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I was fully prepared to be an Emily Henry hater. 😭

Not for any good reason, either, which is admittedly lame. I think I'm realizing part of it is this lingering internalized misogyny I still carry around romance, "girly" media, and honestly pop culture in general. If something is hugely popular, especially with women, some contrarian part of my brain immediately wants to dismiss it or avoid engaging with it altogether. Like I'm somehow above it if I reject it first.

Which is interesting to sit with, because... ew. 🥴

I realized I wanted to give her writing a chance when I watched her movie on netflix and actually loved it. Again preparing to be a hater only to watch it TWICE in a few days bc I wanted to make my spouse also watch it lmao.

I'm about 52% into Funny Story now, and I'm having a genuinely good time with it. The writing feels very natural in a way I wasn't expecting. Emily Henry writes millennial characters well, in my opinion, which can be tricky. I've read books where millennial dialogue and interests feel painfully curated or weirdly infantilized, even as a millennial myself. Sometimes authors write thirty-somethings like they're trapped in a BuzzFeed article from 2014.

But here, the characters feel recognizable without feeling like caricatures.

What's standing out to me most is that she's not necessarily reinventing romance structurally. The tropes and beats are recognizable. But she elevates them through execution: the banter feels witty without sounding overly polished, the side plots support the emotional arc instead of hijacking it, and the Michigan setting gives the story this nostalgic, grounded feeling without making the details feel awkwardly pasted in.

She's not doing anything revolutionary. But what she does do, she does pretty well, in my opinion.

Anyway, I think this is becoming one of those reading experiences where I'm reflecting as much on my own reactions as the book itself. Curious if anyone else has had authors, genres, or popular books they were weirdly resistant to for reasons that turned out to be more about them than the actual work?

I'm gonna keep processing as I read. Will keep ya posted. Never too late to unlearn toxic ish! 🤸‍♀️💁‍♀️😬