I really enjoyed reading "Please Send Help' by Gaby Dunn and Allison Raskin and will definitely be being a copy for our library. This book reminded me of me and my best friend and how many pointless conversations we would have but they actually had a point to them. By that I mean they were funny and no matter what your friend is there by you. I liked the style this book was written in and because of that it is easy to follow.

I've been a fan of the authors for a long while and was excited to read their latest novel. There were many things to enjoy about "Please Send Help," from its creative structure (i.e. emails and text messages) to the many topics it tackles including mental health and sexuality. As someone who lives with mental illness, I found those parts to be most compelling. I especially appreciate how they imbued humor into these discussions in a thoughtful, not dismissive, way. I actually didn't realize it was a sequel to "I Hate Everyone But You.” Despite not having read that one, I wasn't lost or confused.

Another funny, relatable installment from Dunn & Raskin, this time catching up with Gen and Ava post-college as they set out on their careers. Ava gets an internship behind the scenes of a show in NYC and has joined Gen on the east coast, though it is just as Gen jets off to Florida for a staff position at a small publication, determined to revitalize it (and ideally make a couple straight girls fall for her). Their personalities shine as the pair continue to disagree over their abundantly different lifestyles via email but consistently check in on and care for the other over text. Gen was utterly rambunctious this time around, a newly minted 22yo grad, trolling the local bars for happy hour specials and secrets she can investigate and break in the next edition of the paper. Ava rather sweetly (and dumbly) becomes involved with the intern supervisor and tries to reassure herself and Gen that he is much kinder than she makes him out to be while making complaints. They predominantly butt heads when Ava pushes Gen to give up her job and just figure out her life on Ava's couch in New York, and Gen has to remind her that she can't give up a paycheck (or take an unpaid internship like Ava did) because she has to safety net. Their roller coaster friendship and respective dalliances prove again to be unputdownable as I flipped through all of the conversations in this installment in a single day.

I enjoyed this book. I found it to be a humorous read. I enjoyed the cute format of the email, text. I can't wait to read more from this author. I would recommend this book to others. I feel they would enjoyed it as much as I did.

This is written in email and text format between two friends, Ava & Gen. This makes it a quick and easy read. Though it is part of a series, you don't need to have read the first book to follow along with this.

Ava is on an unpaid internship in New York and is struggling with a gaslighting relationship and the discovery that her boyfriend didn't tell her he had herpes until after she contracted the virus and told him about it.

Gen is a gender-fluid character who has just gained their first job as a journalist in a small town in Florida. They are trying to uncover a story about the Christian charity "Open All Doors" which shuts the door to the LGBT+ community.

I didn't feel particularly strongly about either character and would have liked to have gotten to know Lyle better.

Please Send Help
A Novel

by Gaby Dunn; Allison Raskin

St. Martin’s Press

Wednesday Books

Teens & YA

Pub Date 16 Jul 2019

I am reviewing a copy of Please Send Help through St Martin’s Press/ Wednesday Books and Netgalley:

Ava and Gen are the best of friends. Ava knows what she wants in life and has plans to achieve her goals but Gen does not. No matter how annoying or utterly crazy a two am rant may get they have always been there for one another. Then they graduated High-school!

In all honesty I really did not like this book the content was to graphic for my taste and I certainly would not want the teenagers in my life reading it, therefore this book receives a two out of five star review, because honestly I didn’t feel the content was appropriate for the young adult genre.

Happy Reading!

**Disclaimer: I received a free copy of Please Send Help for review purposes from NetGalley. Thank you to the publishers for this opportunity.

Please Send Help by Alison Raskin and Gaby Dunn is the follow up novel to I Hate Everyone But You. It takes place three or four years after the initial story, and continues to tell us Gen and Ava’s story. Gen and Ava are best friends and have been since high school. They went to different colleges and so their friendship became long distance and both books are told through text messages and emails. The first is their first year of separation, and Please Send Help is the story of them being fresh out of college and working their first jobs. The girls are older and wiser, sort of, and navigating the world of adulthood.

Here’s the summary from GoodReads:

In this hilarious follow-up novel to the New York Times bestseller I Hate Everyone But You, long distance best friends Ava and Gen have finally made it to the same time zone (although they’re still over a thousand miles apart).

Through their hilarious, sometimes emotional, but always relatable conversations, Ava and Gen are each other’s support systems through internships, relationship troubles, questionable roommates, undercover reporting, and whether or not it’s a good idea to take in a feral cat. Please Send Help perfectly captures the voice of young adults looking to find their place in the world and how no matter how desperate things seem, you always have your best friend to tell it like it is and pick you back up.

I loved, loved the first book. It’s a quick read because the texts and emails make the story move quickly. The first one made me cry and I rated it an easy 5 stars. However, Please Send Help was not quite as good as the first book, in my opinion. I still really enjoyed the books, and I really liked revisiting Ava and Gen’s characters. I liked seeing them grow up and trying to navigate the foibles of adulthood and navigate a different kind of world. It just felt like the story had less of a climax than the first book.

