Finding Audrey

I had no idea this was a YA novel when I picked it up, but hey, I love a good YA book, so my slightly negative review isn't based on that at all. It just that, for a story about social anxiety and depression, this book seemed far too simple. Kinsella's usual fun chicklit books have more layers than this one, and that doesn't feel right. I didn't want it to be morbidly miserable and depressing, but you hardly get any sense of how debilitating mental illness can be, since it all seems to be so easily solved in this story. It's not quite so simple as “Audrey gets a boyfriend and hey presto, she's cured!”, but it veers close to that.

Having said that, the family and Linus (the boyfriend) were really well-drawn and interesting. Kinsella's a good writer. But I had to go for two stars (It was OK) on this one because I just had too many problems with it to say “I liked it”, though I enjoyed it while I was reading it.