Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
I have trouble deciding how I feel about this book. There were points when I was reading that I was just completely ambivalent about what was going on and then others that I thought were cute, I connected with or got all the feels about.. so it was definitely a struggle to place. I wanted it to be an adorable contemporary and it didn’t end up feeling that way for me.
I enjoyed the writing aspect of the book. The main character, Penny, wanted to be a writer and so as the reader we were able to experience some of her writing class. It was interesting to see what the teacher had to say about finding your character’s motivation or world building. It was a surprising and enjoyable depth that I was not expecting from the book.
Our main character, Penny, was not a character that I felt like I could connect with. I’m all for frankness, but sometimes I felt like it was a little too over the top and forced. There were little bits and pieces of her personality, or likes, that I stopped and thought, oh okay I can get that – but overall I just didn’t enjoy her. Sam was slightly more enjoyable to read about, but he also felt over the top to me. I wasn’t in love with the secondary characters either.
As it is a contemporary, there really wasn’t much world building or plot so the book had to rely heavily on the characters – and it did not succeed for me. Overall, I thought it was a good book but I definitely would not go out and buy it or recommend it to people. I just feel very ambivalent at the end of it all.
Kyera's Library 
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