Hello?
by Liza Wiemer
Published on November 10th 2015
by Spencer Hill Press
Genres: Contemporary, Romance
Format: eARC
Source: Netgalley
Amazon | Goodreads
One HELLO? can change a life. One HELLO? can save a life.
Tricia: A girl struggling to find her way after her beloved grandma's death.
Emerson: A guy who lives his life to fulfill promises, real and hypothetical.
Angie: A girl with secrets she can only express through poetry.
Brenda: An actress and screenplay writer afraid to confront her past.
Brian: A potter who sets aside his life for Tricia, to the detriment of both.Linked and transformed by one phone call, Hello? weaves together these five Wisconsin teens' stories into a compelling narrative of friendship and family, loss and love, heartbreak and healing, serendipity, and ultimately hope.
Told from all five viewpoints: narration (Tricia), narration (Emerson), free verse poetry (Angie), screenplay format (Brenda), narration and drawings (Brian).
I received this book for free from the publisher or author in exchange for an honest review.
This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
I’m so happy I got approved for this on Netgalley kind of last-minute and managed to read it before NaNoWriMo! It got me in the right emotional state for my own novel, but that’s not the only thing that I loved about it of course. Hello? is very touching, heartbreaking at times, very emotional to me personally and also very sweet in the end.
Hello? tells the story of five different people. Tricia is still trying to get over her grandmother’s death. Brian, who has set his life aside for Tricia since her grandmother’s death but can no longer do that. Emerson, a guy determined to fulfill promises, real and hypothetical. Angie, a girl that can only express her feelings and secrets through poetry. And Brenda, a screenplay writer afraid to confront her past. It’s told in four different styles: narration (Emerson & Tricia), free verse (Angie), screenplay format (Brenda) and narration and drawings (Brian).
As always, I’d like to get the negatives out of the way first. Though in this case, it isn’t a negative of the book, not really. It’s just a problem for me personally. While I applaud the combination of styles and highly admire Liza for pulling it off, it didn’t always work for me with two of them. I never really got into Angie’s chapters since free verse isn’t my thing. The same with Brenda’s screenplay format, though not as much. They just took me out of it a little bit and I didn’t quite get the emotional impact from their characters as from the other three. Because of that, this story didn’t blow my mind. I just loved it. Nothing more, nothing less.
I did love the story and how the five characters were connected. And I loved how the story unfolded and how I didn’t really know how everyone would be linked together. I went into this only having read the blurb and I think that’s the best way to go. The writing was really good and I was really invested in Tricia’s, Emerson’s and Brian’s chapters. Also, the feels. So many emotional moments that I could relate to, especially with Tricia. And I do love how realistic her pain was portrayed and I could very much connect to it. I loved all of the characters. I really don’t quite know what else to say.
Hello? is definitely a YA Contemporary you should put on your TBR’s if you’re a fan of the genre. And if you’re a fan of books with multiple styles of story telling, this is definitely something you should check out too.
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This one sounds amazing and I will definitely be purchasing it! I have heard so many wonderful things and how this is a story a lot of people can connect with and I find that to be so beautiful 🙂
Twitter: Bieke Paesen
YAY! Hope you enjoy it when you get to it!
Twitter: Liza
As you know, I loved this one! My review is coming out later this week (for the tour). I really liked the different characters and their way of telling their story. You’re right, the feels were way up there!
Twitter: Bieke Paesen
They were indeed. XD
Twitter: The Infinite Limits of Love
I can definitely see why those two POVs weren’t for you. I was wary but they ended up working for me. This really was super emotional wasn’t it? I can’t stop thinking about it!
Twitter: Bieke Paesen
It was! Tricia’s story was really relatable to me.