Hello?

by Liza Wiemer

Overview

Tricia: A girl struggling to find her way after her beloved grandma's death.
Emerson: A guy who lives his life to fulfill promises, real and hypothetical.
Angie: A girl with secrets she can only express through poetry.
Brenda: An actress and screenplay writer afraid to confront her past.
Brian: A potter who sets aside his life for Tricia, to the detriment of both.

Linked and transformed by one phone call, Hello? weaves together these five Wisconsin teens' stories into a compelling narrative of friendship and family, loss and love, heartbreak and healing, serendipity, and ultimately hope.

Told from all five viewpoints: narration (Tricia), narration (Emerson), free verse poetry (Angie), screenplay format (Brenda), narration and drawings (Brian).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781633920507
Publisher:	Spencer Hill Press
Publication date:	11/10/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	428
File size:	4 MB
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

Liza's a graduate of UW-Madison (Go Badgers!) with a degree in Education. Besides being a die-hard Green Bay Packers fan, she's a romantic, a bookaholic, and a lover of crazy socks and rooftops. Liza married the guy who literary swept her off her feet at a Spyro Gyra concert. She has had two adult non-fiction books published and numerous short stories and articles. She has two sons and lives in Milwaukee, WI. Find her at LizaWiemer.com and Twitter @LizaWiemer

What People are Saying About This

Huntley Fitzpatrick

A triumph of writing and humanity… The characters stayed with me long after I read the book. --Huntley Fitzpatrick, author of The Boy Most Likely To, What I Thought Was True, and My Life Next Door

Tammara Webber

Tendrils of destiny and healing weave through this fearless exploration of interconnected grief and guilt within the overlapping spheres of love, friendship and family. Deeply moving! --Tammara Webber, author of NYT Bestsellers Easy and Breakable

Editorial Reviews

"Tendrils of destiny and healing weave together through this fearless exploration...of love, friendship, and family. Deeply moving!"—NYTBS author Tammara Webber of Easy and Breakable

"In her YA debut, Liza Wiemer has officially launched herself on the map with grace. Hello? is a powerful and brilliantly woven story of love, loss, and human connection that makes you believe in the world again. It owned my heart from the first page to the last. One of the most original books EVER."—Hannah McBride, The Irish Banana Review

"A sensitive and deeply drawn portrait of five teens who's lives intersect in both obvious and surprising ways. Liza Wiemer's characters are so real they keep off the page."—Leah Cypress, author of the Death Sworn Series

From the Publisher

“Liza Wiemer’s Hello? is a poignant tale of friendship, love, loss, and resilience. Told from multiple points of view, the richly drawn characters offer a powerful example of how connected we all truly are. This book will compel readers to consider the existence of destiny. Hello? grabbed me from the first page and pulled me right through to the gorgeous ending.”

author of One Moment and The Tension of Opposites Kristina McBride

"Brave, beautiful, and wholly original, this story about tantalizing connections and heartbreaking relationships will haunt you, fill you with hope, and leave you smiling."

author of Compulsion and the Heirs of Watson Islan Martina Boone

During the 1960's, Carole King released an albumentitled Tapestry--a masterful weaving of story and song. A half-century later, author Liza Wiemer has mirrored thatblend bywonderfully stringing togetherseveral forms of narration, one specific to each of her characters. Hello? isa truly remarkable and memorable story communicated in a superbly envisioned way.

Paul Volponi

10/01/2015
Gr 9 Up—Tricia is grieving her beloved grandmother's death, alienating her potter boyfriend Brian, and contemplating suicide. She makes a telephone call to her grandmother's old number and unexpectedly bonds with Emerson, a young man with a restless girlfriend, Angie. This call forever alters the course of their intertwined lives in the Washington Island and Sturgeon Bay sections of Wisconsin. They are connected in different ways to Brenda, an aspiring actress and screenplay writer haunted by a traumatic event from her past. Wiemer's debut is smart and character-driven. The five protagonists have distinct viewpoints and share them via different narrative styles: Tricia (prose), Brian (prose and drawings), Emerson (prose), Angie (free verse poetry), and Brenda (screenplay format). They are depicted as real teens living life on their own terms, making mistakes and learning and growing from them. Readers will appreciate literary references to Ralph Waldo Emerson, the 19th-century transcendentalist essayist and poet whom Emerson is named after. Chapters open with Emerson quotes. Savvy popular culture fans will savor references to everything from Frank Sinatra's signature songs to Led Zeppelin to films like Psycho and 500 Days of Summer. The author successfully ties these threads together without weighing down the narrative. VERDICT Recommended for readers who enjoy quirky coming-of-age stories and believe in the human connection.—Donald Peebles, New York Black Librarians Caucus

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