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Woman in the ocean
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Culture > Entertainment

Why Emily Henry’s Books are Girl Dinner Coded

Cassy Coyne
The opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the views of Her Campus.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at SBU chapter.

I am an Emily Henry connoisseur. Emily Henry is an American author who tailors her romance books to the oldest daughters of the family, the ones who require consistent academic validation, and those who can appreciate the beauty of a small town; bonus if it’s a small town near an ocean or lake.

That’s just my opinion, anyway. 

I have read all of Emily Henry’s book except one. I absolutely adore her writing style and the plot lines of her book. They are relatable without ever being cringe-worthy, and her detail is never redundant. If I had to put a label on her writing, I would label it as tasteful. All of the time. 

She also writes romance books and that is my favorite genre. They are easy to fly through and get sucked into. 

This summer I practically leaped to my Kindle store when I saw on Instagram that Emily Henry’s new book “Funny Story” was released. 

I power through Emily Henry’s books pretty much just as fast as it takes to click “buy” on my Kindle. I devour them like a good ol’ girl dinner and before I know it, I’ve finished reading! Giiiiiirl dinner.

A quick synopsis: “Funny Story” centers on the main character Daphne and the novel begins by telling the story of Daphne and her fiancé Peter who met by chance, fell in love and ultimately got engaged and moved to his lakeside hometown in Waning Bay, Michigan. 

Just as a side note: I always look up the setting places she talks about. Waning Bay is a fictional town, but the real locations she picks for her various plots all make perfect sense when it comes to the types of characters involved and the different events that go on. She is so thoughtful, and I love that!

Anyways, Peter realizes that he is actually in love with his best friend Petra. Not only does he come to this realization, but he does so at his bachelor party just weeks before his and Daphne’s wedding. 

Awful. 

Moral of the story, Daphne is now stranded in Michigan far away from her hometown friends and her family as she searches for a job in another city. Now, she needs a roommate, and the only other person she knows would be looking for a roommate is none other than Petra’s ex, Miles. 

Daphne and Miles become roommates. The two are complete opposites and they end up falling in love; you can imagine the complexity with this. I won’t spoil anything. But that’s the run-down. 

The beauty of reading on a Kindle is that I can highlight pieces of the story and it takes note of it in my Goodreads account so I can look back on it later. I can also choose what highlights I want to annotate or make public or private. This is quite convenient when I decide to talk about how much I love this book and need some references to jog my memory.

By the way, if you enjoy reading, get a Goodreads account. You’d be crazy to not consider it. It keeps track of how many books you read, and you can set up a reading challenge for the year. You also get to add friends and see what they’re reading along with the ratings they assigned for books they have read.

Regardless, the characters were so well-rounded, and Henry does a phenomenal job at giving them depth; this makes it easy to relate to their thoughts and actions. I personally love a messier romance story, so a romance involving ex-lovers intrigued me immediately. Alas, that’s just a preference of mine. 

Here’s a discussion of some of the 19 highlights from “Funny Story” that I noted.

  • “The last thing I needed was another halfhearted gesture from a man who sort of loved me.”

I think being in a healthy relationship really strengthens my insight as I read her books. I will never settle for being half-loved again.

  • “The escape hatch I’ve been waiting for, right when the whole house of cards is falling down, and I should feel happy, or at least relieved, but all I can feel is this whole-chest ache, yet another loss of someone, something, I didn’t even have to begin with.”

It’s really hard to describe in words the feeling of losing someone. I have had breakups, friends and partners, that came unexpected and that I’ve healed from, but are still not the easiest to comprehend.

  • “…think about Ashleigh too, and her ex, how he was fine with things being just okay, too scared to go deeper in search of greatness when it meant risking change.”

Jumping into big decisions like going to college two hours away after becoming heavily dependent on being home with my family during Covid-19 was certainly not an easy way out. It scared me to death! I could have commuted 20 minutes to a nearby university and took the comfortable route. I think the key to a lot of things in life is to not settle. That’s what this quote made me think of when I read it.

  • “He knows me. He loves me. It wasn’t just a pretty word, thrown out in a convenient moment. It was true. And it makes me feel brave, being loved by him. It makes me safe enough to do the thing I never could.”

I feel loved through people’s actions. I find it most meaningful when people express their love for me through physical touch and acts of service. Words are great and all, but it’s not my preference.

Is this an appropriate time to plug the Five Love Languages test?

If you end up reading “Funny Story”, I hope you love it as much as I do.

Cassy is a new Her Campus SBU chapter member who writes about her physical and emotional journeys, topics she adores, but also any topic that comes to mind that week. At St. Bonaventure, Cassy is Vice President of the SBU College Democrats chapter, a Student Ambassador for admissions, and a member of SBU's EMPOWER club on campus. Cassy is a senior whose double-major is Adolescence Education with Disabilities and History, and she could not say enough praise about her "Ad-Ed" cohort who have become her rock at school. This semester she will be student teaching at two local schools at the middle and high school level. When Cassy is not at St. Bonaventure, she resides in the Finger Lakes area and enjoys substitute teaching where she gets to work with her former school teachers and build relationships with students. She loves attending country concerts during the summer at her favorite concert venue on Canandaigua Lake, CMAC. In her free time, Cassy enjoys perfecting her Spotify profile, reading on her Kindle, working out, and sitting on the porch– coffee in hand– with her roommates. Recently, her most frequented albums are Noah Kahan's "Stick Season" and Zach Bryan's "The Great American Bar Scene." In terms of books, Emily Henry remains a staple author in her reading life and "Funny Story" was her favorite read this past summer.