A review by spellboundchapters
Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi

emotional funny hopeful reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

1st read: December 2020 — 3.5 stars

2nd read: May 2022 — 3.5 stars

“Over the years, Penny inhaled the classics — Ready Player One, Dune, and Ender’s Game, though it wasn’t until she was introduced to Messiah, ironically from a guy who was the worst dude in the history of dudes, that she realized sci-fi didn’t have to be so… boy. (…) From then on Penny’s stories centered around women and girls. There wasn’t even a special trick. You wrote it exactly as you would for a guy, but you made pain thresholds higher since girls have to put up with more in the world and give them more empathy, which makes everything riskier.”

Yeppp, I still like it as much as I did the first time 🥺
Yes, Penny is deeply flawed, but I always find flawed characters way more interesting to follow, and I can see a lot of past me in her… I’m still unsure if it’s a good thing or not. 😂 And I love the character development she gets throughout the book! The moment where she bonds with Jude and Mallory at the beach is my favourite scene 🥰

I loved to witness Sam and Penny’s friendship/romance blossom, and Mary H.K. Choi writes teenagers/young adults so perfectly! I feel like authors often struggle to make their dialogs sound realistic, but she always nails it — they didn’t sound cheesy nor cringy at all, and neither did the text messages. I think a lot of us will resonate with the way that this book focuses on virtual relationships, and how you can sometimes be more yourself when talking to someone via messages rather than in person. (Or maybe that's just us socially awkward butterflies.)

“So yeah no IRL for me
Why break the fourth wall?”

“No point
We’re perfect in here”

I have nothing to say about Sam except that he’s perfect. And that I want to taste his pastries (yes, if you can bake you're automatically very attractive to me).
Expand filter menu Content Warnings