Book Review :: Funny Story by Emily Henry

Funny Story by Emily Henry
on 23 April 2024
Genres: Romance
Pages: 400
Goodreads

Daphne always loved the way her fiancé, Peter, told their story. How they met (on a blustery day), fell in love (over an errant hat), and moved back to his lakeside hometown to begin their life together. He really was good at telling it... right up until the moment he realized he was actually in love with his childhood best friend Petra.

Which is how Daphne begins her new story: stranded in beautiful Waning Bay, Michigan, without friends or family but with a dream job as a children’s librarian (that barely pays the bills), and proposing to be roommates with the only person who could possibly understand her predicament: Petra’s ex, Miles Nowak.

Scruffy and chaotic—with a penchant for taking solace in the sounds of heart break love ballads—Miles is exactly the opposite of practical, buttoned-up Daphne, whose coworkers know so little about her they have a running bet that she’s either FBI or in witness protection. The roommates mainly avoid one another, until one day, while drowning their sorrows, they form a tenuous friendship and a plan. If said plan also involves posting deliberately misleading photos of their summer adventures together, well, who could blame them?

But it’s all just for show, of course, because there’s no way Daphne would actually start her new chapter by falling in love with her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex... right?

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What is Funny Story by Emily Henry about?

Funny Story by Emily Henry is about Daphne and Miles and their complicated roommate arrangement. Sort of. After being dumped by her fiancé, Peter, who reveals he’s actually in love with his childhood friend Petra, Daphne starts fresh. She takes on a new job as a children’s librarian, but it barely covers the bills, even if she does love it.

When Daphne comes up with the idea of moving in with Miles Nowak, Petra’s ex, she doesn’t expect much. Miles is the complete opposite of Daphne—emotionally messy and carefree, while she’s practical and buttoned-up. But what starts as an awkward living arrangement soon blossoms into a reluctant friendship.

“You can’t force a person to show up, but you can learn a lesson when they don’t.”

In an attempt to cope with their shared heartaches and distract themselves from their complicated pasts, Daphne and Miles come up with a quirky plan to post staged photos of their summer adventures, pretending to be the perfect couple. What begins as a harmless diversion soon becomes a game they both play along with.

As their staged adventures grow more fun and their connection deepens, Daphne can’t help but wonder, as the description says: Is she falling for her ex-fiancé’s fiancé’s ex?

My Thoughts on Funny Story

This was my first ever Emily Henry read. She’s been on my TBR for a long time but I’ve just never got around to picking up one of her books. According to a friend of mine, my first read should have been Book Lovers, but here we are. Ah well.

Funny Story was a lot of fun. I actually listened to the audiobook version of this, and for the most part, it was a great read/listen. Daphne and Miles were enjoyable as main characters, and you really hated Peter and Petra, their exes respectively, for doing what they did our MCs.

You, as a reader, knew it was going to all be pear-shaped at some point because that’s what the climax of these sorts of stories is, but I did really appreciate some of the aspects of that build-up to chaos, and the turns of events and understandings and realisations along the way.

“The same universe that dispassionately takes things away can bring you things you weren’t imaginative enough to dream up.”

About two-thirds of the way through, I did get sick of Daphne, though, I have to say. I can’t put my finger on why, I just suddenly wanted the happily ever after bit and didn’t care about that just-before bit, if you see what I mean.

I did appreciate and really enjoy how Daphne works in a library though, as books are such a major part of my life. It was brilliant to hear The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis mentioned multiple times in there, too, and see the joy that brought Daphne to hang out with the kids at the library all the time.

Overall, while there were things I got sick of, I did enjoy my first Emily Henry book and looked forward to reading others!

Have you read Funny Story? What did you think?