Cute young adult book with a good message ( )

Questo è il primissimo romanzo che leggo di Sophie Kinsella: ero un po' preoccupata perché non si sa mai bene cosa possono avere in serbo questi libercoli leggeri, ma direi che Dov'è finita Audrey? ha superato la (mia) prova.

Premettendo che non sono un’esperta di psichiatria e dintorni, mi è sembrato che, da parte dell’autrice, ci fosse una gran ricerca a monte sulla fobia sociale, il disturbo d’ansia generalizzato e gli episodi depressivi, la condizione psicologica che la protagonista, Audrey, si trova ad affrontare dopo essere stata vittima di bullismo a scuola.

Certo, tutto questo è inserito in un romanzo dai toni lievi e con personaggi che frequentano abitualmente chick-lit e YA, ma Kinsella non perde mai di vista il rispetto che si deve a certe tematiche. Anzi. Con un espediente letterario che ho apprezzato molto, Kinsella fa sì che non ci sia spazio per le ragioni, le scuse e le giustificazioni delle bulle: l’intero romanzo è concentrato su Audrey, sulle sue difficoltà e i suoi successi. Niente colpevolizzazione della vittima qui.

Un altro aspetto che ho apprezzato molto è stata la gestione dell’elemento amoroso tra Audrey e Linus. Si inizia pericolosamente con un insta-love, smorzato appena da una conoscenza pregressa, ma si prosegue con lentezza e, soprattutto, senza che l’ammore guarisca Audrey con i suoi dolci poteri taumaturgici. Qui l’hai scampata bella, Kinsella…

In conclusione, consiglio Dov'è finita Audrey? a tutt* i/le adolescenti là fuori: so che la copertina italiana suscita una consistente dose di scetticismo (vi capisco, io per prima detesto il rosa), ma vi assicuro che il romanzo non è affatto così rosa. ( )

This book made me feel uncomfortable.

Finding Audrey by Sophie Kinsella is a book about a teenager named Audrey. This girl has an anxiety disorder that makes her life difficult, especially because of the past incidents that led to the disorder. She has a dysfunctional family as well that takes the spotlight in this book. And then there is Linus - her brother Frank's friend whom Audrey may be beginning to like and using the opportunity of friendship to get out of her shell.

One word describes this book to me: Eeek.

I am the weird person standing out in the crowd since I didn't enjoy this book. To me, this book felt like a mix of romance with toxicity. I could tell this book was trying to bring forth a different view of anxiety and connect with audiences but it just didn't with me. It felt like the book was trying to shove the anxiety down our throats and almost give a "friendship and romance can fix all yay" with an abusive and toxic Mother to boot.

I felt for Audrey and really connected with her. I have had some struggles with anxiety so I can relate and empathize about how difficult it can be to overcome hurdles or feel like you can't overcome them. I understand how high school can be awful and how people are mean. I can relate to having a dysfunctional family and trying to learn to navigate the world through that. Because of some of these ties, I felt like this book didn't hit the mark and felt super insensitive. But that's my personal opinion.

Let's not even get started about how the Mother is a screaming, insane psychopath who is basically abusing her son. You destroyed his computer? Those are expensive. Hide it or leave it at a relatives. Oh, that's how he connects with friends and you now have made it so none of his friends will ever talk to him again? What great parenting. She's abusive. She's toxic. And honest to God it's not okay. It's not funny. It's not cool. It was made to be that she's loving and kind but just cruel. Not. Okay.

Overall, this book was not for me. I can understand why some people think it's a romantic comedy with anxiety but it felt way too insensitive to me.

One out of five stars. ( )

Much more importantly than this being her first voyage into young adult literature, this is Sophie Kinsella's first step into something more than the fun and flirty but relatively shallow books she's previously published.

Audrey is not your typical Kinsella character. She doesn't care about shopping or appearances and she has no issues with her credit card bills. However, she's just as powerful. And she still made me laugh quite a bit.

This wasn't just about Audrey though; instead, it was more about the entire family, a less than cohesive unit. I felt almost as invested in Frank, Audrey's older brother, as I did her, and I was in love with her four-year-old brother Felix.

I adored how she initially is able to communicate with someone she's not comfortable with through writing notes. A lot of people could relate to this and though I haven't suffered from anxiety disorder I think this could be inspiring in a way.

The way she began thinking about other people was very touching. Her mother had given up a lot to take care of her and it was fascinating to see how Audrey reacted when she realized that she may have been a little wrapped up in herself.

I'm forever curious as to what happened. But I'll survive.

This wasn't necessarily as fun of a read as I expected it to be, but it made up for this in tackling things that actually matter.
( )

4.5. I really, really enjoyed this and I'm glad I finally picked it up. ( )