Book Review: Finding Audrey

Finding Audrey follows Audrey, a kind and forgiving 14 year old girl who suffers from a social anxiety disorder after a terrible bullying incident that occurred to her at old school. Audrey is now home-schooled. She wears dark sunglasses all day to prevent making eye contact with any other human being, even her parents and siblings because its just so stressful for her.

She lives with her family in England.

I thought i wasn’t going to relate to her because she is 14 years old but to my surprise, I could. I was able to visualise every scene. I loved the documentary presentation, the script and most of all, the story telling. It is unique in a way that makes the story hilarious and intense, both at once. The opening scene of Finding Audrey was very beautiful.

I love that this book dealt with anxiety at all. I’ve read one other book that deals with anxiety (The Boyfriend List by E. Lockhart) and honestly, its heart wrenching to see authors spilling even the harshest and roughest emotions so beautifully.

For the most part, I really enjoyed the writing style and the presentation. It was light-hearted and riddled with humor; it had me cackling several times throughout.

The fact that this book is written in such a light tone makes it so unique. Anyone wanting to read a book about anxiety would expect dark thoughts and dark words. The brother, Frank, is hilarious. She has another brother who is 4 years old and its so adorable to imagine being around him.

Personally, i feel anxiety is nothing to be made fun of, the swaying away process seems to have been taken lightly and that’s why I wasn’t happy with how anxiety and its recovery process was presented-that meeting a new guy will instantly cure the disorder. But for the most part it was overwhelming to see Audrey dealing with her anxiety, living with her family and finding love.

It was only once in the story that i felt a little distracted.Audrey’s mom’s fixation with ridding Frank (the brother) off his computer games almost became the center aspect of the plot instead of Audrey’s healing process which took away from the enjoyment of the novel for a while.

I would recommend this to someone who would like to read a book that deals with a dark issue in a friendly way and a book that will make you laugh despite the issues being intense.