Finding Audrey

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

From the bestselling author of the Shopaholic series comes a story of humour, heart and heartache. Finding Audrey is Sophie Kinsella's first novel for teens, sure to appeal to her legions of adult and young adult fans all over the world.

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 . . .

Excerpt provided by Syndetics

OMG, Mum's gone insane. Not normal Mum-insane. Serious insane. Normal Mum-insane: Mum says, "Let's all do this great gluten-free diet I read about in the Daily Mail!" Mum buys three loaves of gluten-free bread. It's so disgusting our mouths curl up. The family goes on strike and Mum hides her sandwich in the flower bed and next week we're not gluten free anymore. That's normal Mum-insane. But this is serious insane. She's standing at her bedroom window, which overlooks Rosewood Close, where we live. No, standing sounds too normal. Mum does not look normal. She's teetering, leaning over the edge, a wild look in her eye. And she's holding my brother Frank's computer. It's balanced precariously on the window ledge. Any minute, it'll crash down to the ground. That's seven hundred pounds' worth of computer. Does she realize this? Seven hundred pounds. She's always telling us we don't know the value of money. She's always saying stuff like "Do you have any idea how hard it is to earn ten pounds?" and "You wouldn't waste that electricity if you had to pay for it." Well, how about earning seven hundred pounds and then deliberately smashing it on the ground? Below us, on the front lawn, Frank is scampering about in his Big Bang Theory T-shirt, clutching his head and gibbering with panic. "Mum." His voice has gone all high-pitched with terror. "Mum, that's my computer!" "I know it's your computer!" Mum cries hysterically. "Don't you think I know that?" "Mum, please, can we talk about this?" "I've tried talking!" Mum lashes back. "I've tried cajoling, arguing, pleading, reasoning, bribing . . . I've tried everything! EVERYTHING, Frank!" "But I need my computer!" "You do not need your computer!" Mum yells, so furiously that I flinch. "Mummy is going to throw the computer!" says Felix, running onto the grass and looking up in disbelieving joy. Felix is our little brother. He's four. He greets most life events with disbelieving joy. A lorry in the street! Ketchup! An extra-long chip! Mum throwing a computer out of the window is just another one on the list of daily miracles. "Yes, and then the computer will break," says Frank fiercely. "And you won't be able to play Star Wars ever again, ever." Felix's face crumples in dismay and Mum flinches with fresh anger. "Frank!" she yells. "Do not upset your brother!" Now our neighbours across the close, the McDuggans, have come out to watch. Their twelve-year-old son, Ollie, actually yells, "Noooo!" when he sees what Mum's about to do. "Mrs. Turner!" He hurries across the street to our lawn and gazes up pleadingly, along with Frank. Ollie sometimes plays Land of Conquerors online with Frank if Frank's in a kind mood and doesn't have anyone else to play with. Now Ollie looks even more freaked out than Frank. "Please don't break the computer, Mrs. Turner," he says, trembling. "It has all Frank's backed-up game commentaries on it. They're so funny." He turns to Frank. "They're really funny." "Thanks," mutters Frank. "Your mum's really like . . ." He blinks nervously. "She's like Goddess Warrior Enhanced Level Seven." "I'm what?" demands Mum. "It's a compliment," snaps Frank, rolling his eyes. "Which you'd know if you played. Level Eight," he corrects Ollie." "Right," Ollie hastily agrees. "Eight." "You can't even communicate in English!" Mum flips. "Real life is not a series of levels!" "Mum, please," Frank chimes in. "I'll do anything. I'll stack the dishwasher. I'll phone Grandma every night. I'll . . ." He casts wildly about. "I'll read to deaf people." Read to deaf people? Can he actually hear what he's saying? "Deaf people?" Mum explodes. "Deaf people? I don't need you to read to deaf people! You're the bloody deaf one around here! You never hear anything I say! You always have those wretched earphones