People We Meet on Vacation is Emily Henry’s Lowest Ranked Novel Here’s Why

Last year, I was introduced to the world of popular romance authors and read Emily Henry’s 2021 novel, Beach Read. While the story wasn’t groundbreaking, it is one of the better contemporary romance novels. Even last week, I recommended it to my sister, warning her to not be deceived by the bright yellow cover when the story is set to a rainy backdrop of two loathing, angsty writers.

And since venturing further into the romance genre, my dearest friend gifted me two more of Emily Henry’s books as a little bridal shower gift to moi. I started reading People We Meet on Vacation while actually on vacation. Something about sitting under a palm tree next to an ocean breeze while sunscreen mists onto you from a nearby exhausted mother of four felt like a prerequisite to this book.

I read 90 pages in one day, and then I didn't touch it again for a month.

So how does a book by a skilled, popular author get me to read that many pages only for me to put the book down and be okay with it? Let’s dive into the storytelling elements People We Meet On Vacation got right and what could have used more sunscreen to avoid burning readers.

Spoilers ahead!

This Concept is Anything But a Vacation

People We Meet On Vacation’s concept goes a little something like this: millennial blogger turned magazine writer travels the world only to realize getting everything she wanted doesn’t make her happy so she goes on a trip with her best friend to patch up what they broke in an attempt to find happiness again.

Now, I’m not a millennial. I sometimes claim myself to be; I was born in the late 90s with three older siblings, but the cliche that millennials want to travel the world or that they hate their hometown and they’re all social media influencers and bloggers isn’t new or fresh. There’s nothing interesting about it, and it’s not relatable. Nor is it true. It’s an overgeneralization and simplification of a complex generation, and it’s an author’s responsibility to honestly reflect the world as they see it, which means Henry views millennials as a cliche rather than a compelling trope (which is unfortunate) thus stifling the story’s potential. 

While the concept of People We Meet On Vacation does have the necessary elements of a protagonist with a goal to achieve and an internal conflict to overcome, whatever edge makes a concept compelling to an author has to be notched up a ridiculous amount so that it’s interesting to someone who isn’t compelled by it. Selling water to fish is the trademark of a good salesman.

Even if I’m not the target demographic or similar to the protagonist, I should at some level be intrigued by the main character’s pursuit to patch up a friendship, but I’m not because there’s nothing at stake. Let’s say the main character, Poppy, doesn’t get her best friend back and stays unhappy. Would she become depressed? Would she spiral downhill to homelessness and become a drug addict with suicidal ideation? Now that’s something at stake. People We Meet On Vacation  would be a different story, especially if the reader knew that Poppy struggled with her mental health. Alas, this is not that type of book and it’s safer for Henry to write a surface-level romance rather than a deep dive.

Theme Melted Under the Summer Sun

Just as a construction blueprint must have mechanical, electrical, and plumbing utilities carefully routed to avoid future complications, so too must a successful story concept have theme carefully planned out in its characters and plot. And if theme is the electrical wiring lighting up a building in the night, People We Meet On Vacation might as well be disconnected from the storytelling power grid. 

Is there a theme in People We Meet On Vacation? Technically, yes. Is it a very good theme? Not to me, but if you connect with the idea of “being unable to outrun your life” or “endless vacations won’t bring happiness” then this book is for you.

The problem with the story’s theme (and therefore concept, and plot, and character) is that the internal conflict of “I don’t know what I’m doing with my life,” is vague. Granted, I’m glad there was an internal conflict, but it wasn’t anything life changing or worldview shattering. Happiness is an abstract concept. It’s not concrete. It’s not tangible. You can’t hold it. It’s really hard to articulate and execute because happiness isn’t something that’s overcome or won or obtained. It’s a feeling. An emotion. By definition, emotions come and go. Happiness cannot be a final state of being, even if it is a worthwhile pursuit, because it is temporary.

A successful concept requires the protagonist to have a concrete goal in addition to an internal conflict to overcome,  and so to think that Poppy is happy at the end of the story because she realizes she can’t outrun her life doesn’t add up thematically to the conceptual formula. Solving this inner conflict didn’t require traveling the world; it was one of those revelations anyone could have while in the shower if they would just think critically about their problems but apparently that’s just not Poppy! She’s just so oblivious and determined and delulu!

