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.

I adored this!!

I read the first book, <I> I Hate Everyone But You, </i> last year and really liked it. The format of these books is extremely fast paced since they are told through text and emails and that's part of why I adore them so much.

This book is my favorite of the two. I don't completely remember everything from the first but I remember being annoyed with how some scenes played out and some of their reactions to things. This one I just loved from the start. Already knowing the characters and getting to see how their lives are after college was a blast.

I do have a few questions about some things that happened, but being told just through text and emails I'll probably never get those answers. I can only assume the answers and I suppose that's good enough for me.

If you like fast reads that are full of fun, drama, friendship, love, and even some hard times then pick up this series!

This was cute, but it just wasn't AS cute as the first book and I couldn't connect with the characters in the same way as I previously could.

Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, I read this book.

It was one of the first books that I have read in awhile and I was very disappointed.

I read this book first fo all thinking that it was just a standalone and only once I was done did I realize that it was a second book to a previous one. I was going through many comments on the first book and I was able to understand why I was so disappointed with this book.

giphy-3
First of all I do like how this book is centered around friendship however I don’t care for how it was portrayed. It seemed that when one of the characters was having a bad day and wanted to lean on their friend that the other completely either didn’t care or was too busy. I can understand the too busy part, however that only happened a max of one time I believe in this book. Due to the other friend not caring about the other it caused them to get angry and snap but then when they had something going on they would go to their friend and the whole situation would start all over again. The relationship between the two main characters almost seemed borderline abusive in the ways that they treated each other.

There was a cheating situation that was brought up within the story which while heavily prevalent in todays society was saddening within this story especially with how one of our main characters while taking part within the relationship between this woman and another man was still treated like shit afterwards. Pardon my language.

giphy-4
I liked how it was told by two different characters point of view but while reading the book I did get confused on who was talking to who due to some formatting within the texts that they were sending each other being having extremely small character icons to signal who may have been who. Due to that it took me a little while more than I would have liked to get into the book, it also didn’t help that I was reading the second book while never reading the first book like I mentioned earlier.

However, I would like to say that I did really appreciate the anxiety, bi-sexual and polyamorous representation. But, one of our main characters in this story was actually mildly homophobic (Ava) even though her best friend Gen is from what I gathered reading bisexual and even took part for a split second in a polyamorous situation however was treated terribly in the end by the couple, which you can read in the paragraph above.

All-in-All while this book could’ve had the potential to be a good book it fell short to do the weird formatting, and the lack of depth (ava) and kindness within this characters towards each other.

I give this book a 1/5 stars

First of all. I had no idea this was a sequel, but when i read it, i didn't find it hard to follow the story at all. The characters were relatable and i loved reading in this format. I love how the whole long distance thing worked and this book really got me out of a slump so props for that.

I was a huge fan of the first book and when I realized there would be a second, I was ecstatic! I love how much the girls have grown up and grown into their own people. This was refreshing and funny. I loved every minute of this book,

3.5 stars!

I was a HUGE fan of Gaby and Allison's first book I Hate Everyone But You. This sequel didn't quite hit the same way. I still think it was a super fun, On Brand TM follow up!

A major positive is this is a great start for a resurrection of New Adult. If the genre can rise out of its smutty ashes like a phoenix and follow this direction, that could be cool. There is a lack of books about recent college grads trying to figure life out in 2019. Internships, careers, making new friends, keeping up with rent, sexuality, etc. There's a plot point that I definitely have never read about in a contemporary that was handled in a flawless manner.

Ava and Gen's friendship is still awesome and that's obviously due to Gaby and Allison's real life relationship. Some jokes felt repetitive but that doesn't mean I wasn't laughing out loud for others. And then they have these unbelievably relatable bits that made me go wow are they actually in my head? Mainly, there are just parts in the middle that kinda drag and then the end feels too rushed... but again, an easy, enjoyable read!

It is rare to find a YA book that does not have a romance somewhere in its main plot. Please Send Help is one of those rare books. Instead of a romance, there is a realistic, fully-formed best friendship at the core and it drives the story.

A sequel to I Hate Everyone But You, Please Send Help continues to the story of Ava and Gen as they go out into the world post-college. They are separated by several states and continue their friendship like most 20-30 somethings do now -- online. The book is told through their emails and text messages and it shows a very real relationship in today's world. Ava and Gen do not see eye-to-eye on most things, but they love and support each other and they talk through their arguments instead of having huge friendship-ending fights. This is a great YA and new adult book that hits on female friendships, lgbtq relationships, mental health, family issues, and just becoming an adult.

I hope Raskin and Dunn continue the story of Ava and Gen. I will definitely continue to read it.

**I received an e-ARC from Netgalley**

*e-arc received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

I read the first book in this series earlier this year and thought it was fine so I was hoping that in this second book the characters would have grown some but unfortunately this was not the case. This book heavily pushed sexuality and politics in a way that was bordering on unhealthy.

There were a few parts of this book that I found troubling, mostly surrounding the character Gen. There was an occasion in the book when Gen catfishes one of her coworkers simply because he makes her angry and at another point Gen says that “Everyone deserves to be happy… except republicans”. I truly felt like these things are not okay and it really did not feel that these characters (or at least Gen) did any growing up even though several years have passed since the last book took place. If anything she seems to have gotten more immature.

I enjoyed this one just as much as the first one. I really love the witty dialogue and how close these two girls are to each other. I really relate to both of them in so many different ways. They are so well written and really jump off the page at you. I also love how the authors really know exactly how people actually talk it makes the dialogue seem so much more natural. I also loved that even though we have romance in the book the main focus is on our two main characters and their friendship. My only complaint would be I wish it was longer as the ending felt a bit off and maybe just a tad rushed.

I enjoyed the format of this book and I appreciated Ava having anxiety. She was easy to relate to and Gen was easy to relate to as well from my party girl days....which were conveniently prior to my now anxiety rich days. I wish it had more substance because it was just okay. Not bad at all but a book I’ll probably forget about. I would read more about Ava and Gen though.

I read the first book and I absolutely loved it. I wish I could say the same for this one. I wasn't nearly as impressed with this one as I was with the previous one. I don't know if that's because of the huge time jump that I just wasn't expecting or if I had to high of hopes for this one but overall I think it was enjoyable, fun, and easy to read but I think the story just grew kind of stale after a while and I fell out of it. I wish I would've loved it more but sadly it was just an average book for me. I do love these authors though so I have every intention of reading another book of theirs!

I liked it, but not as much as I liked the first one. I don't know why, but it felt more like an adult story as opposed to YA.

I'm still a fan of the format, and I loved the girls. But the explicit content was not for me.