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A review by paperbackparker
Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi
3.0
3.5/5 stars from me!
this book was pretty damn awesome. i loved most of it, and the number of times i literally said “meeee” when penny did or said something is absolutely hilarious. she and i have the weirdest characteristics in common and i love it. i also feel that i related a lot to sam, and jude. i mean, most characters in this book were incredible. i wanted to know more about fin though!
the reasons that it’s not a 5/5 star rating from me are....
1) WHY ARE THERE NO QUEER CHARACTERS????? like i seriously don’t believe that out of that many characters, there isn’t ONE queer person. every aspect of the book was just really cishet and it hurt my feelings lmao.
2) closer to the end, there is a character that is described to have “stayed home most afternoons, ever since she sought early retirement and workman’s comp for fibromyalgia - a mysterious rambling pain that assaulted her extremities”. honestly i was ready to knock my rating down even more for that, and i’m still on the fence about it. as someone who actually lives w fibromyalgia, and has a mom that lives on disability because of fibromyalgia, i was extremely insulted by this one-off statement. it felt condescending, rude, and like the author has no belief in the severity of the illness and wants to mock anyone w it, especially those who are unable to work because of it. it felt like the author was saying that the diagnosis is completely invalid and it’s just a ploy for people to mooch off government money. the character goes on to say that this person is basically just a result of “depression, addiction, and the poison it becomes when you don’t get a handle on any of it”, which further pushes the idea that fibromyalgia isn’t actually real, debilitating pain but rather the result of a messed up mind and it’s all totally made up. there is no further mention of the character’s disability and how it actually affects them, and so it really seems like the whole diagnosis was put in there just to make a mockery of it. as i said, I LOVED this book - up until i read that. i was extremely insulted.
overall, almost everything about this book was great. i really loved most of it. it was just that a couple things sucked, and i really can’t ignore them.
this book was pretty damn awesome. i loved most of it, and the number of times i literally said “meeee” when penny did or said something is absolutely hilarious. she and i have the weirdest characteristics in common and i love it. i also feel that i related a lot to sam, and jude. i mean, most characters in this book were incredible. i wanted to know more about fin though!
the reasons that it’s not a 5/5 star rating from me are....
1) WHY ARE THERE NO QUEER CHARACTERS????? like i seriously don’t believe that out of that many characters, there isn’t ONE queer person. every aspect of the book was just really cishet and it hurt my feelings lmao.
2) closer to the end, there is a character that is described to have “stayed home most afternoons, ever since she sought early retirement and workman’s comp for fibromyalgia - a mysterious rambling pain that assaulted her extremities”. honestly i was ready to knock my rating down even more for that, and i’m still on the fence about it. as someone who actually lives w fibromyalgia, and has a mom that lives on disability because of fibromyalgia, i was extremely insulted by this one-off statement. it felt condescending, rude, and like the author has no belief in the severity of the illness and wants to mock anyone w it, especially those who are unable to work because of it. it felt like the author was saying that the diagnosis is completely invalid and it’s just a ploy for people to mooch off government money. the character goes on to say that this person is basically just a result of “depression, addiction, and the poison it becomes when you don’t get a handle on any of it”, which further pushes the idea that fibromyalgia isn’t actually real, debilitating pain but rather the result of a messed up mind and it’s all totally made up. there is no further mention of the character’s disability and how it actually affects them, and so it really seems like the whole diagnosis was put in there just to make a mockery of it. as i said, I LOVED this book - up until i read that. i was extremely insulted.
overall, almost everything about this book was great. i really loved most of it. it was just that a couple things sucked, and i really can’t ignore them.