Please Send Help (I Hate Everyone But You, #2) by Gaby Dunn & Allison Raskin

Synopsis (via 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.

"1) You can buy sunblock that smells really good. Coconut or mango. I think if it smells good you will want to eat it and then when you realize you can’t eat it you will still want it on your body."

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thoughts and opinions are my own. Any quotes I use are from an unpublished copy and may not reflect the finished product.

Please Send Help made me smile and was a super quick read. I really enjoyed the banter between Ava and Gen, and it was clear they knew each other really well. Their conversations felt realistic and their situations were relatable. They had their disagreements and fights, but those never lasted very long. Their friendship was more important to them than whatever they were fighting about, and I liked how self-aware they seemed to be. They apologized when they did something wrong, and they were quick to forgive for the sake of their friendship.

I've rewritten this paragraph ten times trying not be too spoilery, but I feel like it's an aspect that should be addressed. Okay, eleventh time's the charm... one of the characters has sex and gets more than they bargained for (stop here if you don't want specifics). I think it's great the author's chose to address sexually transmitted diseases, because it's something that real people deal with every day. It's also not a topic I've personally come across while reading YA, likely because it's not an issue most people want to discuss. I thought it was handled well and offered a different perspective.

I liked the overall story, and seeing how the two main characters progressed over time, but I never felt connected to them. They're both struggling with serious issues (mental health, alcoholism, depression, anxiety), and I wish those things had been expanded on a little more. I appreciate what they authors were trying to do, but I also felt overwhelmed my how much was going on throughout the book. It was like they tried to take every touchy subject and cram them all into one book (therapy, boss hitting on an intern, LGBTQ, homelessness, corruption in politics, family bias in business, a ménage, plus the things I mentioned earlier, and others I've already forgotten).

As far as connecting with the characters... it's just hard to do when you're only reading text messages and emails. There's very little depth to those, and we don't really see how the characters are feeling, just what they say they're feeling (and we all know that our perceptions of ourselves can be a little skewed). It also felt like the topics were all over the place, and sometimes I got lost in their conversations.

Please Send Help was an interesting read that I often found humorous, although I wish it had delved deeper into the characters and their individual stories. Also, the ending felt rushed and a little too convenient. There's an epilogue that's super short, but somehow manages to tie all of the loose ends together. Maybe if this had been more than just conversations, it would have worked better for me, but in the end I felt like the story just stopped without really going anywhere (a problem I seem to be having with a lot of books lately). It didn't feel open-ended, just open.

Side note: I didn't read the first book, but I don't think you need to.