I really love the way the book is written. I like the text message/email style of writing. It brings about a story that is pretty much just as detailed in characterization as you might find in a traditional prose novel. You have a very good idea of who Ava and Gen are and you get a really good depiction of their friendship, which is strong, but not without arguments and drama. They love each other unconditionally and try their best to support each other, but sometimes that comes across in the wrong way and they argue. It makes the friendship feel realistic and I really like that.

The contrast between the two characters is very interesting. They’re both very unique and different. They definitely remind me of the authors of the book, because I used to watch their YouTube videos all the time. I personally don’t have an issue with that, but I can see where that might be off putting for some readers. Both Ava and Gen have aspects of their characters that deserve more representation in books as Gen is bisexual and Ava has severe anxiety. Both of these things factor into the story, though not as much as in the first book. I liked the growth in their characters and in their friendship, because while both Ava and Gen still have a lot to learn, they are older and know more than they did in the first book. The character growth was beautiful.

I don’t want to get too into the specifics because it is a sequel, but just know that I fully recommend this series. It’s a fast, easy read that hits you straight in the feels and makes you really care about the characters and whether they succeed. So read I Hate Everyone But You, and then pick up a copy of Please Send Help after it comes out. I don’t think you’ll regret it!

This book was humorous and topical but I didn't find any of the characters particularly engaging or relatable.

The writing was interesting and slightly humorous. I enjoyed the author's first book and found the characters relatable. I wasn't expecting much from this read, but it was enjoyable.

I enjoyed this book. The storylines were cute and I like the format of emails and text exchanges between friends. Not quite as exciting as the first book. I like how Allison and Gaby’s voices really come through the characters.

I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was a little scared of reading this book because I haven't read the first one but it didn't seem to be a problem?

Please Send Help follows best friends Ava and Gen as they start their new jobs after college navigate and navigating the struggles that come with adulthood.

I loved the format of this book, I've never read anything like it before. Despite the novel being told through emails/texts, it flowed really well.

I loved how comfortable Ava and Gen were with each other, their friendship is very inspiring.

This book needs content warnings for: alcohol/alcoholism, homophobia.
Thanks to Netgalley for an e-arc of this book.

I made the mistake of requesting this without having read I Hate Everyone But You, and, honestly, this did not leave me inclined to read IHEBY.

Pros:
-Gen and Ava do learn from their mistakes by the end.
-The format was interesting and made for a quick read.
-Some of the messages were very funny.

Cons:
-I don't really feel like Ava really dealt with her relationship with money in a way that made her stop flaunting it with Gen.
-Gen and Ava just didn't click with me.

So I’ll preface this review by saying I still enjoyed reading this book. The format makes it feel like I’m reading someone else’s drama and I am nosy and love stuff like that. I loved seeing Ava and Gen’s lives spiral out of control from all their poor decisions. I felt like someone was secretly sending me screenshots to bitch about their friends. In that regard, the book was fun.

However, I don’t think I Hate Everyone but You needed a sequel and this book largely feels pointless. They skip from university to the girl’s first year of working life. Which means they should have grown a lot from the last time we met them – but they’re exactly the same. A lot of plot points seem to only happen to cause exciting drama to follow. Gen and Ava make terrible decisions, and aren’t even very good people but they never really have to learn from it.

A majority of the plots don’t go anywhere at all. The book just ends. What happened with Lyle and Beau? What happened to Gen’s kittens? What happened to Ben? Where is Dana going? The first book dropped threads like this similarly and I forgave it because it felt like an ambiguous ending was what it was going for…but then there was a sequel.

None of the characters outside of Ava and Gen exist for any reason other than to create plot points. They’re not fleshed out, and Ava and Gen just keep floating through life regardless of what happens to them. There were so many good opportunities for growth and learning but Ava and Gen…don’t.

They’re also just not believable characters. There’s no chemistry between them, they don’t act like women in their twenties…or at least not like any women I know. I would believe it if these were e-mails sent between twelve-year-olds but not full grown adults. They’re petty, terrible and super co-dependant.

I really enjoyed the format of this book, but you can’t get by on just a gimmick – especially for a sequel. Please Send Help was exciting to read but it left me feeling empty. None of the plots were tied up and nothing that happened seemed to matter. It doesn’t look like it’ll be getting a sequel and I think that might be for the best.

I received an e-arc from Netgalley.

I absolutely loved this book! The friendship between Ava and Gen is one I have alway longed for, but have never had. The authors have done an excellent job with capturing each of the personalities as well.
I love all the representation in this as well. Also, the text/email format is on of my most favorites types of formats!
I need more. This book did not give us the final fate of 4 characters though, and that was disappointing! I hope we get more!

DNF at 40%.

I've been looking for more New Adult-aged protagonists, and that pivotal post-college job/internship is a life stage I am pretty interested in, yknow, since it's in my somewhat near future. That said, I kept pausing to think, <i>This is satire, right?</i> I don't know how old the authors are or how closely this is based on their own experiences, but to me this read like a cookie-cutter caricature of what people think your early twenties probably look like.

