The Antithesis of Romantic Comedy: Beach Read by Emily Henry

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Sixteen weeks on the New York Times bestsellers list, Beach Read by Emily Henry (2020), dubbed as contemporary romance fiction, is actually more of a novel that encapsulates the realities and complexities of an adult life — where there are money problems on trying to make ends meet, health concerns of parents arise who are either battling from a chronic disease or losing them because of it, and then suddenly relationship issues are as big as adultery, divorce, and premarital sex. Contrary to the bright sunny color of the book’s cover, it’s not an absolute lighthearted romance.

It’s about two alone, broke, and single thirty-year-old American writers based on the neighboring beach houses in North Bear Shores, Michigan, where the hopeless romantic meets the realist as they both struggle to write their next book; decide by a mutual agreement to switch to writing each other’s genre in order to salvage their stagnant careers and destructive selves from occasional cigarettes, alcohol, and relentless grief that ends up unpacking long years of traumas, personal issues, and even pondering the question of what their relationship with each other means to them. 

A relationship that may perhaps be described as passive-aggressive yet vulnerable. Like all romantic evolution, it starts off in a meet-cute where two opposites attract and turn from enemies to friends-with-benefits. January Andrews writes happily-ever-after romantic stories under women’s fiction, while Augustus (Gus) Everett disproves happy endings in his bleak literary fiction books. Their opposition on this matter at the early exposition of the story taps the light innocence of romantic comedy with open-ended dialogues in the form of clever and humorous banters. 

There is writing an oversized note to each other and holding it in front of their kitchen windows for the other to read, like a typical girl-and-boy-next-doors admiring each other from afar. There’s watching the sunset from the deck of the house in the late afternoons and nightfalls talking about life; that’s relatively Shakespearean. Then at the end of the workweek, they take turns taking each other to their research process; at romantic places and death-cult interviews to create a story different from what they believe in. 

The idea of lifting each other up from the creative ruts of their careers despite their opposing beliefs, setting a motivation in the semblance of healthy competition and rising together to the benchmark of their challenge is a profound testament of human compassion, and the perpetual flirtations and romantic gestures may seem benign. But as the story progresses the more, it becomes emotionally invested and intense. The inner monologues are long-drawn-out and spiral further into a deep sombreness dragging throughout the pages, making it hard to keep up. 

The redundancy of unplanned make-out sessions only forces them to reveal their backstories where the magnitude of drama emanates. There’s a lot going on — January’s history on why she suddenly struggles to write in her line of genre and has to go through the shift in the first place. Gus’s deal on how he becomes an emotionally unavailable renegade man, with a nihilistic view of happy endings, and keeps a safe distance once things become intimate. The status of their relationship: will they or will they not be together? And of course, there’s the mystery of death-cult interviews that perhaps exists only to balance the cliche of romance but otherwise is still overshadowed. 

It turns out the biggest twist here is that romance, in this work of fiction, is no comedy. Instead, here are two wretched characters that are tormented with the most traumatic tragedies of human suffering so they can fix each other. It’s a rather take on the post-pubescence of love affairs that contain susceptible and sensual contents and heavily dramatizes grief, loss, and trauma. Why Beach Read is titled the way it is  — is still a mystery. 

Beach Read, the first adult novel of Emily Henry, the New York Times bestselling author of the many acclaimed books about love and family (People We Meet on Vacation, 2021; Hello Girls, 2019; When the Sky Fell on Splendor, 2019; A Million Junes, 2017; and The Love That Split the World, 2016) is three out of five stars.