Book Review: Funny Story

Funny Story by Emily Henry

Genres: Romance, Fiction, Chick-Lit

Pages: 395

Format: ebook

My Rating: ⭐

I made a huge mistake reading this book. I read Book Lovers before, and I didn't like it at all. And if I were a normal person, I’d have avoided anything written by Emily Herny for a while. But no, I picked up Funny Story, asking for more torture. 

I gotta confess, I totally picked it because of FOMO. It seems like literally everyone is obsessed with it and my curiosity ate me up to check it out. I don't know why I had so high expectations I'd love it. I was wrong tho. Now I’m wondering if people are really head over heels for this book or if all the hype is fake. I'm not quite sure, but all I’m certain of is this book isn't a "Funny Story" by any means.

Like in Book Lovers, our main character gets dumped and then falls in love with an unexpected dude who's so very unlike her. Both heroines have jobs that have to do with books. The two share similar personality traits. The only difference is Daphne isn't as cold-hearted as Nora from Book Lovers.

The rest of the characters are either bland or straight-up annoying. I hated Ashleigh, she's so rigid and irritating. Peter and Petra are very unlikeable, and thank goodness we didn't have the chance to get to know them. And there's Miles who's as cringy as Daphne, their insta-love nonsense of a story with mommy and daddy issues was painful to read.

The book kicks off with Peter dumping his fiancée Daphne for his best friend Petra. So, heartbroken Daphne has no option but to move with Miles, Petra's ex. While both Daphne and Miles struggle bad with their hard breakups, Daphne tells Peter a lie to make him feel jealous. And then she and Miles get too close to each other in a very unrealistic way. Well... okay!   

The very first chapters were already hard to swallow. I was so uncomfortable with the way Daphne let Miles cuddle her from the back on the beach "to comfort her" and even kiss her wildly in front of her ex. All while keeping in mind he's just her stranger roommate! Don't tell me she lets Miles touch her this way just to make Peter and Petra jealous! We all know what they do alone.

The storyline is all flat and not romantic in any way. My brain refuses to accept the idea of a librarian letting a stoner touch her intimately "just to make her ex jealous" *wink wink*. 

Every single time Miles and Daphne make out or whatever and then they say, "We are friends", I wanted to stop reading this mess. Last time I checked, friends aren't that close in terms of touching, especially with both supposedly suffering a terrible breakup. 

And seriously, what the heck with Daphne moaning over food! That woman sounds like she's never had any proper food her whole life. She literally moans whenever she stuffs her mouth with whatever other than easy mac and chai, and that's creepy AF!

And how on earth isn't Miles on social media when he can easily text his sister every day! Doesn't he need a texting app (AKA social media) to do that? Or have I been living under a rock for ages? 

Also, I wanna say Miles is hands down the most immature male character I've ever come across. I’m not convinced at all a man would simply fall in love with someone in only less than 90 days!!! Miles is obviously scared of commitment. Anyone can tell he cared more about Petra and never loved Daphne. He was just creepingly having fun with Daphne and saw her as nothing more than a roommate with benefits. He’s like “fix me, Mommy Daphne” and I really really really abhor men like him. Period!

Some parts of the book were completely unnecessary and added nothing to the storyline. Descriptions of places, random stuff Daphne talks about, and the whole Ashleigh subplot. Not to mention the story of Miles' mom and Julia... meh. Add to that Daphne's dad and Starfire, ugh... I don't care about them all.

By the time I reached chapter 25, I was already losing interest in this book. I almost skipped parts, I was bored. I didn't care less what was going on cause actually nothing was happening. Yet, I forced myself to finish it. I have no idea why I didn't just DNF. Sometimes I feel like I have a thing for torturing myself with horrible books.

Bottom-line, Funny Story is pure cringe. It’s not romantic or even funny in the slightest. This wasn't a love story, it was a roommates with benefits story. I should have learned my lesson after reading Book Lovers, which also focused on sisterhood instead of romance. 

Generally speaking, I don’t think Emily Henry’s books are for me. Based on the 2 books I read by her, the plots are bland and not appealing enough to keep me entertained. And I think I'm not reading anything by her in the future. I'm not doing this to myself again. But I'm sure I’ll fall into the trap of her nice colorful illustrated book covers and the overhype.