At first I thought the epistolary (text / email) format was interesting, but some of these exchanges are just so inane. Also, little things that bug me on a personal level:

- I doubt either author is from California, because having been born and raised in California, I can tell you with certainty that we do not refer to our home state as "Cali."
- If you're twenty-two in 2019, that means you were born in 1997 (or 1998 if your birthday hasn't passed yet). While this is technically Gen Z by most definitions, I don't know anyone born between, like, 1995 to 2000 who would without-a-doubt call themselves a member of Gen Z. Especially if you're joining the workforce, because most of Gen Z is still in school.
- Who refers to themself or their best friend as a "feminazi," even if they're joking?
- There is a passing reference to Gen's "gender fluidity" (in the context of "should I tone down the queerness on my first day of work") but then Gen and Ava refer to Gen as a woman for the rest of the book, as far as I've read.
- Despite one argument about Ava (?) having rich parents helping her out so she can pursue her dream career, a lot of the views being expressed by both Gen and Ava are actually pretty privileged. It's like they've never heard of intersectionality.

Honestly, I do think fans of light contemporary women's fiction might enjoy the long distance best friendship and romantic / sexual shenanigans. Maybe I would've enjoyed this more if I'd read the first book and was already invested in the characters, especially since they make several references to events that I assume are covered there. And I think I read somewhere that the mental health & LGBTQIA+ rep is ownvoices? So it's not all bad, but it is definitely not something that I'm interested in continuing.

Please Send Help by Gaby Dunn & Allison Raskin
First of all, I didn’t realize these characters were from another novel. So, no, you don’t have to read the first one to know what’s going on in this one (although I will go back and read the first one because the writing was so entertaining.) Seriously, it was incredibly entertaining. It’s not often I’m so into a book I continue to read it while brushing my teeth. I read this in one afternoon and was shocked when it was over. The story: Two best friends are “new” adults and trying their best to make it in this world. One has moved to New York to intern on a late night show while the other is persuing a writing career in the armpit of Florida. They keep in touch through emails and texts and that is the entirety of the book, keeping each other (and us) updated about their love lives (or lack thereof), faux pas, job woes, and feelings.. The fast-paced witty banter reminds me of a Seinfeld episode and doesn’t disappoint. #NetGalley #PleaseSendHelp
PS This is very much a “new adult” book. Because of the language and adult situations, we won’t have it available in the high school library, but you can request the Faulkner County Library get it when it comes out.

I received this book from NetGalley for free in exchange for my honest review. This book was not for me. I found the story boring.

Many thanks to the publisher for providing an advance copy of Please Send Help in exchange for an honest review!

Before we begin, it's worth noting that I haven't read the first of the series. I was interested because I enjoy Gaby Dunn's other creative works. That, however, didn't diminish my enjoyment of this book at all! Ava and Gen are so well developed that I didn't feel like I'd missed anything at all. Will I go back and read the previous volume? Probably! But I definitely don't feel like it's necessary to enjoy this book.

The characters and style of the book are very strong. The combination of emails and texts are elegant and work really well! It got a little confusing (for me, a lazy elder millennial) to connect the text avatars with who they represented, but fortunately, the two main characters have just enough difference in terms of style that I could tell them apart most of the time. (Or at least figure it out contextually.)

I identified with Gen's class struggle, the (honestly pretty accurate) feeling like your friends who come from more financially stable backgrounds will not "get it." Ava's responses ('just quit" etc) felt very much like things my own friends have said when I was in a less than stellar job situation. Very, very real.

My only real complaint was that the ending felt rushed. Much like this review's ending. All of a sudden, we're [[REDACTED, NO SPOILERS]], and it only kinda makes sense.

At any rate, I dug it!

"Every day IS a day. Wow. Is this my next tattoo?"

Please Send Help is the second book of the I Hate Everyone But You Series by Gaby Dunn and Allison Raskin. These two ladies sure do know how to make you laugh.

Something that I loved about I Hate Everyone But You was that it was funny. Some of the stuff that was said in this one had me laughing out loud. It was a pretty unfortunate situation, but lead to hilarious quotes like this:

"I'm honestly not sure where to begin here. You know how there are certain moments and experiences that really stay with you forever? I REALLY hope today was not one of them."

Their wit and sarcasm displayed throughout this book is A+. I feel like Gaby and Allison had to just be actually responding to each other and that's how they are in real life.

There were a few things that I wasn't so sure of in this sequel. I feel like in the first book, I was able to connect with the characters because we learned about them over their exchange of emails and instant messages. In this one, some time has passed, but I feel like there were some misleading signs of development.

Also, something in this book that was not shown in the first, there were a lot of manipulative tendencies throughout the characters. I know many people who fancy that in a book, however, I am not one of them. I understand that it's a young adult novel, and they are ...young ...adults, but I feel like these problems were for sure older than they were.

I would definitely recommend reading this sequel if you read the first one. I feel like you could also read this book as a standalone, there's not much that you miss.

Unfortunately, this is a rare case of, "If you have nothing nice to say, don't say it at all."

Nothing really worked for me, so I will have to pass.