Emergency Contact

The book came amazingly,no scratches or anything.

"This is probably how emergency contacts worked. You say something to your person before you go nuts and blow a gasket."⭐⭐⭐.5/ 5TW: rape, alcoholics, drugs,This is about Penny (Korean American) who is getting ready to go away to Austin, Texas to go to college. Then we have early 20s Sam (White male) who is trying to afford going to college for film after his harsh home life has left him with poor credit and destitute. Both Penny and Sam have had a bad experiences with their family members. Soon after Penny and Sam meet, Sam runs into Penny during a heart threatening anxiety attack and they quickly exchange numbers that lead to texts, friendship and maybe something more.❤What I liked about this.❤1. Penny was super nerdy and very relatable. They included pop culture references to drive this fact home.2. Sam was a very well fleshed out character. He had relatable hardships that made him stick out on the pages. He was also a fun character whom I would love to hang out with in real life.3. I loved how this story was written and the way things were expressed through that writing. It was clear and easily relatable.👎Things I did not like.👎1. Penny's relationship to her mother. Her mother was obviously the cool friend type mom and while a little bit of a party animal, she never seemed so bad that this could have been construed as neglect. She seemed sincere and did the best she could. She was still able to support Penny well enough that she could pay for her school and her dorm and Penny's mom genuinely seemed to care a ton for Penny.2. This delt with a ton of hard hitting topics, but as far as YA contemporaries go, this was still really light. It's really a personal preference for me that YA contemporaries are steeped in heavy emotions through and through and even while dealing with sensitive topics (such as rape and haveing an alcoholic for a parent) this story did not go into how these things effected these characters as adults. We only saw mention of these hard hitting topics, and saw notthing of how this effected their ability to love or keep people at a distance. I wanted more exploration for those emotions, and I feel this more than anything made the narrative fall a bit flat for me. I feel these things should have been discussed more in depth, otherwise why bring them up aside from trying to give the characters a depth and a history that was not fleshed out? I I felt by exploring these emotions in dialogue, the characters could have cemented an even deeper relationship then what I presently saw on paper.🌌Overall, I did enjoy this book. But I did want more from it. I think if taken for a light contemporary, you will probably enjoy this. But I felt so much more could have been done with this. This book did not live up to the hype as I hoped it would. I love Penny and Sam as characters and I think they were fleshed out just enough to make them be believable as real people, but I longed to witness a much deeper connection.

Alright. OK. So I'm definitely in the minority here. Wow...read some brutal reviews out there on this book, which truly surprised me. I did not feel this much negativity or dislike when reading this book at all. In fact, I felt it was one of the most honest representations of teenagers, girls, daughters, students, white girls, and non-white girls.I really enjoyed reading this book, and have it categorized as one of my favorites this year. I'm sorry other readers felt so differently towards it. Is Penny annoying, well of course she is. She's meant to be, but throughout the book you start to discover more about why she is the way she is. I completely understand her inability to show emotion, even though she's one big ball of emotion on the inside, because I'm like that. Being originally Korean, I loved the references to the subtle racist remarks she gets on a regular basis, because again, as an Arab, and a Muslim, I get that ALL the time. And people think it's OK, because it's subtle, or because it's said as a joke, but you know what? No, it's not OK, and I love that Penny stands up for that. Was Penny slut-shaming her mom? I don't believe she was, I believe she was simply saying it as it is. Her mom is a mess. Her mom is a MILF. She's hot, she dresses so much younger than her age, is a huge flirt, and is dating guys left and right. And yes, if that was my mom, I'd be embarrassed as hell to be seen around her. That's just the truth. To get hospitalized for drug use, I would probably walk away from that in anger and disappointment as well.But you know what? It's not all bad. Because throughout the book, the character development was on point. All the characters, including secondary characters, were well-rounded. You see them develop as the story unfolds, you see Penny maturing, opening up, making friends, trusting more, and even forgiving her mom, asking for forgiveness and letting her in. There is redemption and change there, and it's not all one-sided either.But let's focus on Penny and Sam for a minute, because that was center stage and it was absolutely beautiful to read their story and how it unfolds. I loved that it was another story that relied hugely on digital communication, and it was done so well. Their conversations were amazing, their friendship, their support of each other was beautiful to read about. I loved the transition from texts to phone calls, to face to face - to at one point, an email. Oh my Lord, that email was everything.They both have a lot of issues. Serious issues. They were able to really open up to each other, and maybe a huge part of that is the digital wall that separated them. It was easy to open up to this person as long as it they never had to face each other, right?Except things don't always work out that way, and things do get complicated, and their lives are quite miserable - especially Sam's - but it's all part of the journey, and I never felt repelled by it. I thought Penny was very endearing, especially when she started opening up, and I loved how so much honestly was crammed into this book, giving you a face palm of reality.

The story was cute (im older * not a teen* )and I enjoyed the book. I liked the relationship that developed. There’s some deviousness of course but it was cute! Some of the story just sucks though.

I love YA novels. I’m still very much a teenager in spirit and coming-of-age stories always give me an aching for that time in my life when I was figuring things out about myself (I guess I still am?). Emergency Contact is a book I wish I could have written. It follows Penny, a Korean-American freshman at UT Austin, and her adjustment to life out of high school. Obviously, there’s some romance in there which I always get the tingles for. Modern and moreish.

This was such a well written, heart race of a book. I have lost sleep because I just could not put it down! The relationship between Sam and Penny felt like an amateur waltz - every trodden toe, every swooshing spin, every step was just... perfect. Can't wait to read more books from this author.

Firstly, the cover of this book is gorgeous - I love it. I loved the story inside just as much. I got through this book quickly because it was so difficult to put down. The narrators were funny and endearing, but the story was also moving and relatable. I’m really excited to read this authors future work and I really recommend this book to others.

i absolutely adored this book. there were times when the main character bothered me a little but it was mostly a pleasant read and i couldn't put it down!

I havnt read a book in about 10 years by Choice apart from at school and college as I done literature.I decided to buy this book as a starter to try and get back into reading and so far I’m loving it! The two main characters are real and the way the author writes about them you can picture everything. I can’t wait to read more!