Hello From Here

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jenniferforjoy Avatar

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This book was solidly okay. I read it, it was fine. There was nothing I hated, but nothing I particularly loved either. The characters made choices that were pretty stupid and hard to accept, but they were also often emotional choices in times of unprecedented duress. Plus they're teenagers so like the height of emotions, right?

The fights and conflicts in this didn't impress me. Despite the pandemic setting, the triggers for things felt somewhat insignificant and at times uncontrollable. That doesn't necessarily mean they aren't valid, just that reading about it without the investment of the person experiencing it made it hit pretty weakly. A kind of, "oh... that's what you're mad about??" reaction.

Of course the draw and main point of this book is that it's set during Covid 2020. That alone draws up a lot of conflicts, and one theme highlighted in here is the class difference of how folks were affected. The contrast of having to still go out and risk working face-to-face while living in a small apartment and desperately trying to make enough money to survive, versus an experience that borders more closely on a forced family vacation at a private villa. The same tensions that came to a peak during Covid are seen in here, so if that's the kind of thing you're looking for, this pretty much nails it. I can see this being an eerily good book to read for future generations learning about Covid 19. Excellent classroom book for sure as it has a lot of validation for experiences -- as well as experiences missed.