Rating: 4 out of 5
Genre: Contemporary, 4 Stars, YA, Romance
People who should read this: If you like stories with uncommon characters, hard topics, and fighting the odds.
“Fiction was fine, but real life was the true freak show.”
Let’s start with the very obvious topic that I always harp on…
Ready…
Set…
Go…
This is not a YA book.
Okay. I feel a lot better.
There’s nothing graphic about Emergency Contact. There isn’t even a sex scene - sorry if that gives too much away - and the only reason it would be rated PG-13 in movie form is because of sexual context. But the characters are most definitely outside of the age limits set by SCBWI. YA is supposed to end the summer before college. Ignoring that, Sam alone is 21 years old.
“It's piles and piles of emotional homework forever if you ever want to qualify as a grown-up”
Looking past all of my issues with the genre placement, I most definitely enjoyed the book. The characters were not your typical run of the mill YA contemporary characters - though people will argue with me on that. They didn’t fit into these overly caricature derived boxes. No nerd, no jock, no goth kid just trying to fit in. They were normal people thrown into life and trying to swim to the surface, with just enough of a dusting of darkness for my soul to love. I mean tattoos and a dark soul. I dare you not to fall in love.
Penny and Sam are pretty messed up in the book. They’re both running away from something, which is where the premise of the book comes in. It’s the reason that they become each other’s emergency contacts. Now, most books would have one of the characters try to fix the other one, preferable the girl trying to save the guy. But guess what… they’re not there to fix each other. Neither one of them swoops in to save the day. In the end, they have to save themselves. And in doing so, they find what’s really important. They’re finally seen for their true selves and are no longer hiding behind the screen they’re showing the world. I think this is a great message in our current social climate of online media.
“Loving someone was traumatizing. You never knew what would happen to them out there in the world. Everything precious was also vulnerable.”
I wouldn’t say this is solely a romance story and I wouldn't say it isn’t either. Some side plots exist, but they’re watered down and lacking oomph. If you’re looking for a meaty story, you might want to find another book. For all the words inside, there really isn’t too much there. The plot is entirely character driven with the ending slightly anticlimactic. You read this book for the text messages. That’s where the real fun comes in.
And did I mention there wasn’t that much insta love?
Yay!!!!
“I like knowing that you exist. It doesn't make me feel any less lonely, because life is lonely, but it makes me feel a lot less alone.”
But really… I think I fell in love with Emergency Contact because of the characters. Sometimes we get so stuck in our own worlds that we don’t notice the struggles going on around us. Emergency Contact is the reminder. It hit close to home for me. I loved cheering on Sam and Penny as they found their own ways out, something I’m personally still working on. Seeing their struggles helped me to feel less alone. And through it all, they stayed true to themselves.
Happy reading
Love Kait
Reading Challenge: 6/96 (Yes… my goal changed. At the rate I was going I needed to make the challenge harder)