Audacious

By Gabrielle Prendergast

Sixteen-year-old Raphaelle says the wrong thing, antagonizes the wrong people and has the wrong attitude.

She can't do anything right except draw, but she draws the wrong pictures. When her father moves the family to a small prairie city, Raphaelle wants to make a new start. Reborn as "Ella," she tries to fit in at her new school. She's drawn to Samir, a Muslim boy in her art class, and expresses her confused feelings in explicit art. When a classmate texts a photo of Ella's art to a younger friend, the fallout spreads throughout Ella's life, threatening to destroy her already-fragile family. Told entirely in verse, Audacious is a brave, funny and hard-hitting portrait of a girl who embodies the word audacity.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
• Release date: Oct 1, 2013
• ISBN: 9781459802667

Gabrielle Prendergast

Gabrielle Prendergast has written many books for young people, including the BC Book Prize–winning Zero Repeat Forever, the Westchester Award winner Audacious, and the first two instalments in the Faerie Woods series in the Orca Currents line, The Crosswood and The Wherewood. She lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, with her family.

Book preview

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Reviews for Audacious

[jessica5_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I've never actually gone out on a mission to read a novel in verse- they just seem to find me. When I read The Language Inside by Holly Thompson, I had no idea it was in verse but ended up loving the story. I'm not at all surprised that the same exact things happened with Audacious...Raphaelle has never let herself fit into what others want. Instead, she is who she wants to be, especially when it comes to her art. But when it comes time for Raphaelle and her family to move, she reinvents herself as Ella, the girl who isn't going to be the "bad girl" anymore. Knowing Ella, though, she can't ever do the right thing. Ella can't resist Samir, the muslim boy from her art class, and she can't resist testing the limits with her art. She might have taken things too far this time, though, and finds herself having to face a harsh reality in an even harsher world. Boy is Ella (Raphaelle? Not sure what to call her at this point...) audacious. Bold. Daring. She's the kind of person I kind of wish I could be sometimes. She's not afraid to be who she wants and do what she wants, which is really inspiring. She falls in love with a muslim boy? Well, love's love. Sadly, though, the world is such a harsh critic and Ella soon finds it's not always the right thing, or the easy thing, to live the life she's happiest with. Ella goes through so much in this novel that I almost forgot I was reading a novel in verse. There's things about race, religion, disabilities, marriage, eating disorders, and on and on and on. Yet it's told in such a beautiful way. Seriously, if I could write like Gabrielle Prendergast wrote, I'd be writing books left and right. Everything she wrote and how she created her characters were so perfect and I loved every second of the book. All of the characters were all different, yet fit perfectly into the story. You've got Ella's asthmatic sister who always seems to fit in, Samir the boyfriend, Samir's family, Ella's parents, the two girls from school, the art teacher, and so many more that the story gives you glimpses of. You get so much out of this book and I love how it's not all about one single character, but the lives of all of the characters in her world as well. Overall, this book was great. The verse was beautiful and the story was touching. There are serious issues that are dealt with, but there are also some lighter moments of simple teenage life. Ella is a great character who is unique and definitely fun to read about. If you're a fan of verse, and even if you're hesitant to try out that genre, I'd recommend checking out Audacious. And then check out the next book Capricious when it comes out. I know I will!

[yamamura_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Gabrielle Prendergast writes in an authentic voice of young person struggling to find herself. The story is a series of poems that follows her through her moving to a new school, new relationships and old family issues. I found myself cheering for her bravery and cringing when the choices she makes leads her into trouble. Raphaelle feels like a real person. She is beautiful, warts and all. She also speaks to the outsider in all of us. I am looking forward to Capricious.One other note, I really really like the short poem about Snowflakes. I believe it is a haiku though I have not counted the syllables to confirm that.

[kayla3194 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love novels in verse and Audacious stands out in its own right because of Raphaelle, our wonderful leading lady. Every character in this book has his or her own flaws, including Raphaelle. She wants to fit in. She wants to get over the past. She wants to ignore everything that's wrong with her family so that she can focus on fixing herself instead. Sometimes she makes the wrong choices. Sometimes things turn out horribly for her. But she's real, and fun to read, and I couldn't wait to read on and see what else was going to happen with her.I do think that this book tried to take on a lot of issues all at once and maybe it got stretched a little too thin in places. That's about the only complaint that I can think of because, otherwise, it was so beautifully written and captivating that I didn't care much about how long it dwelt on a particular plot point or feature.I read the summary a while ago, just before I got the book, and didn't reread it beforehand. That gave Ella's story a little more suspense because I genuinely couldn't tell where the plot might have been going. Ella is trying to figure herself out and I liked how I as the reader was also trying to do the same thing, looking through her thoughts and actions and trying to determine what had happened to her in the past and why she acts and thinks rebelliously when at the same time some part of her just wants to blend into the background and be normal. I feel like everybody has these two warring sides within them, though in Ella it's more obvious a problem than it is for most people.There were so many great characters in this book-Samir and his sister, Ella's art teacher and her disabled daughter, Ella's entire family-that I can still remember clearly and who all had an impact on Ella's way of thinking. She changed because of or in spite of people and I think I learned something along with her.This is a quick read even though it contains several issues within it. I'd recommend it to anyone, including people who love verse novels or who are looking for a quick, insightful read.

