Book Summary: Funny Story by Emily Henry
Daphne always loved the way Peter told their story.
That is until it became the prologue to his actual love story with his childhood bestie, Petra.
Which is how Daphne ends up rooming with her total opposite and the only person who could possibly understand her predicament: Petra’s ex, Miles.
As expected, it’s not a match made in heaven – that is until one night, while tossing back tequilas, they form a plan.
And if it involves posting deliberately misleading photos of their adventures together, well, who could blame them?
But it’s all just for show, of course, because there’s no way Daphne would actually start her new chapter by falling in love with her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex . . . right?
Book Review: Funny Story by Emily Henry
Alright, let’s get one thing straight right off the bat – Emily Henry is an absolute master of her craft. I’m not just saying that because she’s a bestselling author or because her books are super popular. I’m saying it because the woman genuinely knows how to tell an incredible story that will yank every single emotion out of you until you’re an exhausted, drained, but profoundly satisfied puddle on the floor. Her latest novel “Funny Story” is the perfect example of why she’s one of the most talented voices in romance fiction today.
I’ll admit, when I first started this book, I had relatively low expectations. I’ve read so many romantic comedies that rely on cheap gimmicks, tired tropes, and predictable plots that I’ve become a bit jaded. But just a few chapters into “Funny Story,” I could already tell this was something wildly fresh and original. Henry isn’t interested in throwing together some half-baked romance just to cash grab the genre. She’s an honest-to-god artist when it comes to crafting these addictive romantic tales.
From the very first pages, Henry immerses you in this rich, vibrant world filled with complex characters who feel like people you’d actually encounter in real life. There’s an authenticity and emotional truth that radiates from every paragraph. The protagonist Daphne is the perfect example – she’s an introverted, socially anxious young woman who has built her entire world around her ex-fiancé Peter. When he blindsides her by dumping her for his childhood BFF Petra, Daphne’s entire sense of identity just shatters into a million pieces. Reading her spiral in the aftermath is nothing short of gutting because Henry articulates that pain with such visceral, unvarnished reality.
But incredibly, Henry somehow makes you feel every stitch of that emotional devastation without ever weighing down the story or making it feel like a slog. That’s because she laces the whole thing with this gloriously wicked sense of humor and sparkling wit that left me laughing out loud constantly. This book is an exquisite tragicomedy, where you’ll go from full-body cringes to belly laughs in the span of two pages. Henry makes it all feel so perfectly calibrated and authentic to the messiness of how people actually experience heartbreak, anxiety, grief, and all those big tangled emotions.
A huge part of what makes it work is the wonderful heroine at the center. I loved Daphne from the first paragraph – she’s flawed, neurotic, prickly, and haunted by deep insecurities, yet she’s also immensely relatable and sympathetic. This role could have been played as the typically cold, rigid “ice queen” romantic heroine in lesser hands. But Henry makes Daphne feel so wonderfully human instead. Her withering sarcasm and idiosyncratic inner narration had me cracking up, but I was equally moved by her moments of raw brained vulnerability where she lays her heart and soul bare. I saw so much of myself in Daphne that she leapt off the page for me.
When Daphne ends up becoming unlikely roommates with Petra’s ex-boyfriend Miles, that’s when “Funny Story” really kicks into another gear. Miles is the perfect romantic foil – he’s this unrepentant free spirit who practically radiates chaotic-adorable-himbo energy. On paper, he and Daphne should be a horrific mismatch as romantic partners. But the chemistry between them is explosive from their very first scene together. There’s an innate opposites-attract dynamism that feels so alive and crackling.
I was especially impressed by how Henry avoids cheap stereotypes in drawing these characters. In less skilled hands, Miles could have been just another manic pixie dream boy cliche—the wild, fearless dude who exists only to “fix” the neurotic girl. But Henry makes him so much richer than that by giving him incredibly vulnerable depths. Similarly, Daphne’s trademark bluntness and cynicism could have read as merely cold, but Henry renders these qualities with such empathy, wit, and self-awareness that you can’t help but root for this complicated person to get her hard-earned happy ending.
Really, “Funny Story” is a masterclass is how to craft nuanced, flesh-and-blood characters with incredible romantic chemistry. Even the secondary characters, like Daphne’s coworker Ashleigh and Miles’ sister Julia, are beautifully realized and never just simple scene-dressing. When you become so invested in every single person in a book’s world, you know you’re in the hands of a remarkable writer at the peak of her powers. And Henry is operating at unimpeachable levels here.
The storyline Henry constructs with these compelling characters is pure romantic comedy bliss. The fake dating premise that kicks the central romance into gear is such a tried-and-true trope, yet Henry makes it feel completely revitalized and electric through the sharpness of her humor and the authenticity of her characterizations. When Daphne and Miles pretend to date to make their exes jealous, what begins as a glib joke between two wounded people rockets into something fiercely emotional and cathartic. You’ll be cheering for these two messes to stop fighting their obvious connection and finally seal the deal.
What makes this fake dating plot even juicier is how incisively Henry explores things like self-sabotage, repression, and the various ways people seek to armor themselves from future heartbreak. The book is downright Freudian in some moments, getting so deep into Daphne and Miles’ psyches that it becomes akin to reading a case study into the human condition. There were multiple passages that opened my eyes into my own issues with vulnerability, commitment issues, fear of abandonment, and more. Henry doesn’t even need to preach or lecture – she just illuminates these emotional truths so gracefully through her character work.
Now I will say that as profound as “Funny Story” can be at times, it never veers into navel-gazing melodrama or heavy-handed angst. Henry always keeps things breezy, hilarious, and utterly impossible to put down. Even in the book’s darkest, most cathartic passages, you’re chuckling at some delectably biting aside or laughing through the tears. This is a genuinely profound romantic comedy that will make you believe in the endless possibility of love while still keeping both feet planted in reality. That’s an incredible tightrope to walk, but Henry does it with breathtaking grace and assuredness.
A few subplots like Miles’ relationship with his parents or some of the entanglements around the exes Peter and Petra could have used a bit more fleshing out. But in the end, these are minor gripes about what’s otherwise a gorgeous novel from a writer at the uppermost echelons of her craft. “Funny Story” is a revelation of a contemporary romance – a book that merges hilarity, heart, and empathetic wisdom in equal measures. Emily Henry is an author hitting her stride in such an exceptional way that it leaves me ecstatic to see what other gems she has in store for us. Read this one immediately – it will make your heart swell six sizes.
