Book Review: People We Meet on Vacation—By Emily Henry

A few years ago, when on vacation with my brother, I read Happy Place. It was a nice light read and a great vacation book. When People We Meet on Vacation came out on Netflix, I knew I wanted to read the book first before watching the movie.

Brief Synopsis

Poppy met Alex in the first year of university when she needed a ride home for summer break, and he happened to be from the same small town. Over the course of the drive, they became friends and started a tradition of going on a summer trip, which continued for the next 12 summers. Throughout those 12 years, there were lots of changes in both their lives. Alex becomes a teacher in their small town, and Poppy moves to New York and lands her dream job as a travel blogger. Yet, as their lives continue to grow apart, they stay drawn to each other, and these summer trips continue, even after one trip to Croatia leaves them not talking for two years.

People we Meet on Vacation, by Emily Henry, book cover from Emily Henry books.

Personal review

I thoroughly enjoyed the way Emily Henry chose to tell this story. Like every rom-com book, I knew it was going to be a slow burn. Every other chapter recounts the experiences of Poppy and Alex from a previous summer vacation they took together, while the following chapter returns to the awkward vacation they are currently on. I love a book with time jumps, and I think it's a great way to tell stories by consistently building context while bringing the reader back to the protagonist's current situation in real time. 

My biggest gripe with the book was that I don't think it would have taken Poppy & Alex 10 or 12 years to finally have a romantic moment or decide they should try and be together. Their first few vacations together show they are more honest with each other than with coworkers or classmates. As well, it's difficult to believe that they both tried to maintain romantic relationships more than once while continuing to go on these summer vacations. Most of the time on the summer trips, the two of them would share a room and sometimes even a bed. I find it hard to believe that in a real-life situation where two people discuss each other and the vacations they go on so fondly, their partners would be okay with them continuing these very suspicious summer trips together. 

I think this book could have been adapted into a wonderful movie or even a mini-series where each episode covered two of the previous summer trips while also cutting back to the present day. But after reading the book, I found the movie to be a bit of a letdown. I was so excited to watch the chemistry build over clips from previous vacations and to see the way they came together in the present day at the wedding, but truly, the movie is quite the mishmash of scenes from the book. I didn't like how much the present-day scenes differed from the book and how Alex and Poppy's relationship timeline was shortened. It also bothered me that in the movie, Alex proposes to Sarah in front of Poppy, whereas in the book, he just buys a wedding ring but then ends his relationship with Sarah. I think the movie is good if you haven't read the book, and of course its fun to see how scenes from the book get translated onto the big screen, but ultimately, I feel that the movie felt a bit rushed. That being said, I would love to see a Happy Place movie.

Favourite quote

"But everyone gets lonely sometimes, and whenever that happens, I buy a plane ticket and go to the airport and - I don't know. I don't feel lonely anymore. Because no matter what makes those people different, they're all just trying to get somewhere, waiting to reach someone."

My rating: 6.5/10