Emergency Contact

"Penny is an awkward college freshman, adrift in a sea of students who all seem to be better at navigating campus social life. Sam works at the local coffee shop and is fighting his own battles with anxiety. Their story could be a classic boy-meets-girl (cue the montage of ice cream dates and hand-holding), but instead, Sam and Penny strike up a relationship that exists only in the text bubbles on their phones – and the romance is no less rich for it. In texts, they can be both playful and deeply vulnerable. It’s clear that Mary H.K. Choi isn’t leering at our digital age disapprovingly. She gets it, and with Sam and Penny, she explores the ways in which our phones can help us forge a deeper connection."