FUNNY STORY by Emily Henry, read by Julia Whelan
- Publisher: Penguin Audio, April 23rd, 2024
- Genre: Romance
- Format: Audiobook
- Length: 11h 22m (387 pages)
Click on the cover for my review on Goodreads.
This is my third Emily Henry book, and maybe it’s because I just finished it and the memory is still fresh, but I might love this more than Happy Place and Book Lovers.
Daphne Vincent (33) and Miles Nowak (36) became roommates when Daphne’s ex-fiancĂ© Peter dumped her after his bachelor’s party and got together with his childhood best friend Petra, who was Miles’ girlfriend at the time. As Daphne looks to get out of small town Michigan (but only after a library readathon she’s hosting in the near future), Miles promises to show Daphne around the town, as she never got to go anywhere with Peter. With family drama blowing through the two roommates, they have to fight for their bond and the friendship that is shifting into sexual territories.
We do love a story where the characters struggle with childhood trauma. With a father who had been largely absent during Daphne’s childhood, she felt like she was always waiting to be chosen, waiting to be important enough so her dad (or, really, anyone else in her life other than her bestie of a mother) would stay, and moving around growing up definitely didn’t help. Miles struggled with protecting his little sister Julia from their mother’s emotional abuse, but his childhood had also led him to being very rarely riled up even by the worst things, not necessarily in a good way.
Daphne and Miles are two people who have seen each other at their worst, and I think that’s what made their bond so strong. For most of the book, they weren’t dating each other. They go on cute friend dates where Miles, a scruffy charming guy, showed Daphne around the town, half of whose population he had befriended with. They get to see one another being in their realm — Daphne doing story hours for children at the library and Miles making friends with strangers of all ages — and gradually, their fake relationship that Daphne panic-lied to Peter about became very, very real.
Miles showed Daphne how to build a life not just with him but also without him, unlike how Daphne’s life used to circle around Peter’s when they’d been a couple. Fellow librarian Ashleigh (Persian) also played an important role in Daphne’s life: being her friend who sticks around.
If Narnia is also one of the books you’ve read growing up, you’d definitely appreciate the mention of it in the story. Also shout out to Daphne being very adamant about audiobooks count as reading, because, duh, of course it does.
My head canon is that Daphne is autistic and Miles is demisexual. There are also various queer minor characters: Barb and Lenora are definitely an older lesbian couple, and Cherry Hill founders are husbands.
I listened to the audiobook narrated by Julia Whelan, and it was awesome.
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