Emergency Contact

By: Mary H. K. Choi

Narrated by: Joy Osmanski, Jacques Roy

“Smart and funny, with characters so real and vulnerable, you want to send them care packages. I loved this book.” —Rainbow Rowell

From debut author Mary H.K. Choi comes a compulsively readable 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’d somehow landed a boyfriend, they never managed to know much about each other. Now Penny is heading to college in Austin, Texas, to learn how to become a writer. It’s seventy-nine 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 seventeen 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, you know, see each other.

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.

It was okay

I really enjoyed the way the author wrote so many strong mediators about feelings that I really related to. The story was cute and light, not to heavy.
I liked it alot.


🚨Spoiler 🚨
The only thing was I didn’t enjoy how she treated her mother, I didn’t understand why she was so mad even at the end. Her mom seemed like a fun easy going person and I understand the main was a intense person so I guess that’s where it was a clash.

Decent

It had a really great story, but it was really hard to tell when they were talking out load and what was being said in their head. The voices also barely change from person to person.

MY FAVORITE BOOK

I loved it so much! read it in one sitting, and knew I wanted to listen to the audio book.
I am obsessed and will 100% read and listen to again. this book is so real and relatable, not word for word, but in a way that I can easily relate to feelings, and thoughts that both Penny, and Sam have. Being able to slide into their thoughts invokes something amazing.
Thank you.

Funny, Cute, Smart

I enjoyed listening to it through car rides. Sam's narration was just a pain because of the very low tone and volume they set it to play. I always have to up the volume when it's Sam's turn. I hope that can be fixed for the next readers. Other than that, all was well.