Emergency Contact

Publisher's Summary

From debut author Mary H. K. Choi comes a compulsively listenable novel that shows young love in all its awkward glory - perfect for fans of Eleanor & Park and To All the Boys I've Loved Before.

For Penny Lee high school was a total nonevent. Her friends were okay, her grades were fine, and while she somehow managed to land a boyfriend, he doesn't actually know anything about her. When Penny heads to college in Austin, Texas, to learn how to become a writer, it's 79 miles and a zillion light-years away from everything she can't wait to leave behind.

Sam's stuck. Literally, figuratively, emotionally, financially. He works at a café and sleeps there too, on a mattress on the floor of an empty storage room upstairs. He knows that this is the god-awful chapter of his life that will serve as inspiration for when he's a famous movie director, but right this second the 17 bucks in his checking account and his dying laptop are really testing him.

When Sam and Penny cross paths it's less meet cute and more a collision of unbearable awkwardness. Still, they swap numbers and stay in touch - via text - and soon become digitally inseparable, sharing their deepest anxieties and secret dreams without the humiliating weirdness of having to see each other.

©2018 Mary H. K. Choi (P)2018 Simon & Schuster Audio

Critic Reviews

"[Narrators] Osmanski and Roy provide excellent renditions of the characters' personalities... This audio will have the listener rooting for Penny and Sam to find their way together." (AudioFile)

Messy Book With Really Bad Narration

What a huge disappointment for a highly anticipated book for me :((
I was really ready to devour this book because the plot seemed so adorable .. but it was just a big mess and nothing really happened .. they were just whining the entire time and I couldn't get into their "deep" conversations because they sounded SO random to me.. the best character I liked was Jude and I wish if she had found some solace in the end but other than that I was really bored and I didn't like the story at all

The narration didn't help either .. the female was ok but the guy's narration made me sleep several times .. he is so monotone that I couldn't get who is talking
can't recommend this book at all

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Finally YA that doesn’t make you cringe.

Mary H. K. Choi is a blessing, Emergency Contact hits all the right spots while offering an intimate account of self actualization. The intercutting of female and male perspectives gives the book a duality of narrative often missing in storytelling. The perhaps unintentionally wokest YA of the year, Choi’s new poetry constantly checks it’s position and is not fearful to talk about race, privilege and consent without coming off as staged or preachy. The story jumps as in real life between mother/daughter evolution, new friendships and first loves without the cheese. The regularly flippant references in the composition should keep readers of all ages googling the supreme drips of knowledge similarly to the pop culture embedded in the Gilmore Girls. As in the work of Amy Sherman-Palladino if you can keep up, you are in for a good ride and window into a brilliant mind. For fans of John Green, Carson McCullers, Stephen Chbosky, Haruki Murakami and Roxane Gay.

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

Very good but made me anxious

This book was very very well written and new for me. The narrative is easy to follow after a minute and both of the narrators are really good. I like how they portrayed the characters and it made them feel more real. I have to say though, there were some moments that I needed a trigger warning. I don’t remember if any of the other reviews said anything about it so it’s partly on my part I admit. Just putting this out there for anyone else.

Trigger Warning

This book is a masterpiece. If you like Rainbow Rowell, and fuzzy feelings, you will like it. However, there is a trigger warning that needs to be posted. This book talks about rape; not detailed, not gory, and not long, but its mentioned. Otherwise, this is an amazing book, and it made me miss texting new friends for the first time, and it made me miss writing. A seriously good read, or listen.

Charming teenage romance

I liked a lot of things about this book. I enjoyed getting to know Penny and Sam. I felt for their individual issues, although I sympathized less with Penny's treatment of her mother. I also worried a lot about the author as it seemed like every character had a version of an eating disorder. An enjoyable enough book that made me want to listen to Rainbow Rowell again. #tagsgiving #sweepstakes #YA #romance #rainbowrowell

Meh

Story was fine and I might have enjoyed it more if I were actually reading the book the narration really didn’t work here. Penny’s voice was grating, the accents and voices she did for other characters were terrible and distracting. Sam’s voice was a little too deep and soothing. Didn’t seem to fit the character and was too monotonous. Also it’s a book that relies a lot on text messages and when the narrators are reading the texts literally, abbreviations and all, meaning they literally said “IDK” instead of “I don’t know,” it was very annoying

But it could have been a cute rom com. Could have been.

Tad disappointing, but still enjoyed!

When I first about the book, I read the plot and was hooked! However, I didn't feel like the story lived up to the plot as well as it could. Yet, I still enjoyed it! Took a few chapters to get into it, but once I did, I couldn't stop.