in--" "Anne!" I turn to see Dad joining the fray, and a couple of neighbours are stepping out of their front doors. This is officially a Neighbourhood Incident. "Anne!" Dad calls again. "Let me do this, Chris," says Mum warningly, and I can see Dad gulp. My dad is tall and handsome in a car advert way, and he looks like the boss, but inside, he isn't really an alpha male. No, that sounds bad. He's alpha in a lot of ways, I suppose. Only Mum is even more alpha. She's strong and bossy and pretty and bossy. I said bossy twice, didn't I? Well. Draw your own conclusions from that. "I know you're angry, sweetheart," Dad's saying soothingly. "But isn't this a little extreme?" "Extreme? He's extreme! He's addicted, Chris!" "I'm not addicted!" Frank yells. "I'm just saying--" "What?" Mum finally turns her head to look at Dad properly. "What are you saying?" "If you drop it there, you'll damage the car." Dad winces. "Maybe shift to the left a little?" "I don't care about the car! This is tough love!" She tilts the computer more precariously on the window ledge and we all gasp, including the watching neighbours. "Love?" Frank is shouting up at Mum. "If you loved me you wouldn't break my computer!" "Well, if you loved me, Frank, you wouldn't get up at two a.m. behind my back to play online with people in Korea!" "You got up at two a.m.?" says Ollie to Frank, wide-eyed. "Practicing." Frank shrugs. "I was practicing," he repeats to Mum with emphasis. "I have a tournament coming up! You've always said I should have a goal in life! Well, I have!" "Playing Land of Conquerors is not a goal! Oh God, oh God . . ." She bangs her head on the computer. "Where did I go wrong?" "Oh, Audrey," says Ollie suddenly, spotting me. "Hi, how are you?" I shrink back from my position at my bedroom window in fright. My window is tucked away on a corner, and no-one was meant to notice me. Least of all Ollie, who I'm pretty sure has a tiny crush on me, even though he's two years younger than me and barely reaches up to my chest. "Look, it's the celebrity!" quips Ollie's dad, Rob. He's been calling me "the celebrity" for the last four weeks, even though Mum and Dad have separately been over to ask him to stop. He thinks it's funny and that my parents have no sense of humour. (I've often noticed that people equate "having a sense of humour" with "being an insensitive moron.") This time, though, I don't think Mum or Dad has even heard Rob's oh-so-witty joke. Mum is still moaning "Where did I go wroooong?" and Dad is peering at her anxiously. "You didn't go wrong!" he calls up. "Nothing's wrong! Darling, come down and have a drink. Put the computer down . . . for now," he adds hastily at her expression. "You can throw it out of the window later." Mum doesn't move an inch. The computer is rocking still more precariously on the windowsill, and Dad flinches. "Sweetheart, I'm just thinking about the car . . . We've only just paid it off . . ." He moves towards the car and holds out his hands, as though to shield it from plummeting hardware. "Get a blanket!" says Ollie, springing to life. "Save the computer! We need a blanket. We'll form a circle . . ." Mum doesn't even seem to hear him. "I breast-fed you!" she shrieks at Frank. "I read you Winnie-the-Pooh! All I wanted was a well-rounded son who would be interested in books and art and the outdoors and museums and maybe a competitive sport . . ." "LOC is a competitive sport!" yells Frank. "You don't know anything about it! It's a serious thing! You know, the prize pot in the international LOC competition in Toronto this year is six million dollars!" "So you keep telling us!" Mum erupts. "So, what, you're going to win that, are you? Make your fortune?" "Maybe." He gives her a dark look. "If I get enough practice." "Frank, get real!" Her voice echoes around the close, shrill and almost scary. "You're not entering the international LOC competition, you're not going to win the bloody six-million-dollar prize pot, and you're not going to make your living from gaming! IT'S NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!" Excerpted from Finding Audrey by Sophie Kinsella All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

