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A review by theyellowbrickreader
Beach Read by Emily Henry
5.0
This book wrecked me. I mean there was a chapter I was crying through so much that I was reading two sentences at a time, squeezing my eyes shut, then opening and trying to find my place on the page to get two more sentences in before my eyes welled up again. I had just been thinking about how I love when books make me cry, and I hadn’t come across one in a while, then bam.
It didn’t start out this way. Admittedly, I was probably about 150 pages in, thinking to myself, ‘yeah, this book’s okayyy, but it’s just a typical summer romance.’ I wasn’t convinced by the enemies-to-lovers trope. There wasn’t enough enemy in the beginning and there was all this chemistry that felt forced. I mean how many times could she look at his sculpted arms and get stomach flips??
Then something happened. I don’t think it was meant to be a turning point in the novel, but for me it was. (Or, maybe it was designed that way and that’s the point- hooking me when I least expected it.) Suddenly, I cared deeply for these people. January and Gus got more real than ever and I yearned for watching the rest of their summer unfold.
Emily Henry is an author who had writer’s block and decided to cure it by writing a novel about an author who had writer’s block. I can’t help but be reminded of the time in college when I had an expository essay due for English class, and I couldn’t think of a topic. So at 5am on the day it was due, I started writing about the topic of procrastination. I got an A on the paper, and similarly, Emily Henry gets five stars on this book.
This is so much more than a summer romance. It’s a story of grief, of dealing with hard things, of learning to love someone who sees the world from an entirely different lens, of existing contentedly in moments rather than dwelling on the past or fearing the future.
A couple of my favorite quotes:
“I always liked that thought, the way two people really did seem to grow into one. Or at least two overlapping parts, trees with tangled roots.”
“‘I don’t need snowflakes.’ He kissed me. ‘As long as I have January.’”
For what it’s worth, this book is quintessentially its title. Take it in your bag, lay in the sand, let your surroundings disappear, hearing only the lapping waves of the ocean as everything in reality melts away and you sink into this Beach Read.
It didn’t start out this way. Admittedly, I was probably about 150 pages in, thinking to myself, ‘yeah, this book’s okayyy, but it’s just a typical summer romance.’ I wasn’t convinced by the enemies-to-lovers trope. There wasn’t enough enemy in the beginning and there was all this chemistry that felt forced. I mean how many times could she look at his sculpted arms and get stomach flips??
Then something happened. I don’t think it was meant to be a turning point in the novel, but for me it was. (Or, maybe it was designed that way and that’s the point- hooking me when I least expected it.) Suddenly, I cared deeply for these people. January and Gus got more real than ever and I yearned for watching the rest of their summer unfold.
Emily Henry is an author who had writer’s block and decided to cure it by writing a novel about an author who had writer’s block. I can’t help but be reminded of the time in college when I had an expository essay due for English class, and I couldn’t think of a topic. So at 5am on the day it was due, I started writing about the topic of procrastination. I got an A on the paper, and similarly, Emily Henry gets five stars on this book.
This is so much more than a summer romance. It’s a story of grief, of dealing with hard things, of learning to love someone who sees the world from an entirely different lens, of existing contentedly in moments rather than dwelling on the past or fearing the future.
A couple of my favorite quotes:
“I always liked that thought, the way two people really did seem to grow into one. Or at least two overlapping parts, trees with tangled roots.”
“‘I don’t need snowflakes.’ He kissed me. ‘As long as I have January.’”
For what it’s worth, this book is quintessentially its title. Take it in your bag, lay in the sand, let your surroundings disappear, hearing only the lapping waves of the ocean as everything in reality melts away and you sink into this Beach Read.