It’s time for another edition of Young Adult Book Club, the place where Emily and Mary talk about YA books. This month, they’re talking about I Hope You Get This Message by Farah Naz Rishi, a diverse tale of aliens, pandemics, friendship, and family. Without further chit chat, here we go!
Mary: Helloooooo!
Do you want to introduce the book and tell us how you heard of it?
Emily: This month, we're covering a book that I did not realize was going to feel so timely when I initially chose it. I Hope You Get This Message by Farah Naz Rishi is a book about the world potentially coming to an end. The Earth has been contacted by a planet named Alma, and the aliens have announced that the Earth only has a few days left before termination. This book follows the stories of three teens and what they choose to do with these "final days."
Mary: Boy does it feel timely, though.
Emily: This was another book from a good 'ole Owl Crate box. What can we say? We like Owl Crate.
OK talk about why this feels timely.
Mary: Oh wow! I didn’t know. I recently renewed my Owl Crate and I love it.
Emily: Yes, I got the fancy different cover.
Mary: Well, for one, Alma is going to eradicate humans by releasing a virus that will kill everyone. So. I feel that. Everyone immediately begins to panic and they start behaving erratically. I’m not sure they were panic buying per se, but that was probably happening somewhere outside the scope of the novel.
Emily: Yeah, we didn't get the bit about all the toilet paper being gone. But we know it happened.
Mary: I truly felt a low grade panic while reading this novel, at this particular historical moment.
Emily: Yes. I'm not normally one who minds looking terror and tragedy right in the face, but I feel like this was not the time for me to be reading this when my anxiety is already so high. It probably tainted my reading of the book to some extent.
Mary: BUT we didn’t know that all this would happen when we picked it!
Emily: We sure didn't. Sorry to Farah Naz Rishi.
Mary: From a technical standpoint, the novel has several protagonists who all have chapters from their perspectives: Jesse the struggling teen inventor (?), Adeem who is looking for his runaway sister, and Cate who is trying to find her father. All the stories converge in Roswell, NM, and they’re all connected in different ways. Did this structure work for you?
Look at that pretty Owl Crate exclusive cover! (Photo from owlcrate.com)
Emily: I had no issue with the structure. I know I've mentioned this before, but it bears repeating. I do feel like the problem for many authors writing multiple perspectives is that the voices aren't differentiated enough. This was third person, but because we still get to see a lot into each character's thoughts, perspective is still important. I sort of felt like all three of these perspective characters were thinking similarly, if that makes sense.
What was your experience?
Mary: The third person made me more forgiving of the similarity between the voices. I actually enjoyed how all the stories fit together, even though I called some connections before they were revealed. Changing perspectives kept me interested and kept the novel moving forward. I think it helped with pacing. If we had to sit with Jesse that whole time I wouldn’t have made it.
Emily: So was Jesse your least favorite then?
Mary: Yeaaaah. I didn’t feel compelled by his tough outer persona, or his dad issues. I was more interested in Cate dealing with her mother’s schizophrenia, and Adeem’s sister’s story. LGBT+ issues? Mental health? I’m there! Dad issues? No.
Emily: I agree. And obviously Cate and Adeem's story had more movement to it... like, literally
Mary:They traveled all over! I liked that their journey had so many pitfalls. It made getting to Roswell that much sweeter. Also, the timeline, the countdown to the end of the world, really helped propel things and gave a sense of urgency to the story.
Emily: I enjoyed the little breaks where we get the alien transcripts. And the letters.
Mary: Me too! They were so strange and fun.
I think I’m most disappointed by the ending, if now’s time to talk about it. Because...after all this counting down, it just sort of ends?
Emily: Yes. Okay so.
I have to say that for me, the ending isn't always the most important thing. Often, it's about the journey and I'm okay with the ambiguous ending because I like being able to interpret meaning from what I know of the characters and the set up. This was NOT the case for this book.
Mary: Hard agree.
Emily: I was definitely being propelled toward an ending. And I was reading on because I wanted to know how it ended.
Mary: And then it just stops. We don’t really know if the aliens destroyed humanity. I think we’re not supposed to care, but I did.
Emily: Right... like, why wouldn't we care? I don't feel like this is one of those books where you can say "it doesn't matter how it ends," because yeah, either way these characters went through an emotional and life-changing journey. But on one hand, they get to live and grow and change based on that. And on the other hand, if they die, none of that matters.
Mary: Exactly. I needed to know if they were going to learn from everything or just die. And also, to some extent, I wanted to know if the aliens would end up being benevolent and forgiving, giving the humans a second chance. ESPECIALLY because we get so many peeks into their decision process.
It seemed like maybe they were leaning that way, but who knows!
Emily: Like... if you wanted this book to have an ambiguous ending, you didn't set us up for that And so it just felt disappointing.
What do you think happened here? Did she just not know where she was going?
Mary: I think perhaps we’re meant to think that being a light to others is the most important thing, since we end on Mari, a sick child, being kind and hopeful. BUT I do think that the sick child being a symbol of hope for others is kind of cliché. I don’t think we should romanticize illness. And it seemed like her whole function as a character was to be nice. You might have a different take on that!
Emily: No I agree. In general, I felt like I wasn't really connecting with any of these characters. This book was functioning more on a plot level than a character level. Which is another reason I find the ending so frustrating.
Mary: And sometimes the plot was good! Sometimes it lost me.
And I can’t emphasize enough that a huge reason I felt this way is that I’m having a hard time focusing right now, and reading about a potential mass extinction does not help me!
Emily: Yes. I am trying to give this book some grace because I do think my impatience stems from my own hangups right now. Which makes it really hard to review this book given our current situation.
But we'd already scheduled it so here we are.
Mary: For sure! Under normal circumstances I think I’d really like it, but right now it just felt too real.
Emily: I think I agree that the Jesse story was the least interesting, though I did like the idea of exploiting everyone else's anxieties. I mean... that sounds weird. I liked the idea of it as a storyline.
Mary: Yes! Jesse makes a machine to send messages to Alma, but really he’s just taking after his con artist dad and exploiting peoples fears! That part is interesting. It’s more the disaffected youth part I don’t care about.
Emily: Right. I think I liked Cate's story the most. I swear I'm not just picking the girl.
Mary: Me too! I was most interested in her trying to find her dad. Even though it didn’t fully work out for her, I think she did the most in terms of personal growth. She had to learn to think for herself!
Emily: Should we rate?
Mary: Yeah! I think I give it a 3, maybe that is affected by current times but here we are.
Emily:I rated it the exact same way. If you're interested in this book, maybe wait and read it later. Your mileage may vary.
Do you want to talk about what we're reading next?
Mary: Yes!
We’re reading Permanent Record by Mary HK Choi!
I’ve been eyeing this book for months because of its gorgeous cover. It’s going to take us back into the world of realistic YA fiction! The novel follows a pop star and a bodega worker, so I’m hoping it’s a cute romance with a larger than life feel.
Emily: Yay! Read along with us and come back for our (hopefully livelier) discussion at the end of the month!
Mary: Yes!! Good talk!
Look at Permanent Record’s beautiful cover art!