Book Review: Finding Audrey

I never imagined myself reading another Sophie Kinsella's novel until I chanced upon a book review on Guardian and apparently the review convinced me over to read another Chick Lit book. The genre isn't totally chick lit. Instead, it was under Young Adults. With that Kinokuniya voucher Doan gave me on my birthday last year, I bought the book last Wednesday. I was hooked. I spent the entire last Friday reading this in the library whilst waiting for Alicia and Xuan as they studied for their Block Test 2 which makes me reminisce those times... That is not the point.

Who should read this book: 

1. Young Adults 
2. People who love comic writing
3. People not looking for a cliche romance book

Anyone looking for some form of comic writing, this is the book I'll recommend. As usual, Sophie never fails to make me laugh with her comic writing. I had so much fun as I read this book at night and the bulk of it in the library. She offers interesting psychological insight into anxiety disorders and depression. Though I'm not sure how true, I literally cringed when Audrey starts crawling back into her 'den' as she meets Linus or anyone new. Her struggles were seemed real such that I was able to empathise with her. Each panic attack was an interesting episode and an insightful read as she struggles with her lizard brain and her heart. Her brother is a total gaming addict while her mom is a Daily Mail addict which resulted in a huge uproar in the family. A huge conflict arises between Frank and Mom when Mom read an article on Daily Mail and finds out that Frank is addicted to gaming. A series of family conflict where Mom and Dad argues over protecting Audrey from the cause of her current situation, and on curbing Frank's addiction to gaming was definitely not helping Audrey either. I was able to draw some parallels when mommy occasionally scolds my brother after reading a certain article on addiction and daddy would be all calm. Thank god, it didn't escalate to throwing the laptop down the balcony or bringing the CPU to yoga classes. (My mom attends yoga lessons too!)

Here's the cliche part: Linus, her potential boyfriend a.k.a Frank's best friend plays a huge role in speeding up Audrey's recovery and mending the broken ties within her family. We all know that this isn't reality. For a fun read, I totally recommend this book and every other Sophie's book. She's the only author that I follow and I blame that on my mommy as she introduced the 'Shopaholic' series to me when I was a lot younger.

The book ended with a simple message- a 14 year old girl who is trying to find her identity after a fall in life. Life is never a straight graph that continues to go up as Audrey wanted. There'll always be ups and downs in life just like how a relapse may occur to a mental patient making a steady recovery.

I'll definitely read this again a few years later! (I'm still a young adult!)