Emergency Contact

Romance

Image:

Justification: I have a secret: I hate romance novels. It's a genre that sets my teeth on edge. In looking for a YA romance novel, I wanted something unusual, modern, quirky, unconventional, and funny. I found all of these things and more in Emergency Contact. This book was also well-reviewed and so I felt drawn to it as my romance pick. It didn't disappoint.

Reader's Response: This book is not a classically predictable tale of boy-meets-girl and they fall in love. There is an aspect of that, yes, but surprisingly, at the core of this novel is the relationship between mother and child. Both Sam and Penny suffer damage from their maternal parent (albeit very different kinds of damage). Both characters have absent father figures. The text focuses on each person working on forming healthy relationships in a very adult way. In a sense, Penny and Sam practice on each other. Both are socially awkward and struggle at maintaining friendships. The fact that they are able to hide behind the cloak of pseudo-anonymity by having a relationship purely over text messaging is not unintentional. It's easy to say anything when you don't have to say it to someone's face. I especially liked this confessional aspect of the novel. Although I'm not of the Gen Z who grew up immersed in the internet, devices, and social media, I could relate to the relationship over text. It revealed vulnerability and trust. It could be construed as modern epistolary narrative and I enjoyed this aspect immensely.

Set in the hipster location of Austin, Texas, Emergency Contact vacillates between coffee culture and college angst. The text alternates narratives between Penny, newly minted college student, and Sam, a barista at a local coffee house. Penny finds Sam having a panic attack in the street, helps him, and becomes his emergency contact. From there, they are off to the races in a seemingly unending volley of text messages. Sam is entangled in a complicated relationship with his ex. Penny is fresh out of a high school relationship and appears more interested in her studies than anything else. Choi's prose sparkles and the book is filled with witty repartee.

There's nothing better than to be pleasantly surprised by a book. Mary Choi does just that in Emergency Contact. Not only was it a delight to read, but it was also laugh out loud funny. Choi has written another young adult novel, Permanent Record, which I will also check out based on this reading. I particularly enjoyed how the actual "romantic" relationship doesn't come to fruition until the very end of the novel. There's payoff for the reader.

Conclusion: I was impressed that Choi managed to create a novel peppered with text conversations that don't completely devolve into insipid LOL's and emoji-speak. It's a novel for the mature young adult reader, and not for sexual content or sexual suggestiveness, but for the whip-smart prose featuring damaged, vulnerable protagonists in their upper-teens and early twenties. I would suggest this book for a teen reader 16 and up.

APA Reference: Choi, M.H.K. (2018). Emergency Contact. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.

Justification - Write a justification describing why you chose this title.

Response - you get to apply your own likes and dislikes to decide whether the book was good or bad, in your opinion.  This is your reader response to the book.  I also want you to tell us how you connected with this book.  Books become meaningful to the people who read them, in part, through personal connections.  Your response is your opinion of the book and your personal connection piece.

a. What does the text have to do with you, personally, and with your life (past, present or future)?  It is not acceptable to write that the text has NOTHING to do with you, since just about everything humans can write has to do in some way with every other human. 

 b. How much does the text agree or clash with your view of the world, and what you consider right and wrong? Use several quotes as examples of how it agrees with and supports what you think about the world, about right and wrong, and about what you think it is to be human.   Use quotes and examples to discuss how the text disagrees with what you think about the world and about right and wrong. 

c  How did you learn, and how much were your views and opinions challenged or changed by this text, if at all?  Did the text communicate with you? Why or why not?  Give examples of how your views might have changed or been strengthened (or perhaps, of why the text failed to convince you, the way it is). Please do not write "I agree with everything the author wrote," since everybody disagrees about something, even if it is a tiny point. Use quotes to illustrate your points of challenge, or where you were persuaded, or where it left you cold. 

 d. How well does it address things that you, personally, care about and consider important to the world? How does it address things that are important to your family, your community, your ethnic group, to people of your economic or social class or background, or your faith tradition? If not, who does or did the text serve? Did it pass the "Who cares?" test?  Use quotes to illustrate.

 e. Reading and writing "critically" does not mean the same thing as "criticizing," in everyday language (complaining or griping, fault-finding, nit-picking). Your "critique" can and should be positive and praise the text if possible, as well as pointing out problems, disagreements and shortcomings. 

f. How well did you enjoy the text (or not) as entertainment or as a work of art? Use quotes or examples to illustrate the quality of the text as art or entertainment. Of course, be aware that some texts are not meant to be entertainment or art--a news report or textbook, for instance, may be neither entertaining or artistic, but may still be important and successful. 

g.  To sum up, what is your overall reaction to the text? Would you read something else like this, or by this author, in the future or not?  Why or why not?  To whom would you recommend this text? 

4.  Conclusion - Write a conclusion in which you wrap things up with a brief restatement of the main ideas stated in your book review.

APA Reference: Author, A.A. (1967). Title of Work. Location: Publisher.