life.
She's fighting a mental illness.
Audrey is only comfortable being around her family and Dr. Sarah, as long as she wears her dark glasses to avoid eye contact.
Dr. Sarah has helped Audrey to slowly get better, giving her small projects to help her regain her confidence. Which, at first, seems to be helping.
Then Linus - Audrey's brother's friend - visits their house, which at first didn't go terribly well but with Linus's patience and Audrey learning how to not fight but to tolerate her 'lizard brain', they become friends.
Linus reintroduces Audrey to the world outside of the comfort of her house and she learns how to love her life again.
She also discovers what love is.
With some books, mental illnesses are written without care, sometimes they're just a bit unfair and sometimes authors need to understand what a mental illness is before they write about it.
Sophie Kinsella, however, has written this book so well, she has been careful when writing about Audrey's anxiety and, by writing from Audrey's perspective has given the reader a real insight to what coping with a mental health problem is like without the story being too serious and in-depth.
This is a light hearted, cheerful story that kept me on the edge of my seat, made me laugh and left me wanting more. I wish this book was longer!
I love the characters in this book, Audrey's mum is hilarious. I really enjoyed reading about Audrey's family, they came alive in this book, the problems they dealt with were so realistic and the parent's relationship with their children was so funny.
This is the first book that I've read this year that made me laugh out loud.
Also, Audrey and Linus's relationship was just adorable.
I have given this book a 4 out of 5 stars, I was really sad to finish this book because I loved it so much. It is a perfect Summer read.
I'm definitely going to be reading more of Sophie Kinsella's books.
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I hope you enjoyed this review!
If you have read this book as well, let me know what you thought and we can chat about it!
Speak soon,
Em x
