As I hated the first book, I Hate Everyone But You, I can say that I did enjoy this one a bit more. It has a more humoristic sense to it that I found okay. However, these books are really not for me and I would not recommend them to anyone. The emails and texts makes the two main characters really blend together, and it keeps me at a too much of a distance from the story. 2/5 stars.

Well, after trying this one two/three times and both ending somewhere stranded, I am sorry I am not going to read this one any further. It doesn't help that apparently this a book 2 in a series, I never once read the first one and I just cannot connect with the characters. It just feels like I missed all sorts of things (which I guess I really did). The format is nice, however it just didn't work for me in this book. Normally I am loving books that tell the story in a different way, for instance through mails.

I really enjoyed the first installment of this series, I Hate Everyone But You, and was curious to see how their stories would progress. It was nice connecting with Gen and Ava after college, but I was thrown a little seeing that they had graduated already given that the last book ended after their first semester.

I was hoping for some of the friendship testing elements I saw in book one, but this story mainly focused on their new adult lives. I was hoping to see more struggle between navigating adulthood and having time for friendship. Seeing Gen and Ava interacting through text and email was welcome, and fun, but this was a little more lighthearted than I was expecting after really enjoying the first book.

A great follow up to their first book, "I Hate Everyone But You." Following the same format as the previous novel, readers follow the ups and downs of Ava and Gen's relationship through emails and texts. This time, the girls are recent college graduates struggling to find their way as successful pre-adults, and readers follow them through self-sabotaging mistakes that the friends find difficult to sympathize with when things eventually blow up in their own faces. This thoughtful portrait of female friendship is a model on how to support your friends, how to apologize when you need to, and how to forgive each other, recognizing the incomparable value of a best friend.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me with an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. These opinions are exclusively my own.

I gifted "I Hate Everyone But You" to my best friend when she was moving away at the end of last year. She ended up loving it, and convinced me to buy myself a copy. Best decision I ever made.

Did the sequel live up to my enjoyment/hype of the first book? … Mmm mostly.

"Please Send Help" follows Ava and Gen as they navigate the post college world as new adults, or almost-adults. Ava is living in New York for an unpaid internship on a late night talk show, and Gen in rural Florida trying to make it big at a small newspaper firm.

Of course, arguments are had, relationships collapsed, and lots of mistakes are made (im looking at you gen). I would expect no less from my favorite best friend duo, or anyone tackling adulthood really.

As in the first book, we have our duo navigating through job insecurities, relationships, sexuality, and mental health. It’s done in a comical way, while still maintaining some seriousness which I think works well. Sometimes it’s easier to process or deal with certain topics with a little humor.

It is still written through a series of text messages and emails, which makes the book go by so quickly (i'm not complaining). It’s like we’re taking an actual peek into the characters’ phones.

Also as an almost 22 year old who is still struggling in the post school stage of life, I felt they captured that frightening period of new adulthood very well. The characters are also so real. They are not perfect by any means! They are flawed, they are human. Ava and Gen feel and sound like myself, like other people I have encountered in life who are transitioning from one stage in their life to another.

Ava and Gen still have the best friendship, which so much reminds me of my own friendship with my best friend, Jenny. (yes I do call her Jen for short. I swear this book is inspired by us lol) They’re both struggling with the whole adulting thing, and it’s definitely not easy. However, their friendship, is that light at the end of the tunnel.

I only had a few minor problems, which brought this down to a four-star read.

First of all, although I think the struggles and insecurities felt really realistic, the consequences not so much. Mostly regarding Gen’s disregard for the newspaper’s ruling on the expose she was working on. I expected more consequences, but that’s just me.

Also, again like in the first book, the ending felt rushed. I completely understand the fact that towards the end the emails & texts aren’t needed but I just felt a little lost? There were some things mentioned at the end that I wanted more information about!!

Overall, I thought it was another great book on friendship. It’s a fun quick read. I enjoyed catching up with my fave dysfunctional gals! There were a few moments that seemed to lag or felt like they didn’t have a purpose, but that was mostly only in the beginning. I still recommend it, because I think it’s still a really good story that tackles some serious topics in a lighthearted way, and it’s a fun book about friendship. I think everyone needs a good dose of Ava and Gen in their lives.

This book will be released July 16, 2019 and you best believe I’m getting myself and Jen a copy!

