3 lacking realism stars!
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.
I have a lot of mixed feelings about this book. I have a very close association to the things that Audrey is going to go through anxiety attacks and depression. While I admire Sophie Kinsella for trying to bring such a heavy topic into a novel some parts were lacking for me.
The things I did like about the novel Audrey’s younger brother and his ability to lighten any dark moment. I adore the fact that her whole family supports her through this. Figuring out half way through that her mom basically quit her job to support Audrey through this. I enjoyed her brother Frank and how he obsessed with video games and how his mom was obsessed with him being obsessed. Her family is really off their rocker most of the time, however you get to see little blips into how much they actually love each other. The camera idea as a journal was a good idea.The sessions with the therapist were very nice but would’ve liked the therapist to have been more forward with her disorder instead of sometimes sugar coating it. How the therapist was explaining the ups and downs of her disorder and how Audrey just wanted to go up no downs. Who could not like Linus?? I loved Linus I really enjoyed how he backed Audrey up and didn’t push her boundaries unless she was comfortable with it. I was so terrified that he was going to be a set back for her but he just kept her moving forward.
I do not like how the book insinuates that her disorder is just a blip in her life. Anxiety and depression are life long struggles not just a blip. She will have to manage this for the rest of her life. I feel like maybe if it was mentioned in therapy that this will be something she can manage forever then it would’ve been better. Maybe it was just because she was trying to hit a certain age range of teenager to say if you are going through this you are not alone… but if she was trying to reach more than that it may have backfired. I am also really not a fan of the only reason she see’s the light at the end of a tunnel is because she has fallen for a boy. Yes he could help her through the journey but the story makes it like he is the reason for her becoming well.
I may be alone in my feelings for this book being so meh.. I noticed on GoodReads and Amazon it had higher ratings. This just wasn’t the book for me.
alwaysbooking 