While reading, I saw this inner discovery coming from a mile away which made it unimpressive when it arrived. It didn’t make me question my own happiness or direction in life, and if a story doesn’t make you chew on an idea, make you think, it won’t work its way into your memory and the book becomes lost amongst the sea of more powerful novels.

One Character Needed More Sun Tan Lotion Than Others

It pains me to say this, but I actually liked Alex more than I liked Poppy. Alex is a fully fleshed out character. He had his own internal conflict to overcome: his past with his parents and his ex-girlfriend, he was scared to recommit and fall in love, he didn’t want to repeat the past. That’s a valid fear and internal hurdle to jump over. Love is scary! No one talks about that! It is a literal leap of faith. As for his demeanor, I’ve seen some differing opinions of his behavior but, I personally adored him. He was quirky, quick-witted, nonsensical. He actually reminds me a lot of my husband, but that’s neither here nor there!

On the other hand, it’s unclear what Poppy was thinking would happen when she reconnected with Alex. Never, in my time of need, when I was at my lowest and hated the life I’d built, did I think, “You know what I need? My best friend from college I haven’t spoken to in years.” Like??? No! Clearly, Poppy, it’s your lifestyle that’s making you unhappy! You obviously need to change how you live, not where you live!

Since her end goal was to be happy and she went back to the last time she was happy, which was with him, and specifically sought him out to repair their friendship, her goal of being happy is entirely dependent on another human being’s feelings. What if he didn’t want to patch up their friendship? What if he wasn’t in love with her and harboring those feelings? What if he wanted nothing to do with her? Tying a character’s internal development and overarching goal to another character’s decisions that they have no control over in an interdependent link forces the story into the author’s manipulation rather than the character’s natural unfolding.

Author Lisa Cron explains, “Your protagonist is not like an actor, who’s hired to play a role in a plot that’s already been devised. Rather, she’s about to walk into the next day of her life she believes will go according to plan, her plan, the one based on all that past experience. But it won’t.”

Is anyone else unimpressed by this? Is that just what you sign up for when reading a romance novel? That the characters are helpless and a little dumb or oblivious to their problems (it’s always the women - why is it always the women?!) Am I the problem?!

Don’t Build Plot Structures Out of Sand Castles

My biggest problem with People We Meet on Vacation was the sequencing. Granted, it’s an interesting format to insert a flashback between every other chapter, but every flashback takes the reader out of the current timeline, asking them to pause what’s happening, thus forgetting what’s at stake, and focus on something that’s already happened even if it does contextualize the current timeline.

Author Karen Dionne has said, “Backstory by definition takes the story backward… Every instance of backstory stops our novel’s forward momentum.” Each delve into the past had to orient the reader which involved introducing past boyfriends, people, situations, and Poppy’s close encounters with Alex, while all meant to enhance the current timeline, repeatedly started and stopped the story’s flow. If those past moments were so important that they had to be included, if they are crucial to the story, then the story actually starts earlier than where the book begins.

Additionally, because the structure forced the reader to jump between the present and different times in the past, the love-triangle between Poppy, Alex, and Sarah got so convoluted that I wasn’t sure what was happening or who was on-again/ off-again. It was one of those suspended disbelief things where I just thought, “Eh, it isn’t super clear and I’m assuming it’ll get worked out, so I’m just gonna say yeah sure,” (which isn’t a great thing for a reader to do).

Stylistic choices aside, People We Meet On Vacation does include the necessary structural elements for a successful plot.

The inciting incident is where Poppy pitches an idea that her boss doesn't like, and she’s not happy so she retraces her steps to when she was last happy and that was on a trip with her best friend she’s in love with.

• The first plot point is when she reaches out to Alex to go on said trip.

• The first pinch point is while on vacation Alex hurts his back and Poppy tries everything in her power to make it the best two days ever.

• The midpoint is that Poppy learns Alex had bought a ring and was going to marry Sarah.

• The second pinch point is that Alex confronts Poppy about not knowing what she wants and says she can't use him as an escape from her life.

• The second plot point is where Poppy realizes that she’s in love with Alex and was keeping him from obtaining his dream of being married and having kids by inserting herself into every bit of his life, being so dependent on him, so in love with him that she couldn’t function, nor could he, and that it was unfair of her to do so.

While not technically part of a plot structure, the book concludes with Poppy apologizing to Alex and him admitting that he’s scared, where she comforts him, and they live HEA.