The sequel Please Send Help is set a few years after the first book. They have both finished college and are finally in the same time zone again. Although still really far apart with Ava in New York and Gen in Florida. Gen has landed a position at a tiny paper in Florida and Ava is interning at a late night show.
This one was even funnier then the first book. Ava dates more inappropriate men and gets an STD. Gen decides she needs a pet so she takes in a feral cat, who she finds out is pregnant. Especially loved Gen trying to turn a straight girl and when she catfishes a coworker. If you're looking for a funny and quick read I'd recommend you pick up these books. Also hoping there will be a third book cause I love these characters so much.
I received this book free from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

Sophie’s favorite book by far this month was Please Send Help by Gaby Dunn and Allison Raskin. This book is the sequel to 2017’s I Hate Everyone But You (which Sophie hasn’t actually read) but the premise lured Sophie in without her realizing it was a follow-up. Luckily, you don’t need to have read the first book to fully enjoy this one.

Please Send Help follows best friends Ava and Gen who have recently finished college and are taking their first steps into the world of jobs, rent, awkward office romances and all the other fun things that come with adulthood. Ava has lucked into an unpaid internship at a popular late-night TV show in New York, while Gen has taken on a print journalism role in small-town Florida. Both are struggling. Ava worries she will fail to make the most of her opportunity of a lifetime, Gen that she will be stuck going nowhere in Hicksville – and both are making a series of questionable choices involving feral cats, homeless guys, and sex with the wrong people.

The book is told purely through emails and text message exchanges between Ava and Gen. Sophie read it in short bursts on her phone which felt like the perfect medium for a book told in this format. She quickly fell in love with both characters and constantly found herself screenshotting funny passages to send to her own long-distance BFF. In fact, the worst thing about Please Send Help for Sophie was that she often found herself thinking, “I should text this to Gen,” before quickly remembering that both girls are fictional! She loved that the relationship between the two friends hit ups and downs throughout the book, the inclusion of an unapologetic bisexual central character, and she often recognized relateable moments from her own friendships.

Sophie will absolutely be picking up I Hate Everyone But You and hopes this won’t be the last we hear from Ava and Gen.

I didn't read I Hate Everyone But You but hoped I'd be able to follow along anyway. The series follows Ava and Gen via correspondences over text and email. In the first book, they help each other survive the first semester of college, and in this second book, they help each other survive life post-grad. As someone who has no idea what's been going on in her life since graduation, I was especially interested in the second novel and dived straight into it instead of starting with the first book.

At first, I was entertained by the office drama and other updates Ava and Gen shared with each other, since I'm currently lacking that in my life, but after awhile, I couldn't help but feel that there was something disingenuous about the banter between these supposed best friends. Maybe this is where reading the first book would have come into play--to help me get a better sense of these characters.

I didn't feel that Ava or Gen had distinctive personalities, which is why I think that there were so many explanatory asides throughout their correspondences, which cheapened their relationship to me. Gen's only personality was being gay; it was as if she just discovered her sexuality and couldn't stop talking about how she was gay. All the 2019 references you could think of were thrown in, and they cracked jokes that I would have missed if not for the fact that they acknowledged and explained every joke.

I suppose this is the challenge that comes with writing in epistolary format (or this kind of modern epistolary format). There's not much context to draw from, so these explanations must be made.

The friendship between Ava and Gen is funny and amazing but I don't feel any character development for both of them.I haven't read the first book in this series. Maybe that's why it didn't click for me.
Though the story is in epistolary format which I adore, this one didn't do the magic.
Go for this one if you want to read any light and funny read with adult struggles.

Please Send Help was a quick, fun read. We get to see the lives of Ava and Gen, which are complete opposites, as they start to navigate the “grownup world”.

I thought the characters were fun but I don’t feel like the character development even scratched the surface. I did really like that this story was told through emails and text messages. These two girls got themselves in quite a few predicaments bur that was the total of the story...Here are two girls, this is what is going on in their lives. The End.

I just wasn’t overly impressed, it was just okay for me.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy!

I enjoyed the second book about Ava and Gen. I like the format of the story told through texts and emails. It feels like reading the correspondence of two real friends. I like how they deal with real issues in a way that feels genuine. Nobody is perfect and no one responds exactly the way we want them to all the time. Seeing how they have grown from the first book was great! I really hope there is a third book about them!

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.