Title: Hello? Author: Liza Wiemer
Publisher: Spencer Hill Contemporary
Publication date: November 10, 2015
Pages: 400
Source/format: ARC from BEA 2015
Rating: ☆☆☆☆ 1/2
Synopsis (from Goodreads.com):
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).
My Thoughts
Hello? is about friendship, love, loss and so much more. Five high school seniors' lives are intertwined because of destiny. Liza Wiemer's writing evokes emotions and captivates the heart. Her writing is hauntingly beautiful and honest. From the first page of the novel, I was hooked. What I love about the book is how readers can get inside the head of five different teenagers. I usually shy away novels with multiple POVs but this one works well. Wiemer weaves each character's POV every so carefully to create a wonderful story that is meaningful. Tricia, Emerson, Angie, Brenda and Brian all have distinctive voices when they tell their stories. Each personality shines and is believable. It's crazy how one phone call changes everyone's lives. That one phone call saves a girl's life.
It's refreshing to see a novel weave the lives of five different people into a web. It shows how people are somehow connected with each other. It definitely reminds me of the theory of six degrees of separation which refers to how all people on Earth are are connected to one another by no more than six individuals. It's not quite the same since all five characters live relatively close to each other but the fact that everyone's lives are connected some how is fascinating.
The only thing that threw me off was the instalove between Tricia and Emerson. The fact that both of them just got out of a relationship and ended falling for each other that fast made me slightly uncomfortable. Other than that, I immensely enjoyed the book. The ending is perfect. I was even a bit teary eyed when I read it.
When I first heard of the novel, I always wondered why the book was titled Hello? After reading the first two chapters, Hello? becomes palpable why the book is titled Hello? One word with one punctuation mark is significant. One phone call and one Hello? transforms the lives of five teenagers. Wiemer delves into human nature. Hello? is realistic and covers an array of human emotions. Sometimes we just need to take a step forward and say Hello.
Recently, Adele released a new song called Hello and I had to include the video in this post because there are a lot of similarities with the song and the novel. They are perfect together.
The only thing that threw me off was the instalove between Tricia and Emerson. The fact that both of them just got out of a relationship and ended falling for each other that fast made me slightly uncomfortable. Other than that, I immensely enjoyed the book. The ending is perfect. I was even a bit teary eyed when I read it.
When I first heard of the novel, I always wondered why the book was titled Hello? After reading the first two chapters, Hello? becomes palpable why the book is titled Hello? One word with one punctuation mark is significant. One phone call and one Hello? transforms the lives of five teenagers. Wiemer delves into human nature. Hello? is realistic and covers an array of human emotions. Sometimes we just need to take a step forward and say Hello.
Recently, Adele released a new song called Hello and I had to include the video in this post because there are a lot of similarities with the song and the novel. They are perfect together.
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