emily henry does it again — a funny story review
There is art to the modern-day rom-com. To create literary bliss in this field, one must strike the perfect balance of emotional investment and light-hearted banter all while curating the two perfect protagonists as a vessel for it all. Safe to say, it is not an easy job. However, if there is one person who can do it, it is Emily Henry.
Known for her quick-witted banter and happy endings, Emily Henry is romance royalty. So, when she announced her latest book — Funny Story — 9 months ago, it quickly became one of the most anticipated books of 2024 among romance readers, myself included.
The premise of Funny Story is completely intriguing. After being broken up with weeks before her wedding, Daphne is left to pick up the pieces of a life that was never really hers in the first place. Desperately needing somewhere to live, she moves in with the one person who may understand how she is feeling: Miles, the long-term boyfriend of the woman her ex left her for. After they both receive a shocking invitation to the wedding of their respective ex-partners in the post, they decide to make it look like they are dating on social media, to ensure that their exes know that they are happy and moving on too. As you can probably guess, one thing leads to another and the line between real and fake becomes blurred, making for a tension-filled, laugh-out-loud storyline. I loved this book.
After reading — and loving —all of Henry’s other romance books, my expectations going into Funny Story were admittedly high. Fortunately, I was enthralled from the get-go. The first chapter plunges the reader directly into the narrative deep end, all intertwined with details of the characters that familiarise us with them without information overload. We learn about Miles and Daphne through the way they talk and act, as well as through descriptions of their bedrooms in the apartment that they share. This metonymic writing style lays the perfect foundations for complete reader engagement, further strengthened by the first-person narrative written through the lens of Daphne that allows for full immersion into the story.
The characters themselves are loveable and so viscerally human. They are both fully formed but equally messy people and the additional subplots of familial complexities on both sides add a layer of vulnerability to the romance, making you root for them just that bit harder. Like all Emily Henry books, there is also a supporting cast of side characters who not only provide further insight into the lives of the protagonists but are also clearly defined people in their own right. In Funny Story, Miles’s sister, Julia, and Daphne’s co-worker/newfound friend, Ashleigh, add notable depth and comedic relief to the story that shouldn’t be overlooked. The beach-town setting of this book is another redeeming feature that contributes to the found-family undertones between the characters.
As for the romance element, Emily Henry knows what she is doing. The slow-burn trope at play makes for palpable tension that never becomes frustrating due to the crumbs of connection that readers are fed as the pages progress. I read Funny Story over one weekend, mainly in two big sittings each night simply because I couldn’t put it down — this is a testament to the cohesion of the novel and the satisfying progression of their relationship. Furthermore, the more intimate moments between Daphne and Miles didn’t feel forced or unnecessary which can be commonplace in contemporary romance. Everything that happens, every interaction between them felt like a natural outcome of the events that took place before it. Nothing ever felt trivial — even the third-act miscommunication trope that we all know and love — it served a purpose.
There is significant comfort to be found in the predictability of the modern romance book, however, there are only so many times you can read the same story in a different font before it borders on boring. This was a fear of mine when starting Funny Story — will this be different enough from Beach Read or Happy Place? But the effort and care that Emily Henry so evidently writes with prevents this risk from ever becoming actualised. By writing consistently brilliant, reliable romances, Henry has created a collection of stories and characters that could co-exist in the same world but are still entirely distinguishable from each other. She truly deserves every ounce of success that her cult-following brings her. I couldn’t recommend Funny Story enough.