ARC Review: Hello?

I received this book for free (hey, thanks!) in exchange for an honest review. I promise that this does NOT affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. For real.

Hello? by Liza M. Wiemer
on November 10th 2015
(400 pages) • Goodreads • Amazon • Barnes & Noble

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).

This one totally took me by surprise. I absolutely loved it. There were plenty of positive reviews ahead of time but I wasn’t sure how it would resonate with me. I am actually a fan of books that mix around different formats; this one promised poems, narrative, screenplays, and images. I thought it made the book an even quicker, more addicting read. Seriously though – the epitome of unputdownable. I read it in two marathon sittings because I couldn’t stop. I’ll keep this one short and sweet with some bullets…

Perfection

• The concept of fate and people being destined to meet, or at least in each other’s lives. I won’t expand on too much of this but everyone in the story is connected to and/or impacted by someone else. It really got me thinking about the things that are meant to happen to us. (You know this shit is my favorite thing to think about!)
• Going off of that, I enjoy books where all of the characters are connected in some way without realizing it. With each page, you learned more and more about their histories and families. It reminded me of The Husband’s Secret in some ways.
• The format really worked! It was fun to read the poetry and the screenplays intermixed with the narrative-based chapters. I wish there were a few more from Brian’s perspective though! I liked seeing images of his artwork.
• It was just so addicting! I couldn’t put it down for the life of me. I sat in the bathtub after all the water was drained just because I knew getting up to shower afterwards would have meant putting the book down.
• All of the characters had their own unique issues and felt incredibly fleshed out, even if they were only speaking to us via poetry without details. I loved all of them.
• OH GOD THE ENDING. I felt like each page was just building up towards the ultimate climax. I couldn’t fucking wait to get there. The entire concept of this story was wonderful.

Could have been better

• Honestly, I predicted every single “twist” or reveal that happened. I knew exactly what was going to happen in the entire book. This predictability did not dampen my enjoyment… really it just made me even more eager to get to the end and see how it all would play out. BUT it would have obviously been cool if I didn’t predict everything.

Plot & Premise
Characters
Writing Style
Pacing & Flow
Feels or Swoons
Addiction Level
Overall:	4.8

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