Book Review for Emily Henry’s People We Meet on Vacation.

Posted On May 20, 2021

Hi Readers! How are you all doing? With cyclone & power outages these past few days, I was able to read a little more than I can during a workweek. I finished reading Emily Henry’s ‘People We Meet on Vacation’. I had been wanting to read this book for a long time for reasons unknown. I had read the author’s debut novel ‘Beach Read’ last year. The common thing between both these novels is that both are in the romance genre, both are rated & reviewed very highly & I hated reading both of them. I would just boycott reading romance novels if not for the 5 Romance Books I have to read for my 2021 Reading Challenge. Anyway, let’s get into it. Not going to write a long review on this, because honestly, there is nothing to write. 

~~GOODREADS DESCRIPTION~~ 

Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love. 
 
Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together. 

Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven’t spoken since. 
 
Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees. 
 
Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong? 
 
From the New York Times bestselling author of Beach Read, a sparkling new novel that will leave you with the warm, hazy afterglow usually reserved for the best vacations. 

~~THOUGHTS~~ 

At times, I read the blurb & at times I don’t. I did not read the blurb for this novel because I was hell bent on reading it no matter what & now I have no idea why. (Expected better from my young self.) Anyway, from that moment of deciding not to read the blurb till finishing the novel, it has been a whole lot of unnecessary reading. Quite a waste of time. 

~~THEME~~ 

When you read the title of any book, you imagine what kind of story it would be. I imagined it to be a lot about vacations, especially since all the sane people are not able to take vacations in this pandemic. But no. It’s just about pretend platonic friends who take summer trips together for 12 years. This friends-turned-lovers theme is as old as any. It was stretched meaninglessly in this book. How can two people who have no boundaries & who express their love on a daily basis to each other, never cross that line in 12 years? It seems downright unbelievable & just plain stupid. Neither did I enjoy the fake vacations which lured me into reading the book, nor did I enjoy reading this plot. 

Also, the ending where we actually understand the title of the book – What was that? It was such an unoriginal & opposite of Humans of New York bit to it. Uninspired, as Swapna would say it. 

~~CHARACTERS~~ 

Poppy & Alex are our stereotypical characters. It felt like there was no thought put into them & definitely no imagination into their personal characters as they grew up. Alex, the oldest of his 4 brothers is a shy man who likes control in his life. Poppy, the youngest of 3 siblings is a loud, colourful person living her life in the city. 

Apart from this obvious introvert-extrovert polar opposite thing, there was also the co-dependent thing which repulsed me. How can any person be so emotionally dependent on another? Honestly, it was pitiful to read those parts of the story. 

~~WRITING~~ 

I did not enjoy reading Beach Read & somehow People We Meet on Vacation was somehow more insufferable. A lot of it has to do with my hatred towards the genre, but even people in love are not as stupid as Poppy & Alex are throughout this novel. 

There are two story lines in this. The first one is the present where Alex & Poppy are having a tortured vacation in Palm Springs. The second one involves the flashbacks to all those infinite number of summer trips they took together. Neither of the parts were enjoyable for me. Also, it could be because I did not like reading this book, but it felt like it was WAY TOO LONG. 

~~TO READ OR NOT TO READ~~ 

If you love romance genre & have loved reading Emily Henry’s Beach Read, then go for it! You might like it. After all, the majority of the Goodreads community has loved this book. Although, if you like to read something worthwhile with a structure & which makes sense, then please don’t read People We Meet on Vacation. I have rated it at 2/5 stars! 

Until next time,