Mary H.K. Choi

5/24/2018 Update: As promised, here's the link to my full blog review! :) https://thedeborahembury.wordpress.com/2018/05/23/emergency-contact-by-mary-h-k-...

I'll be posting a full review for this one on my blog, but I will say that I was pleasantly surprised by "Emergency Contact". After reading the first couple chapters I almost put it down because it seemed annoying and pretentious, but I gave it a chance. There are definitely a few flaws (glamorization of depression, unadressed girl-to-girl hate), plus one of the major plot points just completely vanishes?? But somehow...I liked it. I ended up liking the main characters much more than I thought I would, too. I enjoyed how they each had passions and projects they actually pursued.
I'll dig into these thoughts more in my blog review!… (altro)

This came in one of my subscription boxes. It’s a YA, I guess, but with actual young adults not high school kids.

Our main character is 20 years old, working nights at a bodega, up to his eyeballs in credit card debt, embarrassed that he dropped out of college after a semester, too full of shame to ask anybody for help getting out of the messy hole he dug for himself with bad decisions he made. He’s alienating his family & his roommates with his behavior and his only happiness comes from if Instagram account devoted to exotic snack food & sneakers.

One night a pop star (I think it’s supposed to be Ariana Grande maybe?) wanders into the bodega in the wee hours of the night and she happens to share his affinity for weirdo snacks. They spend a few hours together in the store and an unlikely romance takes root.

The rest of the book is about their complicated and unlikely romance. It’s all top secret because of NDA contracts and It’s a mess for a million reasons. How it all plays out, good and bad, is the bulk of the story and how things change because of it.

It’s a wacky way to explore the drama, fear, and uncertainty that overwhelm people when they are taking their first real steps into adulthood but somehow it all worked for me.



… (altro)