Merry Wanderer of the Night + YA

Just Contemporary Review — Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway

I do not think that I read enough genuinely funny books. I read Audrey, Wait! a few months ago and I seriously cannot get over how funny and awesome and just, basically, perfect this book was.

It's an almost completely unrealistic storyline — Girl has boyfriend. Boyfriend thinks he's going to be a rock star. Girl breaks up with boy. Boy writes chart topping song about girl. Girl's life becomes an absolute mess of fame and paparazzi and annoying suck because gazillions of people now care about the girl who inspired said song.

Chances are, this is never going to happen to you, or to anyone that you know. You might have all the beginning pieces. There are lots of girls with boyfriends, and even a lot who think they are gonna be rock stars. But how many people have a song written about them that makes them famous? And not even a good famous, but that annoying — all we care about is stalking you and finding out what you wear when you eat breakfast — kind of famous. Probably not gonna happen.

So, how is it then, than Benway has taken this idea that, in all likelihood, is never going to happen to anyone you've ever met and made it into this book that everyone can relate to?? Seriously — it's a legit question. Benway is brilliant. Audrey is just such an honestly written character that, even though I will never be able to relate to the actual scenario she finds herself in, the inner teenage Ashley was totally wishing that we could be friends. Audrey's voice was just so... real. I don't even know how to honestly do justice to this book. It was just so much of the awesome.

The other characters in this book were just as dimensional, and just as well written. Her best friend is initially that best friend that everyone wants, that person who totally gets you and knows what you are thinking almost before you do, that you can tell anything to, do anything with and life between you is pretty much always perfect (until that major humdinger of a fight that you think will never end but ends because you both have really great news and fighting is stupid...) . But as Audrey's fame grows, I felt that the BFF started losing sight of all of that. She's still trying to be a great friend, but she stopped being tuned into what Audrey wanted and instead pushed ahead what she thought Audrey should want, and that kinda pissed me off.

The new boy was also awesomely cute and I just loved watching their relationship start to develop. Her parents were pretty much normal parents too, which is awesome. They are active and interested in Audrey's life, but not over zealous or insane about it (although, once people start stalking her, they naturally become more so) but it is really refreshing to read about parents in a YA novel that could have been mine. And really, although I do know that there are a lot of really crappy parents out there, my experience with life has taught me that most parents really are trying to do the best they can. No parent is perfect, but most of them are awful, nasty, crazy-faces either.

Everything about this book just made me smile inside. From the constant music references (which did make me wish I was more into music than I am) to the snarky inner voice of Audrey to the ridiculous and crazy situations she found herself in over and over, I loved this book. And while the storyline itself was hilarious, the really brilliance of this book is Audrey herself. Watching her grow as a person and watching her understanding of what is truly important in life change was something I absolutely loved. Great character growth is essential for me to love a book and I thought it to be wonderfully done in this book. And not just Audrey grew as a person either. There was a lot of change and development in this story and I loved watching it.

It's a book with layers. Pulling apart those layers and discovering the deeper parts to the story is something that I loved and will definitely read this book again. Discovering depth while laughing your face off isn't something to be taken lightly and this is definitely a book I will recommend lots and lots and read again and again.

Read it. Because dude, it rocks.

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Just Contemporary Review — Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway + YA