Funny Story by Emily Henry is everything that a romance novel should be. It feels like summer, and it feels like hope, and every word sparkles on the page. It’s so easy to love Henry’s characters and to appreciate her clever means of storytelling, but Miles Nowak and Daphne Vincent feel different. They’re lighter, even amid the crosses they carry. Their relationship feels like everything Taylor Swift embodies with the lyrics “for the hope of it all.”
The pacing is perfect, the banter is sharp, and the tender beats of longing are present throughout the entire novel. While all her books are brilliant gifts in the romance world, Funny Story might just be Henry’s best work to date.
What continues to be so indescribably impressive about Henry’s work is how she says so much with a few short words. It’s a gift I still can’t process, and I’ve been studying and analyzing writing longer than I’ve been doing anything else. With this, Funny Story shimmers with the kind of easy-going coziness that makes the forced proximity feel liberating and not at all confining. It’s hard to imagine how anyone could manage the fake dating trope again when Miles and Daphne set the ultimate standard for it. There’s a casualty sprinkled into every page that makes each little interaction white-hot in the most effortless manner.
It’s easy to get to know both Miles and Daphne while we laugh and move through time with them. There are emotions filling the space between them that Henry doesn’t even utter on-page, but we feel it in between the words. Everything that stretches and expands between them plays out so seamlessly that their inevitable collisions feel like homecoming to the readers, too. When people say they want an escape from the real world—to dive into a novel that feels like every good memory flashing before your eyes, this is what they mean. Funny Story by Emily Henry is that novel—it’s everything that’s beautiful, all at once. It feels like a cozy bonfire and summer rain at the same time. It feels like jumping in the water after a long, excruciatingly hot day and then unwinding on the couch later at night.
Of all her stories, Funny Story is the hardest to put into words because it’s funny and heartwarming simultaneously. The individual tropes blend so seamlessly that it feels like you’re reading it all for the first time. Refreshing and familiar, still. It’s an achievement for which there are genuinely so few words. Fake dating and forced proximity have truly never been better.
It’s a love letter to librarians, it’s a love letter to messy people, organized people—the ones who have it together and the ones who don’t. It’s a love letter that emphasizes what it means to be complete, and it’s a love letter that simultaneously underscores the importance of friendships. While Henry’s novels always feature a group of great people alongside the main couple, they feel different here. They’re all nuanced and layered and so deeply relatable that there’s a high chance people will consistently resonate with the words the characters say aloud.
There’s also something to be said about how Henry is one of the few writers who could write a single point of view while still managing to convey the emotions we need from all characters to feel like we’re profoundly immersed in the story. Additionally, Miles and Daphne’s individual struggles are handled with such immense care that they’ll unquestionably comfort readers in ways they may not expect. Their struggles feel entirely raw and genuine without ever feeling fabricated for the sake of a story.
It features one of the best fake kisses, one of the best real kisses, one of the hottest counter-sex scenes, one of the most honest declarations of love, and some of the most charming interactions throughout, making their whole story feel like a song you never want to take off of replay.
Funny Story by Emily Henry is now available wherever books are sold.
First Featured Image | Book Cover Credit: ©Emily Henry | Berkley