I got the recommendation to read Beach Read by Emily Henry on Booktok. Honestly, I still don't know why I fell for another Booktok rave ‘cause they've failed me a couple of times before (don't even get me started on that). I picked up Beach Read because many people were commending it like it was the best thing since jollof rice and partly because the cover looked fun and it was a short read. However, it took me more than two weeks to finish just 384 pages. I'm really disappointed that it wasn't a phenomenal read like many claimed and I'm not going to be nice about it.
The story revolves around two writers, Gus and January. The two were former classmates with a frenemies history in college. January is more into fairytale romance genres while Gus writes dark literary fiction. The two are polar opposites but seem to make a good pair. They meet again as successful writers when January moves to Gus's town to escape a family-related heartbreak. Long story short, She finds out her haughty neighbor is actually Gus, her hottie nemesis from college (pun intended). January is suffering from writer's block and surprise, surprise! so is Gus. They somehow make a writing pact that births a very anti-climatic romance.
Disclaimer: This is my overview of the plot, I'm sure some other readers will describe it differently.
I feel like Emily Henry had a lot to do with the plot, but she kept holding back for reasons unknown to me. The storyline got more and more off-putting as it progressed. It was like slowly ripping off a bandaid. The female protagonist, January, was self-sabotaging in a very ridiculous way. She was always looking for new ways to throw a pity party and it burdened the plot at a point.
Still on the subject of characterization, the book either needed more or less of characters like Pete and Maggie {Gus's aunt and her partner }. I don't think the plot would have missed them.
While Beach read appealed to my writer's side, my reader's side feels cheated and is not in the least impressed. There was nothing fascinating to look forward to and all the author did was exploit Gus's trauma using the usual tsundere storyline. As if that was not enough, I had to flip through pages and pages of January wallowing continuously in self-pity.
Perhaps the only part I enjoyed in the story was the enemies to friends and even the comfort of that was short-lived.
Maybe because it was titled beach read and the cover was colorful, I expected something more jovial, something "beachy" in a way and the book faltered. It's painful that I couldn't love it as much as I wanted to, however, I don't mind trying out another one of Emily Henry's books. She's an excellent writer and I hope Beach Read is not her best work.
Would I read Beach Read by Emily Henry again or recommend it to anyone? No, I would not and I say that with the utmost respect. It was a plain boring, one-time read for me and I wouldn't wish such an underwhelming experience on anybody.
Translations
Booktok: slang for the novel community on Tiktok
Tsundere: Tsundere is a Japanese term that depicts a character with a personality who is initially very harsh on the outside before gradually showing a warmer, friendlier side over time.
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