Review: Who is Audrey Wickersham?
Who is Audrey Wickersham? by Sara Shrieves
My rating: [rating=4]
Summary:
I know everything that’s happened is my fault. I try to tell myself that it’s okay, I never wanted a normal life to begin with. But then I think about who’s been hurt, and I wish that I could go back to the beginning. Back to when I was just a nobody wandering the halls of my high school, alone and unnoticed. Back to when I was completely oblivious to what killing somebody felt like.
You have to understand though, I had no choice.
Review:
(Book provided by the author through ARR #63 in the We ♥ YA Books! group, in exchange for an honest review.)
This novel was a fast and funny read as far as I’m concerned; I wouldn’t put it in my all-time favourites, but it definitely made me smile more than once, for its main character and her quirks first. Audrey’s misfortune is absolutely appaling, yet she has somewhat of a humorous way of telling about it, when her attitude could’ve been much more angst-ridden (and thus probably more difficult to stand in the long run—that may be because I’m myself the kinf of person who’s cry for five minutes, then throw in bad jokes all the time just to deflect the fear and pain). She’s also determined to take things into her own hands (even though this leads her to other mishaps), and not to let other people only try to figure out a solution.
Another thing I appreciated is the role played by her father: in a lot of novels, the protagonist’s parents often get shoved out of the way very quickly, and the teenagers left to their own devices. Here, her father is clearly part of the plot, with a fierce desire to help and protect, proving his love for his daughter by the simple fact that, for starters, he’s not rejecting her. And let’s not forget Bruce, who I absolutely loved for his own quirks.
What may or may not undo this book for a lot of readers, I think, is its ‘over the top/cheesy slash movie’ feeling—in that either you like such tropes, or you don’t. I’m usually at ease with those, especially when they’re used on purpose, which seems to be the case here; but I suppose this would deter other people from enjoying this story. There was also Kirk’s matter: the characters suffers, in my opinion, from being introduced too fast for who he is, and he would be more enjoyable if the reader could get to know him better before that.
I originally gave 3 stars to this novel, but truly, it was more like 3.5, and now that I’m writing this review, I’ve decided to up it to 4. It *was* a very entertaining story, and I like the author’s take on zombies and on how they come to be created.