by Emily Henry
Star Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.75
Synopsis:
On the surface, Poppy and Alex seem like polar opposites: She’s an outgoing free-sprit with insatiable wanderlust. He’s an uptight, responsible introvert and homebody. Yet, they become the best of friends during college. They make a pact to take a vacation together every summer.
They keep their pact for ten years, until they have a falling out after a confusing trip to Croatia. Now, two years after that trip, Poppy is in a rut and desperately misses Alex. When she learns his brother is getting married in Palm Springs, it feels like the perfect opportunity for one last vacation to try to fix everything the most important relationship in her life.
Review:
This was my second time reading Emily Henry’s People We Meet on Vacation and I still love it!
I adore Alex and Poppy as individual characters and as a couple. They have such a great dynamic, the way the make each other feel safer and more uninhibited than they’ve ever felt before. I love that they bring out such fun, silly sides in one another, inventing characters and stories when they’re on vacation. And my God, the banter is top notch.
I also appreciate Poppy and Alex’s parallel character arcs, that they’re both desperate for belonging and trying to find where they fit in the world. They’ve both always felt a little like outsiders in their own families, as much as they loved them. This is what really draws them together and makes them feel so connected on a deep level, despite all their outward differences. When they’re together, they both finally feel seen and like they belong, like they’re finally someone else’s main, number-one person.
The present-day storyline—a budget vacation to Palm Springs—is absolutely perfect. In particular, the pressure cooker that’s created by Alex and Poppy being trapped in a tiny, excruciatingly hot studio, especially at a time when their relationship has become so fragile. The tension between them was fantastic and perfectly sets them up to finally confront their issues and long-repressed feelings head on.
My only real criticism is that I wanted to stay in this present timeline more. The book frequently oscillates between the past and present as we track the trajectory of Alex and Poppy’s relationship, from their first meeting as undergrads at the University of Chicago, to each summer vacation they take together. I did really enjoy seeing these vacations and exploring so many different cities with Alex and Poppy. But we see roughly ten summer trips, and, after a while, they start to feel a little repetitive. Not much changes about their relationship for several summers in a row.
Poppy keeps reiterating that for years, there was only ever a 5-percent “what-if” question about her and Alex having a romantic relationship. They remained pretty firmly platonic for so long, that there was little-to-no sexual tension for a long time. I feel like Emily Henry could’ve cut a couple of these trips and we wouldn’t have lost any understanding of Poppy and Alex’s relationship. At the same time, it would’ve heightened the tension between them and given the story greater momentum. Still, it’s a pretty minor criticism and barely knocks down the star rating for me.
A quick sidenote: My introverted, book-loving, homebody self would not be able to handle Poppy and Alex’s activity packed, sleep-deprived vacations where they constantly engage with strangers! I loved to experience them vicariously, but perhaps this is why their Palm Springs vacation speaks to me most strongly—it’s by far the most relatable.
Check out my review of the film adaptation »
Favorite Quotes:
“I love when you get weird,” I tell him.
He squints tipsily at me as we walk. “You make me weird. I’m not like this with anyone else.”
“You make me weird too.” (172)
“When I was a kid, I used to have these panic attacks thinking about how I could never be anyone else. I couldn’t be my mom or my dad, and for my whole life, I’d have to walk around inside a body that kept me from every truly knowing anyone else.
“The fear lessened, but the feeling never went away. Every once in a while, I’d roll it back out, poke at it. Wonder how I could ever strop feeling lonely when no one could ever know me all the way. When I could never peer into someone else’s brain and see it all.” (182)
“I would rather have one tiny sliver of him forever than have all of him for just a moment and know I’d have to relinquish all of it when we were through.” (212)
“I’ve never really felt alone since I met you. I don’t think I’ll ever feel truly alone in this world again as long as you’re in it.” (218)
“You asked me who I was, and—it was like the answer came out of nowhere. Sometimes it feels like I didn’t even exist before that. Like you invented me.” (219)
“Don’t encourage people to blame you for something beyond your control.” (242)
“You can love someone and still know the future you’d have with them wouldn’t work for you, or for them, or maybe even for both of you.” (280)
“I don’t know how to love someone as much as I love you,” he says. “It’s terrifying. And I get these bursts of thinking I can handle it and then I think about what it will do to me if I lose you.” (303)
“It’s not your job to make me happy, okay? You can’t make anyone happy. I’m happy just because you exist, and that’s as much of my happiness as you have control over.” (303)
Melissa Rose 
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