You know that book that you’ve been meaning to get for a long, long time because a friend recommended it, or it’s on the New York Times Bestseller list or you read the blurb on the back in passing and it looked good? The one that you always look at in the bookstore and think, “I’ll get it next time,” but this time you saw a shiny cover and got distracted and ended up buying that one instead? Yet when you finally do pick it up it becomes one of your absolute favorites? For the past few months Emergency Contact has been that book for me, and I finally got around to reading it. Then I smacked myself in the face with said book for waiting as long as I did.
Mary H.K. Choi is one of those rare authors that just gets their readers mentally, emotionally and culturally. From the first few chapters I was hooked. I immediately liked the main characters (it is a dual perspective book) both as characters and people, and as the book continued I kept liking them. The supporting characters as well were well written and fleshed out, to the point that you got a sense of who they were and why they were doing what they were. Even the ex girlfriend of the male lead, who traditionally is a very unlikable character type was portrayed as a person who, yes, was a bit callous and clueless about how she was hurting Sam (the male lead), but wasn’t really a bad person. All of the characters were written as real people who made mistakes and stupid decisions, but in the end were doing their best.
The plot centers around the relationship between Penny, a freshman at UT, and Sam, a relative of her roommate who works at a nearby cafe (this book is literally that perfect coffee shop AU that you’ve been looking for). Both Sam and Penny have anxiety but find it easy to talk to one another— via text that is— and soon become close. However, while the story revolves mainly around Penny and Sam’s friendship, Choi is only too happy to dive into everything from the two’s relationships with their respective parents, their friends, significant others, to Penny’s struggles and triumphs in her creative writing course and the reality of growing up in a low income family.
All said, Emergency Contact is a fantastic book with great writing, wonderful characters and a plot that will make you alternately laugh and cry.