My only qualm is that at the very end, Poppy’s boss recommends she talk to a therapist who ends up being her friend’s mom, which I vaguely remember being mentioned at the beginning of the book. But it makes you wonder: was Poppy’s friend only included in the story as a prop to introduce her mom as Poppy’s therapist?

Poppy’s friend doesn’t have an inner conflict and goal and all of those things to make her stand on her own, but side characters should be crafted to support the main character’s journey by reinforcing theme through subplots, and that just didn’t happen here. As author Douglas Bauer says, “A single-shaded character is an uncompleted character.” So instead of being portrayed like a person, Poppy’s friend is a prop, a literal crutch to prop up Poppy’s story, and that’s not fair to the potential her character possessed and the impact it could have had on the plot.

Character development flaws aside, the plot did include lots of cute, angsty, slow burn moments in typical Emily Henry fashion. I definitely wouldn’t say the book is fast paced or high stakes, but it’s enjoyable. It had the necessary framework and Henry executed them fairly well.

Scenes Should Be a Takeoff, Not a Taxi

Each scene is supposed to be necessary, unable to stand without the one before it, but in People We Meet On Vacation, chapters were there for context. Does that make them necessary? No. I could have read the present timeline without ever reading the past yearly chapters and the story would have made sense.

Did I skim over the flashback chapters? Yeah. Did I miss anything? If I did, I didn’t notice. Was there conflict in each chapter? Each scene? Not necessarily. There wasn’t a building, billowing reminder about what Poppy could lose if she didn’t get what she wanted (because happiness isn’t something you lose! it’s something you are!). Author Larry Brooks reminds us, “A scene must present a dramatic scenario, with something at stake.” Only by including conflict in each scene that reinforces what the main character stands to lose do you open the audience’s hearts to the fear of not achieving that dearly beloved goal. Author Donald Maas says, “Big emotional experiences are engineered by circumstances.”

For the most part, Henry does compel readers by ending each scene with some kind of realization on how the scene’s events evolve Poppy and Alex’s relationship, building attraction between the characters and anticipation for the readers. It kept me reading. Ya know, once I remembered the book existed and started reading the rest of it.

Henry’s Voice Is a Seashore Souvenir

As a professional in the construction industry, it pains me to watch any TLC home renovation show. A lot of the people are designers and the actual building process isn’t captured, and a lot of interior design distracts from haphazard renovations or even new construction builds. Unfortunately, a lot of readers fall victim to the fancy staging and rented furniture put in place by authors.

For example, one facet of voice is character mindset, and the flashback sequences showed Poppy doing all the things she loved but it was clear that she was unhappy even back then yet was forcing herself to be happy because she was physically with Alex even if she wasn’t with him romantically. While reading, though, I was confused if I was supposed to be interpreting the flashbacks as current Poppy recounting those years through the present lens or if we truly were jumping back in time to the mindset she was in back then.

This can probably all be chalked up to theme. Again, choosing the pursuit of happiness as a story’s theme is incredibly difficult; it’s so abstract that we struggle to comprehend it. And if the electrical wiring of theme, running through our storytelling beach house, is on the fritz, it can lead to some static build up or unpleasant shocks when it comes time to live in the house.

But Henry’s control over exposition, description, and dialogue is immaculate. Her signature style is evident in the finishes of People We Meet On Vacation; she chose some calm, sea foam greens and cerulean blue hues to compliment the wicker and rattan furniture where the dialogue is funny, the quick one-liners flow effortlessly, and the description is enchanting.

As a reader, it seems like it comes to the author effortlessly. Makes the rest of us (okay — me) feel like dog water with how we (I) toil over each word. Maybe she does the same, because if so, it makes visiting the beach house that is the People We Meet On Vacation a welcome reprieve.

Final Verdict: Mo’s No or Go Pile

And so, with a subpar concept, average plot, but exceptional voice, Emily Henry’s People We Meet On Vacation is in my go pile.

It’s entertaining, easy to read, and once I remembered it existed, I breezed through the last 200 pages in a week. The story presented an actual concept and theme, even if trying to obtain happiness is abstract and the reality of packing up and traveling the world on a whim is far-fetched. The plot structure contained the necessary pinch points and plot points to move the story along and into a satisfying conclusion. And all those coats of paint, dripping Henry’s voice, slathered over the drywall of scenes made me okay living with flickering lights from theme’s faulty electrical wiring.

Maybe just pack a candle or two in your carry on.

What did you think of People We Meet on Vacation? Let me know in the comments, and I’ll see you there.