Review: Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway

As part of my Music Book Mosh Pit Week I put out a request to all my twitter and blogging buddies for books they recommended I should read.  Audrey, Wait! was given a big shout out to me (mainly from Carla from The Crooked Shelf who vouched for its awesomeness and she is not a lady that is easily swayed).  All I can say is that Carla; THANK YOU SO BLOODY MUCH!  This book was freaking amazing and is quite possible made of awesome sauce but I have yet to taste the pages to check this.  The story starts with the real driving force behind this whole adventure.  After much thought, Audrey decides to break up with her band obsessive boyfriend, Evan, and it’s those few minutes before his biggest gig to date that kicks starts all the drama.  Evan writes a song called ‘Audrey, Wait!’ and it’s good; better than good.  Great in fact and it leads to his band being signed and suddenly not only is everyone, everywhere hearing and playing the song but they also know exactly who it’s about and that Audrey is THE Audrey.

With this unwanted fame comes many possibilities to see gigs and people Audrey could only dream of but also means that everyone and his mum wants to meet her, have an opinion about her dumping Evan and made her the target for national and even international attention.  What a blooming nightmare when all you want is to go to school, get through another day at your part time job and see some of your favourite bands live.  Supported by her parents, her best friend Victoria and her boyfriend Jonah and Audrey’s co-worker James that is really shyer than he liked to be,  Audrey faces the wrath of mean guys, tween fans, media outlets and the fame hungry that want to use her and be seen around her .  

This book is just me.  I kid you not my friends.  I was reading this and just couldn’t explain just how much I agreed and felt for Audrey.  Though I’ve never had a rock star write a song about me (yet; I’m working on it lol) but all her love of music and even down to the way Robin Benway describes how Audrey experiences music and the physical sensations that go along with it.  I could literally place myself at the gigs with Audrey and Vicky and knew that it is EXACTLY how things happen and how you feel; well it’s how I feel about music and that buzz I get from it. 

This book is sprinkled with band references and popular culture big hitters like MTV and the Billboard 100 and this adds to the reality factor because these are institutions that we know and can relate to even if you don’t know all the bands and song titles.  My favourite quality about this book is Audrey herself.  It’s pretty obvious that this story is all about here and from her point of view but really Audrey is just your average music loving teenager that is thrust into fame that practically could happen with the rise of the internet making fame so easily gained and public opinion so easily swayed from day to day.  She understand Audrey who just wants a normal existence, takes advantage of some of the perks put upon her and sulk and throw a fit when the bad times happen.  Ask any teenager, anywhere if they want to be famous with little effort and they’d likely say yes (or at least they wouldn’t say no straight away) and yet the one thing you want when you’re growing up is to be normal whilst being astonishing.  

Audrey, Wait! is like a mixtape of coolness and funny at a level that has you snorting loudly and then hoping no one noticed.  To quote one of my favourite rocker Gerard Way: ‘Heroes are ordinary people who make themselves extraordinary’ and this is exactly how I’d describe Audrey and Robin Benway’s Audrey, Wait!; Ordinary Girl that makes herself Extraordinary in Extraordinary situations.  She becomes a hero because she is just being Audrey no matter what happens to her or around her.  Also; do yourself a favour and YouTube all the bands and songs in this book because they are freaking sweet and deserve Audrey’s praise more than I can tell you.

Rating: 10/10

Published by Hodder Children's Books and is available here and in book shops now

 

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