hello hello hello friends! i’m so excited to bring a special guest to the blog: Mary H.K. Choi, the author of Emergency Contact!! i read Emergency Contact earlier this year and LOVED IT. Haley also wrote a review for it a while back. when i was contacted for a guest post, i was like, UH YES?!! so…

Who are Mary’s emergency contacts?

This is a great question. As the deeply wise Mindy Kaling once said, “A best friend is not a person, it’s a
tier.” In my case, my actual Emergency Contact, as in the one I will unquestioningly turn to in moments of crisis, is my person. Their name happens to be Sam but it’s not the same Sam as in the book (stop making fun of me; I KNOW there are other names!). 

The person I go to for advice when I need the advice to be overgenerous and super-understanding and not scolding at all is Sara Vilkomerson. We briefly lived together when we were both fresh out of horrible breakups and so we know each other’s downs and when to be delicate and when to eat all the chips in the other person's house and have them be totally chill about it. We like to go for walks where we don't talk about the thing we’re super stressed about. 

When I need the waviest career advice, like astral projection levels of harnessing my inner goddess, I go to Jenna Wortham. We leave multiple long meandering voice memos to each other on What’s App that feel like if old timey letters and journal entries had a baby on end-to- end encrypted software. If I also need a brain dump because I’m super anxious, she is my vessel. Since they’re voice memos and not ALL UP IN YOUR FACE PUSH NOTIFICATIONS I feel okay about this. 

If I’m in desperate need for a laugh or a hike or a spa day or a moanfest I go to my oldest friend, Trish Hook. I say oldest to mean that she is six months older than me (a fact that I lord over her as much as possible), but also that we’ve been best friends since we were five. There’s zero exposition or explaining required and she gives me the most hardcore advice that cuts right to the quick. She’s a cancer who is an events coordinator so she’s hardcore emo and compassionate but will list all the ways in which you screwed up. I can take one look at her and know what she’s thinking and she makes me laugh without even trying. 

There’s also Brooke, Imelda and Mel who I lean on if I need to workshop logistics or know what a good friend would do or if I have any questions about food or restaurants or movies or jeans or rental properties in the greater Palm Springs area or good leads on spiritual leaders and documentaries I should watch. I have a powerful cabal of women around me at all times and it makes me feel amazing and secure.

now, who are MY emergency contacts?

oddly enough, i don’t consider myself a digital person – not in a communication sense, anyway. i’m terrible at responding to messages (SORRY), i don’t really text/message ANYONE unless it’s something important, and i don’t have any snapchat streaks. i communicate through blog posts, insta photos, and youtube videos. if i’m talking to someone one on one, i’d rather it be in person with coffee, food, and adventures. BUUUUT, i do have a few emergency contacts – in case of emergencies and memes.

• my sister, Evelyn – ironically, i didn’t consider my sister and i close until she moved away eight years ago (first for college, then for work). she’s the person i can have hour-long phone conversations about essentially nothing and it’ll still be entertaining. (literally, we’ll just be breathing and it’s fine.) i go to her when there’s ANYTHING, and definitely my emergency contact.
• a few of my best friends including… Tiffany – some of you may know her from Read by Tiffany, but i know her as just Tiffany. we’ve been friends since pre-school and i know i can rely on her when i need someone sensible.
• and Jessica – Jessica is my twin (not LITERALLY but almost). we can finish each other’s sentences, send out-of-context messages, and know what the other is thinking with a glance. we used to hang out a lot more (and now i don’t even text her because I DON’T TEXT ANYONE), but whenever we hang out it’s (almost??) like nothing’s changed.
• and Eugénie – i “met” Eugenie on instagram years and years ago and we facebook messaged each other constantly. we talked about books, ballet, boys, and everything in between. i also grew out of touch with her, but i know i can pop by at any time and still have her back. even though she’s in australia and i’m in america, i feel like we’re neighbors that can exchange secrets on anything.
• special shoutouts – some people i enjoy contacting, but don’t contact quiiiiite enough are Rebecca (one of my best friends!! but we never talk online?? like ever???), Nikki, Angela, the girls of Bibliophile Academy, and (of course!) the bloggers of Twirling Pages!!

more about the book

Emergency Contact Published by Simon and Schuster on March 27th 2018
Genres: Young Adult Fiction, Social Themes, Dating & Sex, Friendship, Romance, Contemporary
Pages: 400
Amazon||The Book Depository
Goodreads

“Smart and funny, with characters so real and vulnerable, you want to send them care packages. I loved this book.” —Rainbow Rowell

From debut author Mary H.K. Choi comes a compulsively readable novel that shows young love in all its awkward glory—perfect for fans of Eleanor & Park and To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before.

For Penny Lee high school was a total nonevent. Her friends were okay, her grades were fine, and while she somehow managed to land a boyfriend, he doesn’t actually know anything about her. When Penny heads to college in Austin, Texas, to learn how to become a writer, it’s seventy-nine miles and a zillion light years away from everything she can’t wait to leave behind.

Sam’s stuck. Literally, figuratively, emotionally, financially. He works at a café and sleeps there too, on a mattress on the floor of an empty storage room upstairs. He knows that this is the god-awful chapter of his life that will serve as inspiration for when he’s a famous movie director but right this second the seventeen bucks in his checking account and his dying laptop are really testing him.

When Sam and Penny cross paths it’s less meet-cute and more a collision of unbearable awkwardness. Still, they swap numbers and stay in touch—via text—and soon become digitally inseparable, sharing their deepest anxieties and secret dreams without the humiliating weirdness of having to see each other.

GIVEAWAY~~~

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have you read Emergency Contact? let me know in the comments!