Finding Audrey by Sophie Kinsella

Title: Finding Audrey
Author: Sophie Kinsella
Publisher: Doubleday
Pages: 279
Source: bought

14 year old Audrey's life is turned upside down when she's diagnosed with anxiety after a traumatic experience. Now she never leaves the house, and even when she is indoors, she doesn't take her dark glasses off.
But then she meets her brother's friend Linus. Even though their first meeting doesn't go particularly well, Linus manages to get through to Audrey, and Audrey opens up to him. Soon it's unusual to see them apart. But can Audrey find herself?

I've been eyeing up this book for a while now, so when my local bookshop had a sale, I leaped at the chance to buy this book for cheap! I've not read many reviews about this book, but the few I have read have followed along the same lines as each other. Most people enjoyed the book, but found a few things a bit annoying. The same things I found annoying, actually.

The first thing that bugged me, was Audrey's recovery. Despite not having anxiety, I was a bit annoyed with how quickly Audrey recovered. It was like as soon as she meet Linus, she was suddenly improving. Just like that. I mean, I understand that she put in lots of effort and hours of therapy to help her improve, but it shouldn't have been that easy. Also, their relationship moved really fast. It was fast moving for a relationship between people without anxiety, but seeing as Audrey had trouble so much as talking to strangers, it was a bit strange how one day they met and a couple of weeks later they were kissing.

Something else that annoyed me, was Audrey's mum's obsession with Frank's computer. Audrey's brother, Frank, like many teenage boys, spends way too much time playing games on his computer. At the beginning of the book, I could totally understand why Audrey's mum wanted Frank to spend less time on the computer; my 12 year old brother could certainly take a break with those video games! But about half way through the book, getting rid of Frank's computer became a priority to Audrey's mum. Audrey's anxiety sort of drifted out of the picture for her. It was amusing at first, but then it took over the book for a little bit, and it made me a bit annoyed.

Apart from those things, I really enjoyed this book. I liked how it focused on mental illnesses, something with a meaning. I also liked the characters. Apart from the mum, they were all really likeable characters. I could see me being friends with Audrey,if she were real. I enjoyed Audrey's movie making as well. Throughout the book she's filming her everyday life, and it gives you a good insight into her family. The writing in this book was light hearted and fun, as were the characters.

It's not my first book to recommend to someone, but if you're looking into reading it, I'd encourage you to do so. It's worth the read.
★★★/
★★★★
(I couldn't decide what star rating to give this book, so I gave it a 3/4 out of 5. It wasn't good enough to be 4, but it certainly didn't deserve to be anywhere in the 3's.)