INASTUDIOUS

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Shopaholic series comes a terrific blend of comedy, romance, and psychological recovery in a contemporary YA novel sure to inspire and entertain.

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.

Review:
 
After years of creating Adult novels, Sophie Kinsella finally created a Young Adult one. When I found out about this, this was my reaction:

I really really liked the way it was written. Like, literally. It was the Kinsella's first work of YA and it surprised me how good she was at it. I felt like the 14-year-old me would be saying the same things at the same time when faced with the same situations. Just, minus the anxiety things. There would be minor spoilers here and there, so if you haven't read it, I suggest you should just jump to the last paragraph.

The main character and narrator was a 14-year-old girl named Audrey who was struggling with an anxiety disorder. She wore black glasses ALL THE TIME because she didn't like the idea of making eye contact with people, any people for that matter. She wore it in her house and let's face it, she didn't go outside very much, but when she did she still wore them. However, when Linus, a friend of her brother came to her house and tried to talk to her, she didn't know what to react. Sure, he was cute, but he was also a person! A person who liked to talk and touch and make eye contact and there was no way she could ever do that. But, slowly but sure, he found his way to her heart and helped her getting through her anxiety.

I know I kind of made it sound like Linus was the one who cured her, but it was no such thing. Audrey was the one who could possibly cure herself, Linus was just there encouraging her along the way. She went through her medication and doctor appointments and when the doctor told her to make a project so she could try to overcome her anxiety, Linus was there to help her do it. That was pretty much what he did.

I also loved the characters in this book. Audrey was adorable in her own quirky way. She didn't entirely shut herself out from society, but more like TRYING so hard to make herself normal so she could mingle with people. She was just struggling with her anxiety and that was the only thing preventing her from doing so.

Linus was also great! I seriously loved him. He was sweet, funny, and he understood what Audrey was going through and he tried his best to help her. He was the one who deepened their relationship without rushing anything. He was practically the only person who could touch Audrey and she would never flinch. I think maybe he'd been interested in Audrey since the first time he saw her and that was why he decided to approach her. And that was what made it even cuter. He didn't just approach her and get to know her like some cheesy guy on cheesy romance novels. He actually found a way to make her feel comfortable with him and not flinch or freak out to contact him. And I just find their interactions so ADORABLE. They do this 'shoe-touching' at first, and then 'thumb-touching' and so on and so on. 

Audrey's brother, Frank, was a gamer. He was really addicted to video games. He woke up at 1 a.m. to play online games so he could train his skills with people from Korea. The first and last thing he did in a whole day was playing online games and he never even considered himself as addicted. But, other than that, he was a nice brother. He was protective over Audrey and even though he tried not to show it, he cared about Audrey so much.

The thing that made me laugh so incredibly hard throughout the book was Audrey's mom, Anne. She was hilarious! She was like this mom who watched too much soap operas and read too many tabloids, and apparently, she believed all of them.

Unfortunately, there were also a lot of blind spots in this novel. Like, that part when she and the people in the book kept telling us that there was something REALLY bad happened to her that made her quit school and become this girl with dark glasses. But, did they tell us what that something really is? NO. At first, I was like, oh cool it's ok, maybe I would find it out later in the book. But, NO Kinsella decided to keep it a secret and just pretend that we all just sort of figure it out by ourselves. I mean, yes, I know she was bullied but really? Any details, please?

And then. Another thing that perplexed me. 

The title was FINDING AUDREY. But, there were only like 1 or 2 chapters that ACTUALLY consisted of looking for Audrey. Well, I didn't know if the title meant 'finding' in a subtle kind of ways like finding her true self beneath the glasses or whatever but I still think that was a huge weak point.

And there were also phrases that made me frown.And there were also phrases that made me frown. She jumps A MILE everytime something shocks her. Well, not everytime, but it happened more than once or twice so, I mean, what? You wanted me to visualize her jumping with her feet floating a few inches on air or what? I actually visualized her just flinch though. So, problem solved.

Finding Audrey is a novel about a girl with anxiety disorder who's trying to overcome her illness with the help of love and her family. While it has many weak points, it is still a tolerable read for Kinsella's debut in Young Adult.