[bucketofrhymes · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Okay, I hate to be that person who gives a book a low rating because of a little thing that ruined it for me. But it wouldn't be an honest review otherwise, so let's do this.

Audacious, you had me. The main character -- who is equal parts artistic, techie, and feminist. The plot, which deals with body shaming, personal autonomy, art and artistic expression, racism, religious beliefs, and more. The writing, which is gorgeous and poetic. I don't normally go for novels in verse, but this one pulled me right in.

And then I got to Ella's art project, which centres around a vagina as a determining factor of who is and isn't a woman, that thing that we all apparently have in common.

That doesn't sit right with me, for a couple of reasons. For starters, there's the existence of transgender people. You absolutely do not need a vagina to be a woman, and thinking that way excludes a lot of awesome ladies. Secondly, even from a cisgender perspective, I mean, I prefer not to be reduced to what's between my legs. I'm more than a body part.

And yeah, yeah, the main character is in high school. I don't expect her to have some nuanced understanding of gender -- I sure as hell didn't back then. But having a pivotal part of the plot be about anatomy being what all women have in common? That felt unnecessary.

So, much as it pains me to say because I love the rest of it, this really wasn't the book for me.

[sullywriter_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

There's an awful lot of issues packed into this one story but the author manages them all well. An engrossing YA story that will certainly appeal to fans of Sonya Sones and Ellen Hopkins.

[lms8esmith · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Audacious had a promising beginning, but somewhere along the way, I felt lost. The premise of Raphaella reinventing herself seemed to drive the plot; however, I do not think the reader finds out what she did that was so horrible soon enough. The verses were good, and a few even had great rhyme schemes, but the subjects discussed in this novel did not tie together nicely. I began to rewrite the book in my head instead of focusing on what was happening with the plot. Some mature high school students may like this book, but I just felt that this could have been much better.

[bornbookish · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Being an artist myself, I thought it would be easy for me to connect with and understand Ella. Unfortunately, this didn't happen. I just couldn't see where she was coming from at all. Including a naked picture of herself in a school art show and frankly, not caring what happened in response. The thing is, it seemed like this wasn't the first time Ella had done something like that. I got the impression that her artwork had caused problems before. I feel like she just wanted the attention, whether good or bad and didn't really think of how her decisions affected others.Her love interest, Samir, is also an artist but again, I just wasn't able to connect with him either. For a main character, he felt really distant to me throughout the whole book.Religion is also a large topic in this story. Ella's family is Catholic, while Samir's family is Muslim. Both characters are struggling with their faith, what they believe, who they believe in, or if they even believe anything at all. Personally, I didn't like the way religion was portrayed as this burden that both characters were trying to escape from. However, I respected the fact that the author didn't shy away from religion like most YA books do.While this book wasn't a good match for me, I do think a lot of others will enjoy it. Especially fans of Ellen Hopkins and other books with heavier, more controversial subject matter.

[andreablythe · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

"I'm wary of themTheir glossy lips hide sharp fangsAnd I have been bittenOne too many times."After a spat of problems at previous schools, Raphaelle decides to remake herself at her new school as Ella, a good girl who fits in and doesn't say or do the wrong things. But her plan is short lived. The popular girls are quick to mock her and she finds that her audacious self soon shines through. She makes friends with Samir, a Muslim boy in her art class, she is drawn to. Each of them is pulled aside to make an art piece for the student art competition, and each comes up with a society challenging piece of art that evoke their frustration with their lives and the world, drawing a considerable amount of controversy and problems. This novel is written in free verse and in some cases this means prose broken up into lines and stanzas. However, Prendergast does a good job of making each poem feel whole within itself and presents some good poetry in the mix of telling the story. “The weight of that nameIs sometimes a mountainWith a cave of secretsAnd sometimes a featherFloating on a puff of air”I didn't expect to like this story as much as I did. I didn't expect events to take the turns they did or the characters to be as fully fleshed out as they were. I have to say it was a very pleasant surprise.

[cindyxiii · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Raphaelle and her family have just moved. Raphaelle will attend a new school and meet new people. She has always been an outcast so this time she plans to re-invent herself.She becomes Ella.Things aren't going as smoothly as she hoped. Her art teacher, Ms. Sagal, asks her and Samir to paint something for the winter art show. Ella decides to express herself in a way that most people would frown upon. And there will be consequences.This is my first “Novel in Verse”.I'll admit, I quite liked this. It makes for a fast read.I found the first half of the story to be interesting. I started losing interest when the story started focusing more on Ella's relationship with Samri.I don't have a problem with Ella's views on religion or morality. It's pretty obvious she's disturbed by her memories.I do have to compliment the author on her writing. Some pages were written beautifully and the story flowed perfectly.I believe this is her first novel, and if so, then I applaud her. She is an author to watch out for.However, I think she took it too far with the whole texting thing.Yeah, teenagers shorten words and drops some letters altogether, but I have texted many teenagers and never experienced anything as bad as this:Thrs nly 1 plstnian at schl.Cn u tlk 2 Smr” -pg. 237But, overall, this book was entertaining and the fact that it was written in verse made me like it even more.I recommend it if you like stories that are "out of the norm".