2.75 Stars Rounded Up

“Conventional wisdom suggests that, when the world finally does begin to fall apart, love will be the only thing left that really matters. Petty grievances will fall away. You won’t remember who called you Maxi Pad for the entirety of sixth grade (Logan Bennett) or how much money is in your bank account or the hours spent studying for that one calculus exam you almost failed. Instead, you will spend time with loved ones. Hold them close. Be present. Let them know that you care.”

California had just started it’s quarantine lockdown following the beginning of the CoVid Pandemic and Max and Jonah are both out shopping for supplies. Jonah is seeking toilet paper for his older sister who desperately needs it for her Crohn’s Disease. Max is working as a part time personal shopper and she seems to have the last bulks of toilet paper needed to fulfill her orders. Jonah will do anything to get his hands on a pack of TP including negotiating with the cute but prickly stranger, tempting her with the last of the Sparkling Water and Disinfectant Wipes as a trade. After going their respective ways Jonah, with some help from Olivia, hatches a plan to see Max again. He tracks her company down with some google digging and then requests an online grocery delivery. Cancelling and reordering until Max is his designated personal shopper.

What follows is a carefully cultivated friendship/love story between the two. Through the difficulties of not really being able to see each regularly (because of Olivia, Jonah’s sister being high risk and Max more susceptible with her public job) and when they do they must be masked up and 6 Feet apart. On top of the CoVid restrictions they have good old fashioned obstacles such as money and mental health issues. Jonah has the luck of living in a high income neighborhood but has challenges with depression and severe anxiety. Max is very self assured for the most part but money is not taken for granted in her tiny apartment with just her and her mom. Max is working to save for her college fund on top of trying to help her mom with their barely hanging on dry cleaning business.

Can Max and Jonah really last with all their social and economical issues as well as the pandemic working against them?

Hello (From Here) is a difficult love story that starts out at the beginning of the CoVid pandemic. And while presently our world is not as bad off as before life is still a bit different. This book brought back a lot of memories of the early days of the pandemic, some good but a lot bad. My youngest son in fact got CoVid twice. With all the vaccinations and everything. It was a very scary time.
I remember going to the grocery store and I couldn’t find any cleaning products or toilet paper (thank god I was a bit of a bulk buyer (aka hoarder 😁)). But before the toilet paper came back in stock my supply was dwindling extremely low and I started to get a little panicked, to the point that I was worried I would have to go hunting for leaves and such..lol. I can’t imagine trying to start a relationship during this time in our catastrophic world. That’s what made this so interesting to see how it might possibly work.

While this wasn’t a book I would consider fascinating, it was in fact very middle of the road. Pacing was ok. Nothing spectacular stuck out to me. Ok let me back that up. One thing, really animal, stuck out to me. Yes this is another book where a dog took center stage over the humans. I adored Chester the bow tie wearing dog! Jonah was too self wallowing and Max was fine, but that was the depths of my feelings..just fine. I don’t regret reading it though. There were bits of snarky banter that cracked me up. And of course with a book that is centered around CoVid there were some heavy parts. I don’t always mind heavy parts though. In fact before you even get to the first page there is a warning: Please be aware that this story touches on topics such as parental death, COVID-19, AIDS, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and racism.

Thank You Penguin Teen and NetGalley for my gifted copy in exchange for my honest review.