Book review - Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway

The day Audrey broke up with her boyfriend, he wrote The Song. A song about their breakup. The song is a huge success, suddenly his band the Do-Gooders are famous and everyone wants to know more about the mysterious Audrey. She’s thrust into the spotlight, even at school people are acting differently towards her, as though she’s an actual celebrity. But the thing is, Audrey doesn’t want to be famous. All she did was break up with her boyfriend and now it seems as if half the world hates her for it. What people forget is that they don’t know anything about her. Only her name.

Wow. This is one of those books that makes you happy. In fact, I think it could be the ultimate comfort read. It’s witty, fast-paced, has an interesting plot, and had me laughing out loud a lot. The star of Audrey, Wait is definitely Audrey herself. I don’t think I’ve ever read a more lively, funny, confident main character. (For liveliness equivalent, think Em in Finding Cassie Crazy) Audrey and her best friend Victoria have some great dialogue that makes me remember how great being sixteen was. It also makes me want to be friends with them. A lot.

Yes ok, the plot is a little far-fetched – I don’t think you’d get nearly as famous as Audrey does if someone wrote a song about you, but then again she avoids the press and that would make them far more interested in her. It’s also handled very cleverly. The plot and characters are a bit larger than life, but at the same time, the writing somehow makes it all seem realistic. Audrey handles her breakup and rise to fame surprisingly maturely. Her relationships, especially with ex-boyfriend Evan, are far more layered than I expected.

The biggest problem I had with the book though is the editing. I don’t know, maybe it’s because punctuation rules are different in the US and it got a little scrambled in the translation, but it seemed little someone let a little kid loose with the punctuation marks. Example:

‘totally humiliate the rest of us, who just want, to say how much we love, the music and how much it means, to us.’

Does that look right to anyone? Because it kept distracting me trying to work out if I was reading it wrong, but to me I don’t think that quote needs more than one comma.

Apart from the confusing punctuation thing though, I loved this book so much. I can’t really explain how good this book is, or find a quote because every time I look for one I want to copy a whole page. And then I keep on reading and forget I’m meant to be writing a review. Go and get yourself a copy right now!