Stand-Alone
Sophie Kinsella
Young Adult Contemporary
288 pages, Paperback
4th June 2015 by Doubleday's Children
Goodreads Ratings : 3.87/5
My Rating : 3.9/5
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.
Be prepared to laugh, dream and hope with Audrey as she learns that even when you feel like you have lost yourself, love can still find you . . .
From Goodreads
I was first
introduced to Sophie Kinsella with her Can You Keep A Secret? book back in 2010 and ever since then she has
been my auto-read/auto-buy author. Can You Keep A Secret? and I’ve Got Your
Number are the two books I have and will always recommend to everyone. They’re
just THAT good. (So if you haven’t read any of those books, YOU ARE MISSING OUT
A LOT ! GO BUY AND READ IT NOW !!!)
When Finding
Audrey was first exposed to the world, I was ecstatic ! The cover is insanely
genius ! The greenish turquoise colour is so beautiful ! If this hasn’t been
Kinsella’s book, I would still buy it and make it one of my cover-buy-books.
Finding Audrey is
about a 14yo girl named Audrey who suffers from an anxiety disorder caused by a
tragic experience in her school. Anxiety disorder or
any disorder at all in YA books are often being portrayed as a dark topic. Like
the one who suffers from it will be an
emotional, depressed and a brooding character with all their dark and deep
thoughts but not Audrey. And that is
very very refreshing. By the time the book started, Audrey is already in a recovery
state and she has had a few sessions with her therapist. She still has her
episodes but she faces and controls them with maturity. And she knows how to
have a good laugh !
And then comes her family. Audrey’s family is
insanely chaotic ! I don’t think chaotic even covers it. Her mom is crazy and obsessed and loud and
from a growing teenager’s view aka ME, she is VERY VERY irritating. I’m so
thankful that shes not my mom. Honest to God, I cant stand her !
“The thing about Mum is, she doesn’t know
what she’s talking about. I don’t mean that in a bad way. It’s just, no adults
do. They’re totally ignorant, but they’re in control. It’s nuts.”
But I really really like her older brother,
Frank. Hes my favourite character here. Often in YA and NA books where
there is siblings relation involved, the older brother is either too annoying
and doesn’t care about his other siblings or too protective, too funny, too
dreamy etc etc which make it seems unreal. Frank and Audrey’s relationship is
very normal. He seems very teenagerish (considering hes only 15) but he gives
enough of the older brother vibe. He supports Audrey and he is very very witty
and funny !
"You teenagers need sleep. You should be sleeping 14 hours a night"
"Fourteen hours?" we both stare at her.
"Mum, even comatose people don't sleep 14 hours a night," says Frank.
Only thing though, the whole family matters is given too much spotlight on that the real problem, which is Audrey, is sometimes pushed back to make way for Frank and their mother. Its fun and entertaining to read at first but too much of it is not good. It gets on my skin, really.
Within the pages,
Audrey comes to know a guy named Linus who soon becomes her boyfriend. They are
not Lara Jean and Peter K kinda ‘cute and sweet ‘ but its good enough to make
me smile. *Cute Alert* The Coconut Ice Cream scene is SUPER cute !!! And here comes another problem; lets get real here, everyone. Having a boyfriend isnt going to solve any of your illness. Full stop. You cant just go on a lot of cute dates and have a few advise or help given by your boyfriend then BOOM ! No more panic attacks ! No. It bugs me a lot actually when Audrey recovers way too fast. It doesnt seem real.
The thing about Audrey’s panic attack is, the cause for
why its happened is never revealed. We are a given a few clue but not the whole
story. It’s a major plot hole seriously. As a reader, I am not satisfied. WHAT THE HELL
HAPPENED SERIOUSLY ? I keep on telling myself to wait but here I am, already on
the last page yet Im still clueless.
“We don’t have to
reveal everything to each other. That’s another thing Ive learned in therapy :
Its okay to be private. Its okay to say NO. Its okay to say, ‘Im not going to
share that.’ So if you don’t mind, lets just leave it there”
Problem is; I DO
MIND.
I understand that
Kinsella is giving Audrey the upper hand. Like its Audrey’s story so she has
the right to not let people know what has happened to her until shes ready
(which she never is, considering its never revealed in the book). Yes, some
things are better left kept a secret and let it stay in the past, but im afraid this doesn’t fall into that
category. And that’s a real bummer.
Knowing Kinsella, her books has always been
light, hilarious, bright and that’s exactly
what Finding Audrey is. Its easy and fast-paced too. I like it, but I dont really love it like i expected I would. But its not wrong to give it a try. Except for a few parts, its highly enjoyable ! You would find yourself laughing and cackling at Kinsella's humour, trust me ! If anything, I would say that this is one refreshing YA mental illness themed read
"I think what I've realised is, life is all about climbing up, slipping down and picking yourself up again, And it doesn't matter if you slip down. As long as you're kind of heading more or less upwards" - Audrey, Finding Audrey
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