After suffering horrendous long-term harassment from bullies at school, Audrey suffered an emotional breakdown and is now at home with severe social anxiety, afraid to leave the house, terrified of speaking to anyone outside her family, and wearing dark glasses all the time to avoid looking anyone in the eye. Meanwhile, her well-meaning but shrill mother is constantly getting into screaming matches with Audrey's brother Frank over his excessive video game playing. But therapy and an unexpected relationship with Linus, a kind, funny friend of Frank's who visits the house, help Audrey begin to heal and come out of her shell. Reading as Audrey, Whelan sounds exactly like an adolescent girl. She perfectly conveys the protagonist's conflicting emotions-anxiety, exasperation, hope-and often sounds like she is struggling to put her feelings into words. She also creates distinctive, memorable voices for the other characters: reasonable Dad, overexcitable Mum, sarcastic Frank, adorable four-year-old Felix. With many moments of Kinsella's signature humor to lighten the subject matter, this audiobook will be appreciated by teens, as well anyone suffering from anxiety and the Shopaholic author's many fans. Ages 12-up. A Delacorte hardcover. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

School Library Journal Review

Gr 7 Up-The author of the wildly popular "Shopaholic" series (Dial) for adults, has a surefire winner in her YA debut. Audrey doesn't go to school, wears dark glasses all the time, and rarely leaves her house. Mum and Dad are gently encouraging and helpful and try to assist Audrey in recovering from her debilitating anxiety disorder, for which she has recently been released from hospital care. Brother Frank is a computer gaming fanatic, and four-year-old brother Felix is a cute foil for the drama going on in the rest of the household. Readers are left pondering why is Audrey so anxious-what happened? Kinsella never explicitly reveals what triggered the protagonist's anxiety. The expert and sympathetic depiction of the teen's symptoms and emotions is the strongest part of the novel. Unfortunately, Audrey's rapid recovery once she meets a cute guy rings a bit false, or at least, a too conveniently clichéd, but tweens and teens may enjoy the portrayal of the hasty romance. Sparkling dialogue, carefully developed characters, great parent-child interaction, and a bit of rom-com all join to demonstrate the author's expertise in developing a compelling story. VERDICT A deep and sensitive portrayal of a British teen's recovery from a traumatic experience. Expect requests!-Susan Riley, Mamaroneck Public Library, NY © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

In Kinsella's hotly anticipated YA debut, 14-year-old Audrey is secreting herself from the world. She hides from friends at school and from the prying stares of her neighbors, who jokingly dub her the celebrity, thanks to her reclusive behavior and ever-present dark glasses, which serve as a literal and figurative barrier between Audrey and her surroundings. But she has an intense social-anxiety disorder and can't just turn it off: All the bad stuff happened. And I kind of slid off a cliff. And here I am. Stuck in my own stupid brain. First there was inpatient treatment, and now she meets regularly with Dr. Sarah, who tries to help Audrey work through her inability to literally face the world. But between Dr. Sarah's assignments (like making a family documentary or venturing into Starbucks), the support of her comically dysfunctional parents and brothers, and the affections of darling Linus, Audrey begins to reevaluate her ability to heal. With her trademark wit and sass, Kinsella sensitively broaches the complexities of young adult mental health. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Kinsella's Shopaholic series has long been popular with teens, and her YA debut will likely be just as happening, maybe even among Kinsella's adult readers.--Walters Wright, Lexi Copyright 2015 Booklist

Horn Book Review

Audrey wears dark glasses all of the time, even in the house. But its not out of excessive devotion to her movie-star namesake; its because shes afraid. Of everyone. We learn, incompletely, that some stuff happened to her at school, that three classmates were expelled as a result, and that Audrey herself will be attending a new school come fall. While Kinsella never details the bullying Audrey experienced (which makes its power all the more terrifying), she persuasively charts Audreys gradual healing with the help of an understanding therapist and a boy who, over the course of the story, becomes more than a friend. For those who know Kinsella only from her popular Shopaholic series for adults, this book will seem surprisingly layered and serious. That said, there is plenty of leavening social comedy, mainly delivered via Audreys mother, a loving and scattered parent obsessed with how much time Audreys older brother spends playing video games, who perhaps takes her Daily Mail tabloid reading more to heart than is really good for her: Its all the fault of these evil screens. Some children your age cant even get up off the couch! roger sutton (c) Copyright 2015. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus Book Review

Audrey, 14, is on a long, slow upswing from disabling anxiety disorders that resulted from the vicious abuse of bullies at school. Under the guidance of thoughtful Dr. Sarah, Audrey begins to deal with her inability to make eye contactor even to leave the houseby crafting videos of her quirky, near-farcical family, a nifty narrative device that especially shows off her "twitchy" mom. Audrey's brother Frank is determined to win an online gaming championship with his team, in spite of their mom's frenetic attempts to remake the family based on newspaper advicewhich, sadly for Frank, includes giving up computers. Complicating this is the fact that Frank's team includes sensitive Linus, who delicately, tenderly navigates Audrey's vividly portrayed roadblocks. As their relationship blossoms, Audrey gains both strength and courage. The counterpoint of absurd humor against Audrey's uncertain progress toward healing, graphically depicted in her appealing and slightly ironic first-person voice, is compelling. Since the nature of the bullying is never fully revealed, it can readily represent the experiences of other victims. It's only as the narrative approaches its conclusion that the true source of the dysfunction in Audrey's family is revealed: all of them have become victims in myriad ways. An outstanding tragicomedy that gently explores mental illness, the lasting effects of bullying, and the power of friends and loving family to help in the healing. (Fiction. 12-18) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.