Finding Audrey, by Sophie Kinsella

Hello, Dragonflies! 

Look I'm being an active blogger again! That hasn't happened in a while! But my current courses allow for a little more relax time, so between each Throne of Glass book I read, I've been reading something totally different from that world. And fast. I finished this book in a few hours this afternoon. 

My formatting is being odd?

I just started and finished reading Finding Audrey, by Sophie Kinsella! 

 "Audrey can't leave the house. she can't even take off her dark glasses inside the house.

Then her brother's friend Linus stumbles into her life. With his friendly, orange-slice smile and his funny notes, he starts to entice Audrey out again - well, Starbucks is a start. And with Linus at her side, Audrey feels like she can do the things she'd thought were too scary. Suddenly, finding her way back to the real world seems achievable."

This was definitely super cute! Our main character is Audrey, a 14-year-old with severe anxiety and depressive episodes. "To put you out of your misery, here's the full diagnosis. Social Anxiety Disorder, General Anxiety Disorder and Depressive Episodes." She also often mentions being 'overly sensitive' which hey! something I can relate to! I'll talk a bit more a bout this later. 

The problem is, her disorders are so prominent in her life that she quit school and went to a mental hospital for a while. She comes back home, to a mom who takes everything in the Daily Mail far too seriously, a brother who is addicted to video games, a 4-year-old, and a dad who's doing his best to keep everything running smoothly. 

Now her brother's best friend, Linus, comes into her life, and she starts coming out of her shell, little by little. 

This book is funny and quirky and yet manages to keep a light atmosphere while exploring very dark topics as mental illness. I thought that the balance was perfect, and that this book could easily be appreciated for younger audiences, just as much as older readers! 

That's all I can really say without spoilers! You've been warned! 

This book was so, incredibly wholesome, and really relateable. My mom's often taking things on the news at heart (we basically live a no-sugar life now, among other random things, haha!), my brother also had a time where he would hide to play video games, and now it's just accepted. I also have weird brain episodes where my 'lizard brain' says one thing but my normal brain says something else. Being overly sensitive was really shown well, for once, in a book. Too much external stimulus is exhausting, overthinking is a great friennemy... things like that. 

There were so many moments that were really heartwarming, and others that I could easily see in a movie! Audrey's relationship with Linus was adorable, and I absolutely loved how he would just make sure she was okay, or that what he was doing would not freak her out too much. He was such a sunshine in the book! 

I also just really loved how, while Frank found a passion for cooking, the family accepted his love for video games, and went to the tournament with him, despite having obviously been against his addiction. In fact, the entire family dynamics of the book was something I wish I could see more often in literature - everyone really loved each other, despite the little mishaps here and there. Like I said, sometimes reading this felt like looking into a mirror. 

I just had one problem with it. While the book in general portrayed mental illnesses in what I thought was a really elegant yet powerful way (especially with the scene where Audrey meets an old friend of hers, who has awful misconceptions about Audrey's mental stability!!), I had a hard time with the fact that Audrey got better so quickly. 

Now I feel like a hypocrite. I usually don't like it when people say a book is bad because it did a bad job portraying an illness. That is not what I'm about to say. As I've been saying, this book did a really good job with it! There was only one thing that I wish could have been re-thought. 

I have friends with anxiety and depression. I myself was recently diagnosed Overly Sensitive, which is also a type of anxiety. None of us have had it so bad that we ended up missing school because we had to go to the hospital. And yet we also all know that these things don't just go away. (Overly Sensitive being a mix of being mentally affected by too much stimuli, the sudden overthinking of a simple thought, or being extremely affected by what I downplay as 'people being idiots'. You also just feel things more deeply, like when you miss someone or somehwere, for instance.)

The book did give an excellent message. Sometimes, pushing yourself to do something scary is a good way to learn that it might not be as bad as you thought. I guess it's the same as telling a kid 'how do you know you don't like broccoli if you've never tried it?'. 

The odd thing was that once Audrey tried the scary things, and got a boyfriend, all of her doubts just vanished. I do understand the boost of confidence that being in a relationship - romantic or platonic - can bring, but it doesn't fix everything on it's own like that. You might slowly learn to find coping mechanisms, to accept your fears but don't let them own you, but not once have I experienced anyone telling me "Oh my depression vanished once I got up and did something about it!". 

I know I'm not explaining myself very well, it's a difficult topic. That's why I'm in no way putting any author down for trying to address it. If I can't even express myself correctly within a blogpost, imagine how difficult it must be for authors to write it in a book. 

I'm giving Finding Audrey a 4/5 feathers! 

Have you read Finding Audrey? What did you think? Let me know! 

Stay Bookish!