People We Meet on Vacation

It’s almost November and as promised, I’m here to take you on vacation with Poppy and Alex in Emily Henry’s 2021 romance novel, People We Meet on Vacation. Coincidentally, it’s being turned into a movie with Emily Bader and Tom Blyth. I think it’s definitely going to be a much better book to movie adaptation than It Ends With Us was. Not that I’ve seen or read the book, but word gets around online communities you know. And I feel like people need better adaptations. So I have high hopes that the movie is going to turn out great. The novel tho, I’m not sure. It’s definitely not my favourite Emily Henry novel but it’s not my least favourite either. I’ve read this one, Book Lovers, and Beach Read. I’ve gotten to experience the author’s style so I feel I can confidently comment on style, setting, characters, and structure.

Poppy is a travel blogger who turned her passion into her job and now gets to visit the places she dreamt of with her best friend and a quite hefty budget she would not have personally. On her trip to Croatia, an unspeakable event has left her estranged from her guy bestie, Alex. She feels empty without him in her life. Encouraged by her New York friend and an opportunity at work, she puts in one last effort to get back what they had.

I’m going to start off with what I enjoyed and appreciated. Thank you Mrs. Henry for not making this book smutty. You can never be too careful when scrolling on online or on social media. Unless you specifically search for that, you can be easily mislead by cute book covers and heartfelt romantic plots. Poppy and Alex are adults and their story reflects adult situations like dealing with careers, living alone, finding a stable romantic partner, and of course, sex. There was one sex scene, completely skippable and not plot altering. Personally I prefer “fade to black” type of scenes where they start kissing and the chapter cuts before anything too passionate starts.

I also liked that Alex was an emotionally mature man, in touch with his wants and needs but also respectful of others and considerate. He didn’t feel selfish when standing up for himself and when he was unsure about his relationship with his ex, it didn’t feel indecisive out like someone trying to live by YOLO. He appeared confused and lost, which is natural, especially with human relationships. I will admit this secret longing for Poppy he has is annoying for me. I’m a really direct person so I’m not the type to wait around 10, 20 years to confess my love for someone for fear of ruining a friendship. If I do, it sucks for sure, but I will have no regrets. 10 years is a long time and the other person can probably pick up on your romantic feelings. They might question your gestures toward them and by being direct and honest from the beginning, you leave no room for misinterpretation and I feel there would be less of a lack of communication.

I’m now going to switch to the “not so good” parts by jumping off of this issue with communication. I HATE (yes all in caps) MISCOMMUNICATION. I just hate it from the bottom of my heart. This doesn’t mean you have to confess everything about you to the other person but there is also a bare minimum that needs to be said because it’s too frustrating to witness people misreading others and leading to stressful situations. It’s something to read about a main character getting in a car accident and struggling to stay alive and another when the main character talks about their ex but is overheard by the love interest who assumes it’s the present and now they don’t get together because the love interest won’t stand up for themselves and confront the main character. It’s getting worse and worse as you age because teenagers, I can sort of excuse. You brain’s not developed, you crave drama, whatever. But when you are an adult who tries to find a life partner and you give up after something as childish as this? Nope. It’s just telling me you like to mope and pity yourself. And that is what happens between Poppy and Alex. Something happened on one of their vacations and now they won’t confront it and it divides them and shatters their friendship. Not because of the event, but because they don’t talk about it. So I’m gonna rephrase my previous idea to say that Alex is emotionally mature. When it comes to others. But when it’s Poppy, we’re back in high school. Plot wise, semi-original. Going on all these vacations is pretty entertaining, especially for people who like to travel and Henry skillfully made it financially realistic by having Poppy be a travel writer for a blog. But this whole dynamic of Alex and Poppy having opposite personalities and never quite getting the courage to call out their feelings is giving me Normal People vibes. Now I’ve had a discussion with a friend about this and she said that she doesn’t see too much resemblance with Normal People, not even for the trope. According to her, the romance in Normal People started much faster and the story revolved around the characters trying to overcome the social barriers their relationship faced. I think she has a point in saying that it’s not very very similar, but I feel there must have been a reason for me to think of Normal People while reading People on Vacation. Poppy and Alex have quite opposing personality traits. He’s very organized and introverted while Poppy is messy, outgoing, and energetic. Marianne and Connell from Normal People also have this opposing dynamic. She comes from a relative wealthy background and he doesn’t. He’s popular at school while she finds comfort in her own company. I will admit Normal People is deeper and is truly an adult novel. People on Vacation seems more like a novel older teens read for fun on the beach. Emily Henry writes in the analysis section at the end of the novel that she was inspired by When Sally Met Harry. Of course, with her admitting that, we can definitely see the resemblance and find common themes between the artistic works related to girl-boy social dynamics.

Here’s another annoying plot point for you: the biggest downfall Poppy has experienced was her ruptured friendship with Alex. She has great role model for a boss who feels a bit too lenient with Poppy in my opinion. Her rich best friend always makes time to see her and shapes Poppy into a wonderful person. She gives her advice and helps her navigate life in New York. Poppy has 2 wonderfully cheerful parents who are happily married. She leads a middle-class life so nothing to complain about over there. I guess I’m trying to say this story feels childish for late 20s adults.

The last annoying detail I will attack is the big secret. The whole reason their friendship fell apart. It’s not that deep and a few chapters in, you can already guess close to the bulls-eye what happened to split these two. It’s kinda like when you have a friend that’s trying to be coy and saying nothing is going on between her and this guy and we all know they are full-on dating. It’s not this huge secret and it’s not that big of a deal ok? Alex didn’t burn down Poppy’s apartment out of revenge. Honestly that was my first though about their big secret. Maybe he got her fired or ruined something important of hers. But nope, it’s just a simple little thing, you’ll see.

Conclusion: if you desperately need to reach your reading goal and it’s the only book on sale, then yes, please read it. Otherwise, you’re better spending your money on Emily Henry’s other books, like Book Lovers. That one was gold. And you know what else is gold: December’s pick! It’s not a guilty pleasure book that requires 2 brain cells. It will definitely get you thinking and I feel like it’s the type of book that they would ask you to analyze in high school that you secretly love and finished all the readings wayyyy before the deadline. It’s called Trust and it was written by Herman Diaz. It was quite refreshingly original and Diaz truly deserves his Pulitzer win last year for that. Stick around next month to find out why it’s so amazing.

Until then, keep exploring those pages!