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. – Synopsis taken from goodreads
Sophie Kinsella has written a fantastic book about Mental illness, anxiety and depression.
Finding Audrey shows the good and bad sides to Mental illness and the ignorance and stigma still surrounding it. Is it to much to ask people to educate themselves on subjects before they form an opinion and put people down with it? I think not.
I felt the portrayal of depression was honest and not sugar coated which I appreciated
“The trouble is, depression doesn’t come with handy symptoms like spots and a temperature, so you don’t realize it at first. You keep saying “I’m fine” to people when you’re not fine. You think you SHOULD be fine. You keep saying to yourself: “Why aren’t I fine?”
Some of the lines were just so unbearably sad and relatable it’s hard not to quote
“Sometimes I hope I’m building up a stockpile of missing laughs, and when I’ve recovered, they’ll all come exploding out in one gigantic fit that lasts twenty-four hours.”
The relationship aspect in Finding Audrey wasn’t a big deal for me and I could of loved this story without it, Linus is cute and gives Audrey the push she was needing but he made me worry that he would cause Audrey to have another breakdown if something were to happen.
My favorite scenes were the appointments with Dr. Sarah and the Film Documentary! I loved how she could open up with her Doctor and they had an amazing relationship.
“But, Audrey, that’s what life is. We’re all on a jagged graph. I know I am. Up a bit, down a bit. That’s life.”
Also her commentating on what was happening around the house and filming insignificant things was really funny.
All in all this book is a fantastic and truthful book, there’s no amazing romance or huge revelation but there is fantastic narration, a great MC that has fantastic personality, and it tackles big issues in a upfront way.
This book was a 3.8 / 5
I would recommend it to a younger audience as I feel they will be able to relate to Audrey a lot more then I could.
Side note – Mental illness may not have visible signs such as spots or strips! but it is an illness just like how chicken pox is an illness. We all have spouts in our life when things just seem a bit to much and we’d like to hibernate and some more then others.
Talk to people, ask your friends how they are doing and if there okay.
I have been pulled back into real life before by my friends and family as I tend to escape from the struggles of everyday life not by wearing dark glasses but pouring myself into books and make believe worlds. As fun as living in books is we need to surface and address the problems before they escalate and becoming something we can’t run away from.
Have you read Finding Audrey or is it on your TBR? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!
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Awesome review! And I’m glad Kinsella is tackling such an important topic and gearing it toward a younger audience! I have anxiety and there are times it could be crippling. I got made fun of when I was younger which only helped it get worse as I have gotten older. Glad to see that it is being talked about!!
Again, awesome review!
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Thank you!
Anxiety is probably the most over looked thing in our society, people tend to brush it off or not realise how hard it can be to be overwhelmed by seemingly small things.
This book is fantastic for younger people going through the same problems, I’m sorry to hear that you were made fun of, some kids are assholes but they also need to be better educated in school to understand rather then pick on people who are different, hopefully it’s getting better for you now! 🙂 xx
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I read it and felt the same way. It was wonderful for an author to take such a heavy topic and make it light hearted. I agree that this book would appeal to a younger demographic… 14-16ish?
Also, thanks for sharing that you have gone through a hard time and had people who were there to help you through it. The biggest thing about depression and anxiety is that it isn’t black and white. Someone could be struggling and you would never know… It’s not always so obvious.
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14-16ish is the perfect age for this one, even 13 in some cases.
I agree with it not being so obvious, it’s all to easy to pretend to be fine when no one can see what is going on on the inside. People struggling also need to reach out otherwise people won’t be able to help if they don’t see what’s going on and sometimes this is extremely hard to do but it needs to be done before anything gets better 🙂
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Oh I loved this book. Nice review and well said. Being that this was Kinsella’s first Young Adult book (that I know of) that I was curious how this would be. I was pleased with how well she wrote this.
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I didn’t realise this was her first YA until after I read it, this was a fantastic YA debut and I hope to see more of her in this genre 🙂 I will definitely pick up another YA from her.
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