Review: Hello (From Here) by Chandler Baker and Wes King

Thank you Penguin Teen for my copy. All thoughts are my own.

I don’t really know what I was thinking, choosing to read a book about the Covid-19 pandemic, but here we are. I think this book has a lot of potential and could be validating for people, especially teens who have lost so many life experiences during the ongoing crisis. It’s raw, a little funny, frustrating, and really heartbreaking. It also takes a hard look at economic inequality and how that has played a huge role throughout the pandemic.

Synopsis:

Hello(FromHere).jpeg

“Maxine and Jonah bump into each other in the canned goods aisle of the grocery store just as the state of California is going into lockdown, when everything changes completely. Could there be a worse time to meet? Max's part-time job at a supermarket is about to transform into a hellish gauntlet. Jonah's preexisting anxiety is about to become an epic daily struggle. As Max, Jonah, and their friends live together but apart through hijinks, humanity, and heartbreak, Hello (From Here) cuts across urgent matters much bigger than a teenage crush. Differences of class, privilege, mental health, and sacrifice are thrown into stark relief by the profound and personal stresses of the COVID-19 pandemic. As thoughtful, probing, and informed as it is buoyant, romantic, and funny, Hello (From Here) looks at the first two months of the quarantine and adds falling hopelessly in love to the mess.” —Goodreads

What I Liked:

  1. The Rawness—This book is a very raw and validating for a lot of the fears many people had at the beginning of the pandemic when we didn’t know what was happening or how bad it was going to get.

  2. It’s a great reminded to get vaccinated so that we can be done with all this!

What Didn’t Work (For Me):

  1. The Trope: Insta Love—Falling in instant love in a grocery story the night before a statewide lockdown…it just didn’t work for me. But if you can suspend your disbelief, you might get sucked in to Max and Jonah’s story.

  2. A Pandemic Book—It’s just too soon for these types of books. I’m sure the authors wrote this early on and thought we’d be out of it by now, but it was just too close to home to read about everything we’ve gone through.

Content Warnings:

Covid-19, 2020 lockdown/shut down, pandemic anxiety, anxiety disorder, death, death due to Covid-19, loss of a parent, grief.

Character Authenticity: 3/5 Steam Rating: N/A, it’s YA Overall Rating: 3/5

What do you think? Are you ready for fictional books about the pandemic?