Shattered. That is the only way to describe how I’m feeling in this moment. But in the best way if that makes sense? I am approximately 60 seconds out from finishing this book and I wanted to get all my thoughts out while they’re still fresh.
Emily Henry has given me the most frustrating, beautiful and relatable novel I think I’ve ever read. And while I can’t say I’ve ever been close enough with a guy to vacation with them for 12 years, I understand exactly how Poppy felt throughout the story. Henry touches on some topics through Poppy that I think everyone has felt at some point. Those brief moments where you question being accepted, heard and most importantly loved.
We see our main character struggle with this throughout the book. We learn right away that she is a bright, out-going and loud individual who seems to learn new things about herself when she’s on a good vacation. Meeting strangers, seeing new things and getting to be somebody else for a short period of time unlocks something in her and she lives for that.
Alex on the other hand is the complete opposite. He’s an up-tight, organized, control freak that thrives more off of a minute-by-minute itinerary rather than just “going with it”. He loves to plan and think 8 steps ahead and she rolls with the punches.
Despite every difference they have, they are best friends. Alex is stable and dependable. Poppy is spontaneous and carefree. They balance each other out.
One of the things I loved most about this book was the way Henry tells their story, gracefully switching back and forth between the past and present. We read about how their friendship began, their past trips together and at the same time see what they are currently going through. It gave me a much better understanding about what lead their friendship to break and how they fought to rebuild it. It was perfect and I don’t say that lightly.
While a good portion of the book was spent playing catch up by showing us the start of their friendship, I loved reading about their present life and finding out things when our main character did. I always get a rush of excitement and find myself putting the book down for a minute to recover from the new pieces of information I got, as if it is happening to me personally.
This novel in particular swallowed me whole, and for the entire 23 hours in total it took me to finish it, I was Poppy having to figure out my life. What I wanted, what I needed and everything in-between.
The only thing I can think of that could have made this book better (if that’s even possible) was if it switched chapters to Alex’s point of view. I’m a sucker for duel-POV story and especially with this book I was slightly frustrated not knowing what he was feeling and what was going through his head.
Overall, this book crushed my heart by setting yet another impossible level of relationship goals. I have never been so torn when finishing a story; excited that I know what happened, but also wanting to build a time machine so I can go back and read it again for the first time.
If you haven’t already, go read this book. It was a great read and written so well. That’s it, bye!
Stars: 5/5
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