By Robin Benway
Source: Library
My Rating: 4 / 5
Continuing my foray into contemporary YA, I recently read some good reviews of this book and decided to pick it up from the library. Here is the summary from Goodreads:
California high school student Audrey Cuttler dumps self-involved Evan, the lead singer of a little band called The Do-Gooders. Evan writes, βAudrey, Wait!β a break-up song thatβs so good it rockets up the billboard charts. And Audrey is suddenly famous!
Now rabid fans are invading her school. People is running articles about her arm-warmers. The lead singer of the Lolitas wants her as his muse. (And the Internet is documenting her every move!) Audrey can’t hang out with her best friend or get with her new crush without being mobbed by fans and paparazzi.
Take a wild ride with Audrey as she makes headlines, has outrageous amounts of fun, confronts her ex on MTV, and gets the chance to show the world who she really is.
I loved this book! It was really funny, and a very fun, easy read.
It all begins when Audrey dumps her boyfriend Evan then goes to see his band’s show, where he announces their break up and debuts a new song, called Audrey, Wait! The song is all about their break up and, to Audrey’s surprise, is really good. Suddenly it’s on the local college radio station, then the bigger radio stations, then it’s climbing the Billboard charts. Everyone in school has heard it, and then reporters and paparazzi start hounding Audrey. Her life is turned upside down, all because of this song.
I thought this was a really interesting idea for a book! At first Audrey didn’t think the impact on her life would be that big, but it turns out that when your personal life becomes a major hit song, a lot of people suddenly care about what you do, what you wear, and where you go. I genuinely felt bad for Audrey as things got progressively worse and more complicated (her relationship with her best friend, her parents, and her cute co-worker who she may or may not have a crush on were all affected).
Even though the book came out a few years ago (2008, according to Goodreads), I think it was a great example of the way gossip and rumours can spread so fast via today’s technology. Audrey was the subject of a lot of hurtful and false rumours, and read some pretty nasty stuff that people posted about her online. If that’s even a smidge of what it must be like to be famous, and to have everyone watching and then commenting on your every move, I don’t know how people survive that!
This book was so funny. Audrey had this great sarcastic sense of humour and had a very distinct voice. I kept laughing out loud while I was reading this. I also loved that she was so into music. It was clearly so important to her (and I admired her taste in music – we like some of the same bands).Β The ending was perfect – I felt like Audrey got to finally take back some control of her own life, and I had a huge smile on my face while reading it.
I definitely recommend this book!
