Finding Audrey by Sophie Kinsella

Audiobook, 6 CD's
Release Date: June 9, 2015
Published by: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Read from: January 5-18, 2017 
Stand-alone
Source: Library
For fans of: Inclusive Literature, YA, Contemporary, Romance, LOL, Realistic Fiction 

     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.

*MY THOUGHTS*

     I have been off and on about reading this book since it's release. I'm glad I got around to reading it, but now I'm just as conflicted about how much I liked it as well lol 
     Audrey has an anxiety disorder that interrupts almost everything. She is making progress with her doctor, but then she meets Linus, her brother's friend, who helps her a little bit more. 
     Ok, the entire best thing about this book is the humor. There were so many times I laughed out loud while listening to this. And when I say laughing out loud, I mean literally laughing until I cried. I listen to audiobooks on my way to work and I'm sure that every car I passed thought I was having the best phone call in the entire world or something because of my laughing fits. There was so much to laugh and love about Audrey's family and it really made the book for me.
     Unfortunately, that was really the only thing I just LOVED about this book. I did like Audrey's family, but it seemed to be more about them than her. I mean, Frank seemed like the main character of the story with the LOC and the computer games and such. Audrey seemed sort of like a back story until she "found" Linus. Now Linus didn't "cure"her, but he did help her to become more comfortable by giving her different "challenges" as they called them. And I appreciated that. (But now that I think about it... Was Audrey the background character because she had social anxiety and didn't want to be the center of attention???)
      I also didn't like that we didn't really find out what happened to Audrey. I mean they basically said she "got sick" because of what they did to her, but there were never any specifics. There is a mention of bullying, but with all the talk about it, I still felt a bit left out because I didn't know what happened. Kind of like an inside secret between friends, but there's one friend who doesn't understand. I was that friend who didn't understand and it just got kind of annoying. 
     I can't say that I loved or hated this one, but I did throughly enjoy it. The humor alone was reason enough for me to want to read this again. If only to scare people while I'm driving lol 
Overall, I give this

*There will be no quotes as I was reading this via "audio."

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